passed

3 months ago this mix of drama and eroticism passed through cinemas without pain and ingloriousness and is now number 1 on Netflix

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In May, ‘Desire‘ grossed just over 9,800 euros in Spanish theaters: it did not reach 1,500 spectators. However, when he landed in Netflix In July, it added 12.9 million views in its first three days and was number one in 68 countries, Spain included. Nobody had heard of it and so it continues, lurking in a corner of the platform’s catalogue, without stopping adding views. Directed by debutante Teresa Simone, ‘Deseo’ tells the story of Lucero (Ludwika Paleta), a lawyer in a boring marriage but eroded enough that it is about to collapse, who begins a clandestine relationship with Matías (Óscar Casas), her children’s swimming coach. A traditional love triangle story that affects, apart from the passion with which the deception that triggers everything develops, the subsequent effects, with shared custody and loss of normality. Likely lto greatest virtue of ‘Deseo’ is the absolute comfort it proposes for the viewer: the love triangle and mutual seduction between a mature woman and a young boy, the marriage that falls apart, the clash between the comfort of what is known and the adventure of the unknown. They are all conventions of the romantic soap opera that the film addresses without prejudice and without subversive ambitions, which makes the film a comfortable and familiar space. ‘Deseo’ does not have dazzling marks on rating aggregators: 4.3 out of 10 on IMDband on Letterboxd a 2.24 out of 5. It is one of those Netflix hits that is among the most watched, but a bit secretive: they do not make much noise on social networks, they are not among the most recommended, the film pages ignore it… but they crown the platform’s audience tops. In Xataka | The perfect series for a marathon of episodes that we have seen a million times returns to Netflix

Air conditioners have been wanting to reach the north of Spain for decades without much success. Until the thermometer passed 40ºC

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Here a server is writing these lines from Vigo, with the thermometer reading 28ºC (a temperature that in a few days will fire at 35ºC) and without air conditioning or ceiling fans. My only weapons against the haze are a small table fan that is almost (almost) the same decades old as me and the assurance that, no matter how hot the heat was, the temperatures in Galicia would always be tolerable. The first (the antediluvian fan) may not have done much, but the second did. Or so it was until now. In view of the heat waves that are coming at home, we are already thinking about installing a system that allows us to cool off with dignity. And we are not the only ones. On the contrary. We are one of the many homes from the northern peninsula that already look at brochures of air conditioners and fans. Ready for the heat? In the south of Spain it’s hotter than in the north. That was true before, it remains true now, and probably not much will change in the future. As I write this I enjoy a peaceful 28ºC in Vigo, eight degrees less than what the mercury shows in Córdoba. The problem is that there they are probably much better prepared to weather the heatwave than in this northern part of the country. I’m not saying it. The INE says it. From 64% to 0.4%. Although she is almost 20 years old, the Household and Environment Survey from the INE clearly shows that acclimatization facilities are much more frequent in the Mediterranean or Levant than in northern Spain. While in 2008 54% of homes in the Valencian Community had air conditioning, a percentage that rose to 57% in Andalusia, and 64% in Murcia, in Galicia, the Basque Country, Asturias and Cantabria the indicator did not reach 2% in any case. In the Principality it actually marked 0.4%. The INE data is old, but the SER chain recently disclosed a more recent survey confirms that the air conditioning map is still clearly divided between north and south. According to that study, only 17% of northern homes are acclimatized to the heat, far from 86% of the Mediterranean coast. Another Idealista report shows a gap even bigger. Changing the mentality. If they repeated that survey in a few years, it is likely that the ‘photo’ would be somewhat different. The heat wave that has shaken Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country either Asturiasleaving in some cases record temperatures that exceeded 40ºC, with hospitalizations due to fainting and deceasedhas led many families to look for new ways to cool their homes. Take a quick look at the regional press to check it out. Skyrocketing sales. In May The Montañés Diary counted how the demand for fans had skyrocketed by more than 80% in some businesses in Cantabria. Installers and stores of air conditioners and portable appliances also noticed the boom. I had something similar recently The Voice of Asturiaswho has spoken with companies in the sector that have noticed a 25% increase in requests for information. The Basque Journal confirm also an increase in the sale of ceiling fans, just like The Region in Ourense. From shops to homes. The most interesting thing is that the demand for devices does not come only from businesses. Andonio Suárez, from a company in the industry, recently recognized to ‘Hoy por Hoy Cantabria’ who in their business “do not stop” touring the community to install air conditioners. Not only that. Their technicians have gone from working basically in commercial premises installations to doing so in private homes, homes of people tired of being in the heat. “It is practically 50% between homes and businesses,” resume. “Before we managed”. Patricia lives in the province of Pontevedra and is one of the people (more and more) who has begun to think about ways to cool her home, beyond the use of floor, ceiling or table fans. “We had always managed, but now we are studying switching to a portable air conditioner or air conditioner because the fans fall short,” he confesses. In mind, you have devices that do not require the installation of exterior elements, such as evaporative air conditioners or tubeless air conditioners. “We save trouble and can take them from one home to another.” Poorly prepared floors. “The summers are longer and hotter, and the heat waves are more frequent. This year we already had a month of May with a week of tropical nights in which it was difficult to sleep, another in June, and summer had not yet started. A month of July is approaching in which it does not seem that we are going to go below 30ºC on most days,” explains Patricia before remembering that many of the apartments built between the 70s and 90s in Galicia “are not prepared nor do they have good insulation.” for the heat. “It has turned against us”. His experience is similar to that of Manuel, another Galician who recognizes that his house is designed to conserve heat, something ideal in winter, but not so much for the months from June to September. “The increasingly hot summers have turned against us.” Hence, she has opted for two portable air conditioners that she places in the living room and in her daughter’s bedroom, the room that accumulates the most heat. “I had been thinking about it for a while. Years ago it was not something that compensated, since it was not really necessary; but in the last five or six years the heat has been much more intense, even reaching days of 30-35ºC continuously.” More than just heat. Both Patricia and Manuel have opted for portable devices, which, among other things, they admit, has made installation easier for them. For systems that require an outdoor unit, it is necessary something more than you want to cool off: it is important to take into account both the municipal ordinances that regulate noise, urban aesthetics and … Read more

We thought we had passed the worst of the memory crisis. We were totally wrong

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A new report from the consulting firm Jefferies Equity Research paints an even more terrible picture than we expected for the immediate future of the memory crisis. These components have already risen in price extraordinarily in the last nine months, but wait: it hasn’t ended there by any means. The rest of 2026 will be horrible. According to its analysts, memory prices will experience an increase of between 40 and 50% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the current quarter. But the increases will not stop there, because in the fourth quarter, between 30 and 40% price increases are expected compared to the third quarter. Let’s do the math. According to this prediction, the prices of memory modules for our PCs will be absolutely exorbitant: 16 GB DDR4 module: the current price is around 139 euros. Applying these increases, in the third quarter this product will cost up to 209 euros in the third quarter, and up to 292 euros in the room. 16 GB DDR5 module: the current price is around 240 euros. Applying the same percentages, in the third quarter we would pay up to 360 euros for it, and in the fourth quarter up to 504 euros. Bad for (almost) everyone. These increases will therefore make prices much worse than they are now, and although we have given the example of memory modules for the PC, this problem extends to all types of electronic products that have this component. Mobile phones, tablets, graphics cards, Smart TVs, routers, consoles (Hello Steam Machine) or cars will also be affected, and this could therefore significantly impact the future prices of these products. Let them tell Apple: we could see how this and other companies are forced to raise prices again. 2027 will be bad too. This report also reveals that the crisis will persist in 2027, although the growth curve will reduce slightly: increases of between 40 and 45% are expected from year to year. It is a very bad figure, but not as bad as what is expected for this second half of 2026. Why does the crisis last so long?. AI is to blame for this memory crisis, and what is happening is that manufacturers are not only unable to cope: the “little memory” they are manufacturing is being reserved for long-term contracts. Micron, for example, has already signed 16 strategic contracts with large firms and hyperscalers, and in the global market 50% of what is manufactured is already reserved for those large clients. That percentage could rise to 70%, they say at Jefferies, which will make it even more complicated (or rather, more expensive) to access memory modules for PCs, laptops, consoles or mobile phones. The end of the crisis, in 2028? This analysis also indicates that 2028 could finally see prices begin to fall slightly. The reason: a slowdown in demand and a slight increase in supply of between 15 and 20%. China manufacturers won’t save us. He Chinese manufacturer CXMT it seemed the great hope for consumers, but as seen at Computex, their prices they are similar to those of Micron, Samsung or SK Hynix. Apple is trying to work with that Chinese firm and is pushing for the US I took it out from your “Entity List”, but it remains to be seen what will happen. The only advantage of this and other Chinese manufacturers such as YMTC is that they do have modules in their inventory, but most are intended for domestic consumption by Chinese firms. In Xataka | Samsung had been the absolute king of technology in South Korea for decades: SK Hynix has just surpassed it

Russia thought kyiv would fall within days. Four years later, the war in Ukraine has just “passed” the First World War

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In 1914, millions of Europeans they were convinced that the war would end before Christmas. In fact, the expression “home by Christmas” became popular between soldiers and civilians who believed that the conflict would be rather brief. It ended up lasting more than four years and transforming Europe forever. More than a century later, the Ukrainian war has already grown longer. From days to historical milestone. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Kremlin expected a swift campaign that would culminate in the fall of kyiv within days. More than four years later, the reality is exactly the opposite: the war has reached the 1,569 days duration and has already officially surpassed to the First World War. What began as an operation designed to quickly overthrow the Ukrainian government has transformed into one of the longest and most consequential conflicts in recent European history, to the point that many Ukrainians they contemplate with concern another historical threshold even more distant: the duration of the Second World War. The inevitable comparison with 1914. The historians warn that comparisons with world wars have obvious limits due to the differences in scale, number of countries involved and volume of casualties. However, they consider that the war in Ukraine shares enough features with the First World War to become its closest parallel in more than a century. Both began lightning offensives aimed at achieving a decisive victory within a few weeks. Both the German advance to Paris in 1914 like the Russian push towards kyiv in 2022 came close to achieving their initial objectives before being stopped and forced to retreat. The return of trench warfare. After the failure of the initial offensives, both conflicts drifted towards long static fronts where artillery dominated the battlefield. The images from the trenches of eastern Ukraine quickly evoked scenes from France and Belgium during the Great War. Soldiers barely separated a few hundred meterscontinuous bombardments and small infantry assaults became the daily routine. The firepower forced combatants to bury themselves underground to survive, reproducing a pattern that seemed to belong definitively to the past. Drones change the rules. The main difference between both wars came from the air. The drones profoundly transformed the battlefield and ended up making even traditional trenches vulnerable. Permanent surveillance from the sky and the ability to attack with precision forced the replacement of long defensive lines by small scattered sheltersdifficult to detect and more resistant to attacks. In many areas, any open-air movement can be located and attacked in a matter of minutes, turning large areas of the front into veritable death zones controlled by unmanned systems. Tanks, bunkers and dispersal. Technological evolution has also reduced the prominence of some weapons that for decades symbolized modern warfare. Tanks, feared during the early stages of the invasion, have become on easy targets for drones and they appear less and less near the line of contact. Meanwhile, soldiers invest enormous efforts in building shelters each time more sophisticated and profound. Some bunkers incorporate specific designs to absorb explosions and increase the chances of survival, reflecting the extent to which physical protection is once again a vital issue in an attritional conflict. Destruction reminiscent of the last century. Although the casualty figures They are very inferior Like those of the First World War, the visual devastation is eerily familiar. Destroyed forests, towns reduced to ruins and fields covered in craters constantly appear in images captured by reconnaissance drones. Various military analysts hold that the lethality of the Ukrainian front is close to that of the great battles of a century ago, not because of the absolute number of deaths but because of the constant danger faced by those fighting on the front lines. Stagnation and the search for a way out. The slow pace of progress illustrates the nature of the conflict. In some recent operations, Russian forces have progressed at a pace even slower than that recorded in some of the most stagnant battles of the First World War. With negotiations practically paralyzed, neither side has yet found a formula to break the balance. Ukraine tries to weaken Russian economic capacity through attacks against energy infrastructures and oil companies while flooding the front with thousands of attack drones, seeking to impose unsustainable costs on the adversary. The final paradox is that a war that began with the promise of quick victory increasingly looks like to the Great War: a prolonged struggle of attrition, marked by technology and with no clear end in sight. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | The drone war has left a clear lesson for Ukraine: you can’t leave home without a 100-year-old machine gun In Xataka | In case there was not enough “gasoline” in 2026, the attack by a Russian drone has crossed a red line: that of Chernobyl

NASA just passed a milestone with the X-59. What comes next aims to change commercial aviation

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Commercial aviation has been pursuing a difficult promise for decades: flying faster than sound without making that progress a problem for those on the ground. The obstacle is not only the speed, but the shock waves that generates a supersonic aircraft and that can be perceived as a sonic boom. He X-59 was born to test an alternative: reaching those speeds with an acoustic signature that NASA hopes will be much more discreet. NASA is not yet talking about commercial routes, but it is about a step designed to address one of the great barriers to this type of flights. The most recent advance came last Friday, when the X-59 exceeded the speed of sound for the first time during a test flight within the Quesst mission. According to NASApilot Jim “Clue” Less took off and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on an 81-minute mission. The plane reached an approximate maximum speed of Mach 1.1, which the agency places in this flight at about 1,150 km/h, at an altitude of about 13,200 meters. It was an important milestone, but still within a testing phase focused on testing its flight qualities. The test of the most discreet supersonic flight enters its decisive phase The important thing, therefore, will not only be what happens inside the plane, but what is heard from below. Quesst is designed to demonstrate a technology capable of softening this phenomenon until it becomes a lighter sound knock. The next part of the plan involves flying over American communities and collecting the reaction of people exposed to that sound. The agency will then share those results with national and international regulators to inform future data-driven noise standards. That is why the first supersonic flight is not an arrival point, but rather the beginning of a more demanding phase. The next step will come in the following days: a first test in “mission conditions”, with a cruising speed of Mach 1.4, which NASA places around 1,490 km/hand an altitude of about 16,800 meters. The data matters because these are the basic conditions that the agency contemplates for future flights over inhabited areas in the United States. Before asking people what they have heard, the aircraft has to demonstrate that it can operate stably in that regime. Behind the X-59 there is not just a striking shape or an isolated commitment to recover supersonic flight. NASA remembers who has been studying this field for more than seven decades, with special attention to the noise associated with these flights and ways to make it more discreet. The Quesst mission combines advanced simulations, wind tunnel testing, schlieren photography and computational fluid dynamics to anticipate how the air around the aircraft behaves. The current phase has to verify something very specific: whether this entire design works in flight with a full-scale supersonic aircraft. The ultimate goal is not for the X-59 to end up transporting passengers, but for its data to help open a door that has been practically closed for decades. The information collected will be shared with national and international regulators to contribute to news noise standards based on data, not just the historical experience of the large noises associated with supersonic flight. The agency also plans to provide design tools and technology for future quieter supersonic aircraft. If the plan works, manufacturers would have more confidence to explore commercial concepts capable of flying fast without disturbing the ground as much. As we can see, the X-59 has crossed an important line, but the Quesst mission still has its most relevant tests ahead. First you will have to get closer to the conditions planned for these test flights over inhabited areas, and then you will come to the verification that really matters for the future of the program: knowing if that sound shock is acceptable. A good part of the value of NASA data will be played there. Images | POT In Xataka | Airbus has just made the most autonomous commercial aircraft in the world fly. Your goal: 22 hours straight without a stopover

In the battle for high speed in Italy, someone has passed Renfe on the right. Someone called France

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SNCF will compete for the Italian high speed network from September 2027. For a few weeks now, the French company has had the go-ahead to operate on the Italian network and stand up to the state company Trenitalia and the private company Italo. With this movement, France once again gets ahead of Renfe. Although it’s not all bad news. What do we know? The SCNF company, the public railway entity in France, will compete for high speed on Italian soil from September 2027. At least, those are the deadlines according to their latest announcement which specifies that the corridors they can use have already been assigned. In his statementSCNF explains that its trains will offer up to 13 round-trip services on the Turin – Naples and Turin – Venice corridors. The company boasts that this new activity on the lines will result in the creation of 4,000 jobs with the addition of direct and indirect workers. What does it offer? With its proposal, the French company ensures that the Italian railways 15 TGV M trains will be available. They are Alstom trains that the company has not yet been able to test because deliveries have been delayed in recent months. They hope to have them in operation first in France starting next July on the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line. The trains have had to be modified slightly since much of the Italian high speed It does not allow driving at more than 200 km/h. The company will offer four round trips on the Turin-Venice and nine on the Turin-Naples. This last corridor is key because it passes through cities like Milan, Florence and Rome, which is undoubtedly a very juicy cake for a company that intends to gain volume in the coming years. A tough battle. SCNF’s landing comes after a battle in the courts. They explain in the French media that Italy has tried to torpedo the company’s attempts to compete with Trenitalia and Italo. According to these media, the Italian subsidiary of the company has been in an open battle since 2021 with Italian Railway Rete (RFI) that manages the Italian roads, would be the Italian Adif. After numerous disagreements, the Italian subsidiary of the French company ended up denouncing RFI to AGCM, the body in charge of ensuring free competition in the transalpine country. Finally, this body has given the approval so that SCNF can compete with local companies on its roads. To compete, the French company will once again bet on offering lower prices and they assure that the medium-term objective is to gain 15% market share. In the French mediain fact, Spain is pointed out as the example model that SCNF wants to implement in the Italian country, trying to maximize trips on already consolidated routes. And Renfe? Renfe also has its own plans in Italy and although it has not been officially confirmed that it wants to make the leap to high speed, the truth is that the Spanish company has been taking positions that give us an idea of ​​the extent to which it wants to offer this service. And it is that Renfe bought 33% of Arenaways in 2024an Italian company that provides railway services. Of the rest of the shareholders, the Spanish Serena Industrial Partners It also has 33% so most of it is Spanish. This purchase has allowed Renfe to operate the Cuneo-Saluzzo-Savigliano regional line from 2025 and will do the same with the Ceva-Ormea line when the works are completed. But, furthermore, in Expansion They already pointed out then that the company has certifications to operate throughout the Italian network, which should facilitate the arrival of Renfe to the high-speed corridors. Spain-France-Italy. The triangle formed by Spain, Italy and France is leaving us with an intense battle for European high-speed services. In our country, the roads have been opened to Ouigo (SCNF) and Iryo (Trenitalia) and the battle has even reached the use of workshops. In Italy there has been an attempt to torpedo the entry of SCNF but after four years of fighting, the French company has ended up receiving the go-ahead to take its trains to compete on the Italian expressways. Renfe, at the moment, has not confirmed plans to take this step and only operates on regional trains. In France, Renfe has complained that the neighboring country is creating innumerable obstacles to reaching Paris, a key objective when it comes to offering a profitable high-speed service to the north of the Pyrenees. Trenitalia, however, Yes, it has managed to operate in France connecting Paris with its large local cities. Leisurely. All in all, it must be taken into account that Renfe’s forays abroad are not reaping bad results as far as its accounts are concerned. Last year he managed to invoice 20 million euros with the AVE of Meccawhere it moved 10 million passengers, like main promoter of Renfe International Projects. There, Renfe has high-speed services running but its projects outside our borders They are varied. It operates, for example, on the regional train network of the Czech Republic and on Rail Baltica (Latvia and Estonia) and It is also part of what is known as the Mayan Train. Photo | Fernando Meloni and Phil Richards In Xataka | There is a fight between the railway operators to get the best drivers and Renfe is winning it

its lunar lander just passed a NASA fire test

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The race between SpaceX and Blue Origin to land on the Moon continue and Jeff Bezos’ company has just taken a big step forward. This week, testing of its MK1 lander in NASA’s vacuum chamber was successfully completed. This demonstrates that it is ready to take NASA payloads to our satellite this year and, above all, that it is on the right track to also take the Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface. Everything under control. MK1 is an uncrewed cargo lander. NASA has chosen it to take two payloads to the Moon at the end of this year. On the one hand, the stereoscopic cameras for the surface study of the lunar plumes at the south pole. On the other hand, the retroreflective laser array, which will help find the location of the instruments placed in orbit. To verify that the landing system is ready, it has been tested in NASA’s vacuum chamber A, where the conditions it will be exposed to during its space trip are emulated. The results have been positive, which is why they represent a great advance for Blue Origin and a reason for SpaceX’s fear. A camera to imitate space. NASA Camera A It is a vacuum chamber, 27 meters highin which temperatures fluctuate between -50ºC and 30ºC. It is used to imitate space conditions and check the performance and stability of the systems that are planned to be brought there. In the case of the MK1, it has been proven that it has great structural resistance and that it withstands thermal stress as expected. From MK1 to MK2. In general, the results of these tests They have been very positive. Even so, there have been learnings that will be applied in the development of MK2, the manned lander with which it is expected to perform commercial services for NASA. Logically, the main manned commercial service that Blue Origin wants to be part of is the Artemis program. But there is a competitor with the same purpose. The race against SpaceX. NASA launched the development of the HLS manned landing system for Artemis in the hands of SpaceX and Blue Origin. Both have received funding for the development of their respective technologies, so the US space agency ensures that it will keep the one that finishes first. As long as the result is reliable, of course. It seemed that in this competition SpaceX clearly had the upper hand. However, some recent bugs and delays are allowing Blue Origin advance and continue in the fight. Will you pass them on the right? For now, the situation is equal. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but the success of the MK1 tests leaves plenty of room for optimism for Jeff Bezos’ space company. Images | POT In Xataka | The launch pads are saturated for all space companies. For all but one: SpaceX

Someone has passed ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ to an AI text detector. He said he is an AI

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Tools to detect text generated by AI They systematically fail when analyzing great literary works. The biblical Genesis, the US Constitution, ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ are identified by these detectors as creations of machines. The reason has a perverse logic: what algorithms interpret as AI writing is actually good writing. Robot Bible. The tools for detect AI generated text They have been accumulating absurd verdicts for months. You just have to submit ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel García Márquez to one of these systems and you will obtain that 100% of the novel has artificial origin. The biblical Genesis or the North American Constitution do not fare better: the ZeroGPT tool rates the first text with a 88.2% chance of being AI writing and the second, as written by AI at 96.21%. Experiments with ‘Harry Potter’ or the lyrics of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ show similar results. The pattern is so consistent that it goes beyond the anecdote: these tools have an underlying problem. Good bad. The irony is that AI-generated text detectors were designed to identify writing done by machines. However, they end up pointing out exactly the opposite: texts that exhibit greater stylistic care, greater internal coherence, and greater mastery of narrative rhythm are considered unlikely to have been made by humans. That is, writing well, in technical terms, is similar to writing as a language model. How it works. To understand why this happens You also have to understand how these tools work. Most are based on two main indicators. The first is perplexity (perplexity): how predictable the choice of words in a text is. If each word follows the previous one in an expected way, perplexity is low. If the text jumps unpredictably between registers, vocabulary, and syntactic structures, perplexity is high. The second indicator is the burst (burstiness): the variation in the length of the sentences. Humans alternate long paragraphs with very short sentences, while language models tend to produce sentences of more uniform length. A well-constructed text (precise vocabulary, clear structure, uniform rhythm) has low perplexity by design. Like García Márquez, who chooses the exact words in his texts, with almost surgeon-like precision. The Genesis has an almost hypnotic narrative cadence, deliberate, without noise, like a song with balanced meter. “Writing well” is a very complex concept, but it can mean, among other things, being predictable in the most virtuous sense: that the reader understands the text effortlessly. And that, for a detector trained in distinguishing “what a language model would do”, sets off alarm bells. It’s the same. What complicates the problem is that generative AI models have been trained, precisely, with quality human writing. ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini produce fluent, coherent, low-perplexity texts because they learned from millions of human texts that also had those characteristics. Detecting writing done by an AI and differentiating it from good human writing is an almost impossible task for these algorithms. Another way to fail. These criteria can take multiple forms. For example: a study on the performance of seven popular detectors when analyzing newspaper essays. TOEFL (official English exam for non-English speakers) in front of essays by American high school students. The results: 61.22% of essays written by non-native students were marked as generated by AI. In 20% of the cases, the seven detectors agreed on the erroneous diagnosis. The native student texts passed without problems. The explanation is the same mechanics of perplexity: someone who writes in their second language uses a more limited vocabulary, simpler structures and fewer grammatical variations. It doesn’t write badly, but its tools are more limited, and AI detectors systematically penalize writers with less command of the language. The team that carried out the study recommended avoiding using these tools in evaluation contexts, especially when international students are involved. In Spain, an episode of this type took place: In 2024, the Australian Catholic University opened files to nearly 6,000 students using Turnitin, the most widespread screening platform in universities. Many of them had not used AI at any time. Force the machine. Edward Tian, ​​CEO of GPTZero (one of the reference detectors, with more than eight million users) openly acknowledged that many tools in the sector adjust their thresholds to intentionally generate more false positiveswith the aim of not passing through texts generated by AI even if that means wrongly pointing out a human text. Tian talks about how GPTZero fights to avoid this proliferation of false positives, but the adulteration of the results is there as a clear problem. The last case. The publisher Hachette has just canceled the publication in the United Kingdom and the United States of ‘Shy Girl‘, a novel that the Pangram tool has detected as 78% generated by AI. The author denies having used the tool. Whatever the truth in that specific case, the episode illustrates the factual power that these tools are acquiring: they can destroy publishing contracts and put humans under suspicion before there is any definitive proof on the subject. In Xataka | OpenAI has an AI-written text detector that works almost perfectly. And he doesn’t want to put it on the market.

what it is, what users have to do and how often it has to be passed

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Let’s explain to you What is and how does the “ITV” work for V-16 beacons?a procedure that has been confirmed by the DGT. It is not something that users have to do, but it is still an important procedure to verify that all certified models continue to comply with the DGT requirements. Therefore, although the media has named the review that way, it is not exactly an ITV. We are going to start by explaining what it is about and what is reviewed, then we will mention what remains to be done on our part and how often the reviews are made. What is this ITV for V-16 beacons? This is a review that all beacons on the market must undergo from time to time. Its mission is review all certified devices on an ongoing basis to ensure its proper functioning. Come on, what they do is check that each model continues to meet the requirements necessary to have the ITV certification. Imagine that a manufacturer launches an X beacon and it is certified, but within a few years it eliminates some essential component, because if it no longer meets all the requirements certification is withdrawn. These are the points that will be reviewed to each of the beacon models: That the manufacturer has a Quality System to guarantee that the manufacturing processes are being controlled. That the V16 beacons meet the technical specifications defined by the regulations Ensure that communications are maintained between the device, the operators that provide connectivity, and the DGT’s connected vehicle platform. This verification can be done in person at the applicant’s facilities or at the factories. But there will also be a second route in which the manufacturer will have to send the required evidence, such as samples or similar. Users don’t have to do anything It is important to make clear that Users don’t have to do anything. This MOT is not for the beacons that we have purchased, which when we did so met the requirements. Once you buy your beacon you no longer have to worry. Those who have to be in charge of making these reviews are the manufacturers for the certified models of their beacon that they manufacture in the future. In fact, if a beacon does not pass its “ITV” within three years, for example, that model will no longer be sold with its certification, but that will not affect previous models. How often are reviews done? Manufacturers will have to subject their beacon models to reviews every two years. Remember that as a user you will not have to do anything, these are procedures that manufacturers must do to maintain their certification. Cover image | Pepu Ricca In Xataka Basics | V-16 beacon map: how to use it to see which ones are activated in real time in Spain

Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale.

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Albert Einstein is one of the most outstanding figures of the 20th century, and that means that is surrounded by myths. He “everything is relative”, I wasn’t good at math or in studies in general are some of the most widespread, but if you have ever read that he was passionate about the violin, I have to tell you that that is true. And one of them is so special that just reached a million euros at auction. The interesting thing? What was a fluke?. Einstein started playing the violin from a very young age. His mother was the one who gave him the germ of love for music and that instrument, but although at first he was not enthusiastic about it, when he discovered Mozart… things changed. It makes sense if we think about the mathematical logic after the Amadeus sonatas, and the Austrian composer became a figure of admiration for Einstein. The German physicist continued to play, sometimes in chamber groups with renowned musicians, and stated that music was a source of inspiration and even comfort when he had to solve complex problems. There are conflicting opinions about his skill with the instrument, but the violin was for Einstein a means of escape and relaxation. The violin of relativity Throughout his life, it is believed that he owned a dozen violins and all of them were called “Lina”. It was something that was recorded somewhere on the back of the instrument and it was short for “violin.” And, logically, items like this usually end up in the hands of collectors or enthusiasts, who acquire them through auctions. For example, in 2018, one of his violins ended up selling for $516,500. Aside from belonging to the physicist, it was the violin that was made specifically for him when he arrived in the United States in 1933. The protagonist of this story, however, has ended up reaching the figure of 860,000 poundswhich amounts to one million euros. It is a new record because it is the most expensive violin ever auctioned for someone who was not a professional concert pianist. The bidding started at 150,000 pounds and the estimate She was extremely modest. the house Dominic Winter Auctioneers thought it would end up between £200,000 and £300,000, but it seems that buyers ended up valuing something important: it is believed that This violin was the first that Einstein bought when I feared 15 years. It was made in 1894 by the German luthier Anton Zunterer, something that can be read on the label on the back of the instrument, and was key during the authentication process. Composer Paul Wingfield, who has spent an entire career researching, among other things, Einstein’s musical life, spent six months meticulously researching correspondence, contemporary documents, testimonies and customs regulations until say that he was “as sure as anyone could be that this violin belonged to Einstein.” The curious thing? Which was the instrument that, it seems, accompanied the scientist during the most prolific years of his careerincluding the period in which he developed the famous theory of relativity. In 1932, Einstein was preparing to flee Germany due to the rise of nazism and the growth of anti-Semitism. He decided to give his violin to friend and physicist Max von Laue, who later, in 1952, gave it to Margarete Hommrich, an admirer of Einstein. The violin remained in Hommrich’s family for 70 years, until Margarete’s great-great-granddaughter decided to put it up for auction, reaching this impressive figure. Apart from being the first one he bought and the one who accompanied him during the formulation of the theory of relativity, what is really impressive, and what puts that million euros in context, is what we mentioned about it being the most expensive violin auctioned that has not been owned by a famous concert artist (that honor goes to the violin that was played during the sinking of the titanicthat reached 900,000 pounds) or one made by Stradivarius. These are unattainable, as reflected by the almost 16 million dollars of the ‘Lady Blunt’ of 1721 sold in 2011. Images | Dominic Winter Einstein playing the violin In Xataka | 100 years later, Einstein’s relativity will undergo its most demanding test: two atomic clocks in space

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