people

There are people who think that Europe should recover the military. What happened in Germany offers them an unpleasant surprise

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It is still early to know whether or not Germany will be successful with its new volunteer ‘military’but one thing is clear: the German authorities have revived a figure that was in the doldrums for years, the conscientious objector. Although Berlin does not apply a mandatory recruitment system, thousands of young people in the country have wanted to improve their health by starting the procedures to benefit from their constitutional right to not have to hold a weapon. More requests have been registered during the first six months of the year alone than in all of 2025. It has even surpassed 2011, the year in which the mandatory military service ended. What has happened? That the Bundesrat has achieved something unexpected (or not) with your new law of voluntary military service. Its purpose was to give a boost to recruitment so that the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) would go from its current around 184,000 troops to between 255,000 and 270,000 in 2035, but everything indicates that they have activated a mechanism that pushes in the opposite direction: more and more young people declare themselves conscientious objectors, that is, they appeal to their constitutional right not to be forced by anyone to use weapons or be a soldier. That does not mean that the new German ‘military’ is not working (to affirm such a thing it would be necessary to handle updated recruitment data), but it does mean that its future will not be as peaceful as the Government of Friedrich Merz would like. Are there so many objectors? Yes. The data has advanced them Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland (RND) and show that the figure of the objector is experiencing a real boom in Germany. During the first half of 2026 alone, the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Affairs received 5,862 applications from citizens who wanted to declare themselves conscientious objectors. There are almost a thousand each month, but the data stands out above all when put into context. Throughout 2025 the Government noted 3,867 requests and in 2024 they were only 2,249. In 2011, the year in which the mandatory military service was suspended, 4,348 were registered. The balance of the first half of the year not only shows a clear rebound, it also suggests that young Germans are increasingly concerned about the issue: 60% of these applications were submitted between April and June, when the country was shaken by several controversies related to the new military law, as if men need authorization to leave the country for more than three months. But is there or isn’t there ‘mili’? Yes. And no. There is no mandatory service like the one that existed in Spain until 2001 or that applied in Germany until 2011, but there is a new legal framework with which Berlin aspires to gain voluntary recruits. To understand it you have to go back to December 2025when the Upper House of the German Parliament approved a military service bill that began to be applied on January 1, 2026. Its objective is very simple: add thousands of new soldiers to the country’s Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), although with a lot of pedagogy and initially appealing to voluntariness. In practice, this means that right now Germans who come of age are only required to go through two relatively harmless and simple procedures. “Men born in 2008 or later must participate in the military registration process. This includes filling out a questionnaire and passing a medical examination by medical personnel,” explains the Bundeswehr. Do we know anything else? Yes. The military explains in detail how it will implement the system. The idea is that all young Germans who come of age (some 650,000 each year) will receive an online questionnaire asking whether or not you are interested in military life. The men are obligated to respond. For women it is optional. If the answer is yes, the Armed Forces invite volunteers to a recruitment center to continue the process. The system is still being implemented, but at the end of last year the German press was talking aboutIn a second phase, late in 2027, 18-year-old men must also undergo a medical examination that will be mandatory whether they opt for voluntary military service or not. “No one forces you to do anything, except to fill out a questionnaire that reflects the recorded data and pass a medical examination that does no harm to anyone,” claims the German Defense Minister, the social democrat Boris Pistorius. “The State does not protect itself. That has to be done by people who are willing to defend it and not sit idly waiting for others to do so.” What is the objective? We pointed it out before: turning the German army into a European reference. And that happens by arriving in the mid-2030s with 460,000 troopsbetween active personnel (260,000) and reservists (200,000). Not bad if you take into account that in 2025 184,000 soldiers were serving. In Germany already throw out the idea that, if this objective is not achieved through voluntary recruitment, the Government could go further and opt for a mandatory model. In any case, that would require a new parliamentary procedure. For now, in view of the changes being promoted by the Merz Executive, the threat from Russia and the rearmament discourse fueled by Donald Trump, more and more young people are choosing to declare themselves objectors. Curiously, there are also people who take the opposite path, although less: the daily Neue Osnabrucker assures that during the first quarter 233 people waived their right to refuse military service. They join the 781 that did so in 2025. Images | Simon Infanger (Unsplash) and Filip Andrejevic (Unsplash) In Xataka | In Spain, 1,149 young people lost their lives in the same place between 1983 and 1989. All of these “accidents” could have been avoided.

NASA is looking for four people who want to live a year on Mars without leaving Earth

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Space travel can leave no room for improvisation. Especially if the destination is a place as inhospitable and unexplored as Mars. Or even the Moon. Therefore, before the first astronauts set foot on the red planet and a new batch of humans walk on our satellite, NASA has decided to carry out a dress rehearsal here on Earth. Of course, it will not be done with astronauts, but with a group of volunteers willing to spend a year in a simulated environment of both the confinement conditions of the trip and the subsistence with limited resources that will mean staying at a base in either of these two places. The mission is expected to begin in 2027, no earlier than August, so the search for volunteers is still underway. Two missions in one. The mission, named by NASA as Moon and Mars Exploration Analogis a mix of two other previous missions: HERA and CHAPEA. Both consist of the use of facilities that simulate the extreme conditions of a trip to Mars or the Moon. CHAPEA’s facilities are larger (158 m2), as they simulate what the installed base would be in either of these two locations. HERA, on the other hand, consists of a smaller environment (60 m2), which simulates the confinement conditions of space travel. Therefore, what will be done is to dock the vehicle, based on HERA, to a larger, but isolated environment, in which there is everything from private accommodation for the crew to a common work space, including a recreation room, cultivation area, medical room, food preparation area, airlock and two bathrooms. They are not astronauts, but almost. NASA has announced that it is looking for volunteers, possibly because its astronauts are busy with other tasks. However, not just anyone can apply. To start, they must be US citizens or green card holders, between 30 and 55 years old, with a good command of English and a height that does not exceed 1.88 meters. On the other hand, they must have a degree in engineering, biological sciences, physical sciences or mathematics. Basically, just like astronauts. In fact, it is preferable that they have these qualifications at an advanced level. Finally, they should not have special dietary needsnor require help to sleep. Furthermore, in relation to sleep, they should not be sleepwalkers either. Of course, added to all this is that they will have to pass a series of tests, both physical and psychological. Come on, they’re not astronauts, but almost. Training for a fake trip to Mars. The four selected volunteers will have a pre- and post-mission phase dedicated to data collection. Additionally, before embarking on this year-long simulation, they will have to train and prepare for what will come next. In total, all this will last two months. All simulations. For one year, these temporary astronauts will live and work in isolation and confinement while simulating both interplanetary travel and operations on the planetary surface, including spacewalk simulations. It is expected that the results will be useful for missions as imminent as those of the Artemis programbut also for future even more exotic trips, including the long-awaited Martian colonization. Image | Magnificent | POT In Xataka | We knew there was water on the Moon, but not why some craters were empty. Finally we have the answer

In South Korea they offered $14,000 to young people in exchange for them getting married. The young people didn’t care

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With $14,000 you can plug holes, take a few months off to travel the world or invest in that business that has been on your mind for years. What you won’t be able to do is pair two South Koreans to get married, start a home, and have children with whom to help the country get out of the crisis. deep crisis birth rate in which it has been immersed for years. We know this because in Korea there are administrations that already they have pulled the checkbook and reached those figures (more than 10,000 dollars) in their efforts to act as matchmakers. All without success. What’s more, this effort by administrations to encourage couples is having a peculiar effect: it has made singleness a real business. A matter of love… and money. In its efforts to get out of the demographic slump in which South Korea has been mired for some time, it has not hesitated to draw on its checkbook. Their reasoning is simple: if the birth rate can be encouraged with money, the Government is willing to put it on the table. In recent months, the country’s authorities have proposed handing over large ‘baby checks’ to its citizens, offer tax incentives to families with children, expand the parental leave or even guarantee that new mothers have access to select food. Another of the country’s great bets has been to match its young people. And that has been so much to create dating programs specifically designed for singles to find love and make it easy for them financially, offering them money so that the cost of a romantic dinner is not an obstacle. It may sound exaggerated, but there is one fact that explains it: in South Korea couples and birth rates go hand in hand. So much so that less than 5% of babies are born out of wedlock. How much money are we talking about? Very much. Many of South Korea’s matchmaking programs come from regional organizations, so photography can vary from one area of ​​the country to another; But it comes with taking a quick look at Google to see news about cities or districts that are trying to raise their birth rate with very expensive matchmaking programs. Recently we were talking to you of the case of Seoul, where the Metropolitan Government was studying giving 700 euros to couples who get married there. It’s a lot. Although not as much as in other cities. In Busan, one of the main metropolitan areas of South Korea and which is suffering the effects of the demographic crisis in a way particularly hardhave gone a step further by blessing new couples with hundreds of dollars. What does that translate into? In which money stops being an obstacle to finding a girlfriend (or boyfriend). In June Korea Herald informed that one of Busan’s districts, Saha-gu, was planning a pilot project with local singles born between 1981 and 2001, offering them $360 (to spend on dates) just to ‘make match’ with someone That is, each couple that left the event holding hands and with plans to see each other again would add $700 to their romance. One figure: $14,000. Those $360 per person to enjoy as a couple were just the first part of Saha-gu’s program. The idea was to increase support as the relationship progressed until reaching the big wedding gift: 20 million won in advance for couples who say ‘I do’, about $13,600. The district was even willing to offer newlyweds a larger deposit if they decided to buy a house or help them with rent. Such a bet is better understood in light of the demographic tables of the metropolitan city of Busan: if at the beginning of the 90s it exceeded 3.8 million inhabitantsin 2010 it was at 3.4 million. The trend does not clash with that of the country as a whole, which at the end of 2024 became a “super-aged society”, with 20% of its population over 65 years of age. Do these aids work? That was the big question that was left hanging… and it just answered The Wall Street Journal (TWSJ) with a report in which the title is almost a sentence: “Not even a $14,000 government aid can get South Korean singles to get married.” Despite the promise of a $14,000 wedding gift, Saha-gu’s program was not very successful. TWSJ assures that no participant demanded that reward. And Saha-gu is just one of the aids that couples can qualify for. TWSJ recalls that not all support comes from the administrations and that there are also companies or religious organizations that are trying to reverse the country’s demographic crisis. Two examples are the construction company Booyoung Group, which offered $75,000 to employees who have a child; and the Yoido Full Gospel Churchwhich grants its members almost $1,400. The big question. With such incentives the question is obvious. Why don’t South Koreans get married? Why does your birth rate continue? far below from years ago? Part of the answer is social and cultural changes. TWSJ cite a survey recent study that shows that three-fifths of employed South Koreans do not see the slightest problem in not going through the altar, a factor to which are added other economic factors, such as long working hoursthe increase of cost of living or how burdensome it is the upbringing of children in a society characterized by its level of demand and competitiveness. Another key is the difficulties that women encounter when re-entering the labor market after becoming mothers. In fact, there are dating programs that have ended up being suspended precisely because they could not bring together a sufficient number of interested women. Other young people rule out registering simply because of the heavy bureaucracy that accompanies this type of initiative. “It’s more problematic than you imagine,” recognize one to TWSJ. Is the Government a good matchmaker? That is the other big question, especially if you take into account that programs like Seoul or … Read more

Guadix was one of the last corners of Europe where people lived in caves. Today they have become a climate refuge

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Moors, outlaws and expelled populations occupying caves, carrying pickaxes and candles. That was the realityunromantic, from Guadix. The rural escape chic It would take three centuries to arrive. Visiting the streets and hills is free, of course; spending the night there is something else. In Granada, Andalusia, going down the A-92, next to the Zalabí Valley and at more than 900 meters above sea level, there is a town that looks like something out of Star Wars. Guadix, “the town of the cave houses”, is actually a city that converted flight, poverty and climatic rigor into bioclimatic architecture. And, centuries later, in designer troglottourism. An entire neighborhood underground. Around Guadix, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, there are more than 2,000 homes excavated in red clay hills. “European Capital of Caves“, says the press of a neighborhood that was born around 1550 around the Maese Pedro Fountain and San Marcos Street. In fact, more than 4,500 Accitani live in this neighborhood alone. It is a landscape of hills literally emptied from the inside, whitewashed facades and chimneys that are lime fumaroles and appear like periscopes. And, to top it all off, an interior temperature that remains around 20 degrees all year round. It takes approximately three months for outside air to “seep” into the walls, which softens extreme winters and summers. And of course, this comfort and acoustic insulation has made this architecture passive. forward the letter one of the most requested tourist places in Spain. Today you will get on a tourist train and sleep in a cave house for prices ranging from 60-70 euros to more than 120 euros per night, depending on whims and jacuzzi. Your cave, my Airbnb. Airbnb and aggregators like cozycozy list the “hammam cave”, “la Tita del Pan cave” or “Casa Cueva Los Mosaicos”, with jacuzzis, swimming pools and outstanding ratings. 9.5 on Booking and 4.2 out of 5 on Airbnb. The region is sold under the premise of sleeping like a Neanderthal, but with Wi-Fi and a hot tub. Today, live in one of these caves It’s not easy. Renting it is something else: tourist trains, interpretation centers and guided routes are part of this troglottourism, under the coordinates of sustainability and introspective experience. What were once medieval shanties today stand as beautiful enclaves that defy the harsh climate. It was always there. Guadix has always been a territory of soft land and natural shelters, used since the Bronze Age. Archaeological studies identify human occupations that they used these bad lands or gullies on the edge and bed of the Guadix river to protect themselves from the elements. During the Middle Ages, this landscape intersects with the Nasrid front and, after the capture of the city by the Catholic Monarchs, it becomes a place of refuge: after the expulsions of 1570 and 1609, the hypothesis places the origin of the great neighborhood towards the end of the 15th century, when Moors, outlaws and populations expelled from the medina clandestinely occupied these caves and perfected, with pick and shovel, the technique of excavating entire hills following the knowledge of the builders. The Accitan historian Carlos Javier Garrido emphasizes that this refuge of persecuted people was also a social response to a city dominated by oligarchies. A silent rebellion. Confiscation and new rules. In 1920, the neighborhood housed 60% of the city’s population. It was not until the 1950s when massive excavations expanded and inaugurated new cave houses, already intended as normal homes in another neighborhood. The traces of the Civil War are also notable: the town was left without a hermitage. There is a lot to see, in any case: the Cathedral of La Encarnación, the Palace of the Marquises of Villaverde or the Islamic citadel itself, from the 11th century, added to the Ermita Nueva, in nuclear white and a chapel completely carved under rock. With the arrival of national roads bordering the mountains, electricity, television and emigration, local families converted these old nested slopes into a “summer house” to escape the heat. It was then that the neighborhood began to be seen from the outside more as a picturesque landscape than as a space of marginality. Progress arrived and the BOE. Until recently, in urban terms, cave houses lived in a limbo: they were housing, but they did not fit into the standard categories of the regulations. The new Law to Promote the Sustainability of the Territory of Andalusia (LISTA) and its regulations dedicate for the first time an entire title to the troglodytic habitat, defining what a cave is, what a cave neighborhood is and what a “troglodytic municipality” is (Article 421). The standard establishes minimum conditions of safety, health and habitability: water and sanitation services, minimum surface area of ​​30 m², sufficient ventilation, adequate drainage of rainwater and guarantees of stability of the excavated land. General management plans are now required to indicate measures for their protection, conservation and improvement, from maintaining the outer layer of soil to preserving natural rain drainage channels. See the caves. He average itinerary It includes a panoramic view of the center, the Roman Theatre, the Arab wall, the Alcazaba, the historic and Jewish neighborhoods and, finally, a stop of about 45 minutes in the troglodyte area to visit viewpoints, a unique cave church and the Caves Interpretation Center. Of course, whoever makes a reservation rules over whoever shows up randomly: visits to the cave neighborhood fill up, especially in the mornings and on weekends. The train usually operates with departures every 40–60 minutes in the morning schedule. The tour takes about 75 minutes, with recorded comments in several languages. He Interpretation Center It reopened in April 2026 with new hours: Monday to Saturday it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and on Sundays until 2:30 p.m. To sleep under the hill. The other experience is to literally spend the night underground. A night as a couple usually costs around 110 euros per … Read more

There are people covering the LED on Meta’s glasses to record secretly. The company has just made a drastic decision

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Today it is relatively easy to know when someone is recording us with a cell phone: we see it raised, pointing towards us, becoming an almost universal signal. The same does not happen with smart glasses. They may look like normal glasses, be on the face of someone looking in our direction, and go unnoticed for those who don’t know what to look for. In this scenario, the small white light that turns on when capturing photos or videos is not a minor detail: it is the visible clue that allows us to understand that those glasses are recording. The problem begins when that clue disappears. That’s just what Meta is trying to prevent now. The company claims that its AI glasses, a category that already goes beyond the Ray-Ban Meta, will disable the camera if they detect that the capture LED has been physically tampered with or destroyed, not just if it is covered. Until now, Meta said that, since its second generation of glasses, the system already blocked photos and videos when it detected that that light was covered. The novelty is that the protection is extended to more aggressive attempts to override the visible warning. It is not an absolute guarantee against all misuse, but it is a direct response to a specific crack in the product. The problem with glasses was not just blocking the light Meta calls that signal “capture LED”: a white light on the front of each pair of glasses that flashes when content is being captured for the gallery. According to the company, in the case of a photo the notice appears for a moment, while on video remains throughout the recording. On paper, its function is simple: let people around you know that someone is taking an image or recording a scene. In practice, that small light carries an enormous responsibility: making visible a camera that, by design, can be confused with conventional glasses. The leap is that it wasn’t all about putting a piece of tape over the light. Meta acknowledges that it has seen attempts that went further: efforts to physically modify or destroy the capture LED. Media like 404 Media and BGR have documented those types of practices in more detail. The first published the case of a service that offered to modify the Ray-Ban Meta to make the light useless, while the second included more rudimentary methods and other more elaborate ones, from accessories designed to hide it to physical interventions on the indicator area. The underlying issue was clear: if the signal could disappear and the camera continued working, the safeguard lost much of its meaning. In Spain we have already seen how far this gap can go. At Xataka we have been counting for just over a year the case of a young man detained in Barcelona after recording hundreds of women with smart glasses without their knowledge, an episode that turned a until then diffuse concern into a much more tangible problem. The key was not only the device, but the lack of social alarm about it: many people still do not react the same to apparently normal glasses as to a cell phone pointed in their direction. The company presents the update as a new layer of privacy, but it is also an admission that the LED had become an attackable point in the system. If the visible notice could be obscured, modified, or destroyed while the camera continued to operate, the promise of transparency was weakened. Now Meta is trying to turn that light into something more than an indicator: a condition for the camera to operate. Images | Goal In Xataka | Meta already has its rival for Nano Banana 2. Its problem is the same as always: mercilessly invading our privacy

To the question of which Spaniard has the highest quality semen, the answer is clear: it is not the people of Madrid.

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Semen also has geography. And in Spain, Madrid does not fare well. Let’s assume that semen quality has been declining for decades. In Spain it has fallen 28% in just 15 years, a 78% if we value the last two decades. That is to say, a concentration of sperm is produced so low that it is less than half of what it was in the 70s. And it continues in constant regression. With this breeding ground, the question is: and which region is coping best with this decline? Alcohol and coffee have nothing to do with each other. The investigation analyzed 386 men seen in seven Spanish fertility clinics—such as the Bernabeu Institute—between 2024 and 2025. After adjusting variables such as body mass index, exercise, and alcohol, tobacco, or coffee consumption, the authors observed that men from the north recorded the best seminal parameters, even when their habits were similar to those of other regions. This gives us a clue to talk about pollution, environmental inequality and public health. The results have been presented at the 42nd congress of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). AND In it we can find clear differences in semen quality depending on the area in which the donors live. Those who win this game are the residents of the north, with Asturias and Cantabria far ahead of Madrid and the center of the peninsula. But there is fine print. More agile, faster. The total count of motile sperm is striking, almost double in the north than in the central area. In data: 94.35 million on average compared to 50.11 million in the central area. This index talk about health: “the northern region also presented the highest average sperm concentration (80.96 million/ml) and sperm motility (44.79%), compared to 55.4% in southern Spain and 53.4% ​​in the center.” If diet, exercise or substance use alone do not draw this map of semen quality, what does? The first conjectures point to a population that breathes worse, drinks and involuntarily incorporates into its body part of the atmospheric pollution, a mixture of industrial and agricultural toxins, where endocrine disruptors in plasticspesticides and everyday cosmetics. Out of the pot. Beyond Spain, the pattern repeats itself: studies with fertile men In cities such as Copenhagen, Paris, Edinburgh and Turku, they already showed in the early 2000s that the Finns had the highest sperm concentrations while the Danes recorded the lowest values, with also variations in mobility depending on the city. If we take a look at the retrospective analyzes of French donors found significant differences within the country itself in volume, concentration, and total number of sperm. The north wins again. In general, the men of the nordic west They have worse semen quality than those from the Baltic area, in parallel with a higher incidence of testicular cancer, another marker of male reproductive stress. Does better semen equal more pregnancies? Not necessarily, but almost. Let us keep in mind that, although the relationship with fertility is not linear, below certain thresholds of concentration and mobility, the probability of spontaneous pregnancy decreases considerably. To understand what “better semen” means, it is worth going down a level. According to the World Health Organization, reference values ​​are measured in concentration (millions of sperm per milliliter), ejaculate volume, percentage of motile sperm and proportion of sperm with morphology considered normal. It is necessary to distinguish between progressive sperm (the vanguard that advances efficiently), versus non-progressive and completely immotile ones. In morphology, the shape of the head, middle piece and tail (flagellum) is evaluated, since anatomical alterations can make fertilization difficult. Plastics and fertility. By the way: nitrile and latex gloves release plastic microparticles and contaminate environmental measurements does not invalidate that the presence of endocrine disruptors in human tissue does not affect male fertility. The evidence is solid. For example, a 2023 study that analyzed 6 human testicles and 30 semen samples found microplastics both in tissue and fluid: around 0.23 ± 0.45 particles per milliliter in semen and 11.60 ± 15.52 particles per gram of testicle, with sizes mostly between 20 and 100 microns, finding polystyrene in testicles and polyethylene and PVC in semen. The problem is broader. The taboo of male fertility, treated as a private matter, has obscured problems that can be investigated as a collective indicator. And this deterioration does not respond, or not only, to individual behavior. The greatest weight lies in the place you livenot in the genes you carry. A cardinal clue: of course smoking, drinking or moving more or less matter, but it does not depend so much on personal decisions. A debate that is more political than folkloric (and health and regulatory). A cocktail of bisphenol A, methyl, ethyl, propyl and butylparabens, benzophenones and phthalate metabolites is directly associated with significant reductions in total and progressive sperm motility. Therefore, Asturias beating Madrid is not something to celebrate, but rather to raise the alarm about the qualities of the water – it will not be that good -, what pesticides are used nearby and what mix of chemicals goes through daily life. The tip of an iceberg that does not lie in who comes out better off, but rather in the cost of those who come out worse off. Images | Unsplash (1, 2 and 3) In Xataka | We already know how much we Spaniards masturbate at work (and what is more important: which communities win) In Xataka | If you are worried about the quality of your sperm, science has a clear recipe for you: ejaculate more

evacuate people from a flood

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Drones in China are increasingly integrated into daily life; since using them in night showsas exam invigilators and even as aid in natural disasters, such as fire extinguishing. Now we have been able to see how a drone rescued a person trapped by the floods that occurred in Guangxi. What has happened? they tell it on the Global Times X account. In late June, a drone evacuated a driver who was trapped on the roof of his truck in Guangxi, southern China, where Typhoon Maysak caused a dam to breaktriggering a massive flood. In the videowhich was broadcast on Hangzhou television, you can see how a firefighter helps the man put on the harness and then the drone lifts him into the air, transporting him to a safe area. A delivery drone. According to the Global Times, the drone that can be seen in the video was not a specific model for carrying out rescues, but rather it was a DJI delivery drone with a multirotor design. It has not been revealed specifically what model it was, but it is clear that it was capable of supporting the weight of a person without any problem. Not just rescues. They count in ChinaDaily that a drone company owned by the Guangxi Beibu Gulf investment group (which in turn It is owned by the Chinese government) activated its emergency response and sent a drone team to inspect the area. They used drones to illuminate and assess the condition of the area, locate trapped people using infrared cameras, and bring them supplies. It had already happened. Although it is not common, in China they already had some experience in rescuing people using drones. Last year around this same time, The New York Times published a video in which a drone rescued a person who had also been trapped in a flood. In this specific case, it was a drone that was transporting the belongings of someone affected by the floods when it saw that there was a person on a roof and changed its plans. There are more similar videos, such as this one from a fisherman either this other in which a drone rescues a child from a flooding river. Drones to the rescue. The drone operator who carried out this improvised rescue that we were talking about recognized the New York Times that carrying a person hanging from a drone is not allowed, “but in an emergency, if someone is about to drown, it is something that the law would ignore.” At the moment we have seen somewhat improvised attempts, but there are already companies developing special drones to carry out this type of tasks. The low altitude economy. It is what the Chinese government calls all the economic activity that derives from the different commercial uses for drones. China has turned this market into a national priority and they expect it to move $490 billion by 2035. Among the most common uses for drones is delivery of food orders, transport of medicines or surveillance tasks. Image | Global Times In Xataka | China is playing with an unusual idea: turning trucks and containers into a take-off runway for drones

There are a lot of people replacing the oil on ham toast with coffee and orange. And oddly enough, it makes sense.

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“You insist on putting olive oil on our Iberian ham toast and this is like putting sugar on top of a chocolate cake.” Víctor Sanchego did not know it, but with those words was about to make thousands of people prepare the strangest breakfast we’ve seen in a long time. How come you don’t have to add oil to the ham? Sanchego’s argument is that “the fat of Iberian ham contains more than 60% oleic acid, the same component of extra virgin olive oil.” Therefore, as happens in a perfumery when we have already worn several colognes, when we mix oil and ham at the same time our taste buds become saturated. “Instead of helping it enhance the flavor, it is subtracting it,” says the ham man. The reality, of course, is more complex. The general idea is true for Iberian ham: adding oil (especially if it is an intense and complex one) blurs the flavor profile and can actually oversaturate the bite. This, however, does not happen with the rest of the hams or with the rest of the oils. It is, so to speak, a borderline case. And a well-known one, at that. The normal thing when we talk about Iberian ham, in fact, is that it is recommended to enjoy it alone or with an accompaniment that cleanses the palate, such as a piece of neutral bread. Nobody usually proposes eating a plate of ham with a glass of EVOO on the side. The striking thing about all this is not that. The striking thing is the coffee with orange zest. Because Víctor Sanchego does not propose to eat ham with white bread, nothing like that. He suggests smearing the bread in a mixture of black coffee and orange peel, toasting it and, now, putting the Iberian ham on top. It’s a strange thing, yes; but we cannot define it as madness either. We said before that the ideal thing is to eat Iberian ham with something that ‘cleanses the palate’ and Sanchego’s idea goes directly there: coffee, due to its dry and intense qualities, allows us to enhance the organoleptic properties of our ham. Is it the most interesting decision? Well, the truth is that I couldn’t say. On a theoretical level, there could be dozens of similar combinations that fit better with our usual organoleptic repertoire; but without a doubt it is bold and many of those who try it (on social networks) They are delighted with the result. And that, without a doubt, is good news. Not because of the ham, not because of the coffee, not because of the orange zest. It’s good news because culinary Talibanism It is a practice that greatly impoverishes our understanding of food. And it limits us for no reason. Being open to ‘playing’ with products as iconic as Iberian ham is a symptom of a gastronomic maturity that, used well, can help us resolve problems in a much simpler way. big problems of the food security of the century. Image | Stephan Coudassot | Nathan Dumlao In Xataka | We’ve been telling ourselves for 100 years that breakfast is the “most important meal of the day.” The problem is that it is not true In Xataka | We’ve gone from “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” to “I grab something quick and stick with it.” And that has problems A version of this theme was published in 2025

Spain has a license only for automatic cars and more and more people choose it

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Getting your driving license without using the clutch and changing gears is now a reality within the reach of anyone who wants to learn to drive in Spain. This is permit B limited to automatic vehiclesa modality that more and more driving school students choose, but which also generates many doubts about how it works or how to request it. That’s why below these lines we tell you all the details. The same permission, but with a nuance: only automatic Despite what many people believe, there is no new or independent license for automatic cars. We have approached some driving schools to ask about it and, as they explain, the permit is the same as it has always been, B, only in the document an annotation is added which indicates that the holder can only drive with automatic transmission vehicles. As expected, those who obtain their license with a manual gear car, however, are enabled to drive both types of transmission without any restrictions. That note It is popularly known as “code 78” and appears printed on the back of the card, next to the permit category. In Spain, the Instruction 2019/C-134 of the DGT, something already marked in the General Regulations for Drivers, says: “if the applicant takes the practical exam with an automatic transmission vehicle, that circumstance must be reflected in the permit and will only enable him to drive cars with those characteristics.” Why is more and more requested? The rise of this type of permit goes hand in hand with the automobile market itself. Two decades ago, automatic transmission was almost a rarity on Spanish roads; Today, however, there are more and more models (especially electric and hybrid, which do not have a clutch) that They are sold exclusively with this transmission. According to share El Periódico, of the 600,000 category B permits issued each year in Spain, between 33,000 and 37,000 already carry this limitation to the automaticwhich places code 78 between 5.5% and 6.2% of the total. However, as the media points out, in the driving school sector the figure they handle is around 10% of the licenses issued. Gear lever on a Volvo CX60 Asking several driving schools, they affirm that this modality has been implemented for a few years. On the other hand, Raül Viladrich, president of the Federation of Driving Schools of Catalonia, counted to El Periódico that the demand started between 2018 and 2020, although it clarified that it is still much lower than that of the traditional card. It is also a case of generational changesince more and more young people see manual transmission as something of the past and, directly, have no intention of ever driving a car with a clutch. How is it obtained and what is the difference with the traditional exam The learning process is identical to that of the conventional B license, that is, you go to the driving school, you take the theory exam, you have your practical classes and a final exam, with the only difference that both the classes and the driving test are done with an automatic transmission vehicle. You also don’t have to make the decision when you first register, since you can start with a manual car and, if you decide, you can upgrade to an automatic car at any time. This is exactly what a former student, Elena García, tells us, who opted for the automatic mode. Elena says that she chose this route because the car she had at home was already automatic, so it seemed like “the best option” to learn directly with the type of vehicle she was going to use later. Even so, he explains that he started his internship with a manual car, but that, after fifteen or twenty classes, he decided to switch to an automatic car. According to him, in your driving school the automatic option existed and was offeredalthough at first they directly recommended the manual. Elena admits that, almost a year after getting her license, not having access to manual cars does not worry her. And in your immediate surroundings you only have automatic vehicles and, when you travel or need to rent a car, you always find hassle-free automatic car options. What happens if you drive a manual car with this permit Basically, if they catch you, fine the song. “They are prohibited from driving any type of car that is not automatic,” assures Sergio Olivera, president of the National Confederation of Driving Schools (CNAE) to El Periódico. And the thing is that whoever has a license with this entry and uses a vehicle with a manual transmission faces a fine of 500 euros and the loss of four points on the license. The Traffic Law considers this situation a very serious infraction, comparable to driving without a permit. In the event that you have obtained your license only with an automatic car, but you want to drive a manual one, it is currently mandatory to go through a practical exam again, this time with a manual transmission car, without the need to repeat the theoretical part. Less procedures to remove the restriction This requirement, however, has an expiration date. And it already exists a European directiveapproved at the end of 2025, which It is intended to replace the complete practical exam for a training course of only seven hours at a driving school to be able to obtain the B permit without any transmission limitations. According to explained Viladrich to El Periódico, this course can be taken both during the process of obtaining the license itself and later, and its entry into force is expected, in principle, for 2029, although there is still no set date for its application in Spain. This model, in fact, already works in other European countries. In France, Germany or Switzerland, drivers with this limitation can eliminate it through specific training, without having to be re-examined from scratch. The future is automatic Just ten years ago, automatic cars accounted for … Read more

There is a scientific scale to measure how much you enjoy watching pimples explode and many people have high scores

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The paths of the Internet are inscrutable. Sometimes, the videos that set trends on social networks are more than understandable. For example, who isn’t going to like kitten videos? However, on other occasions, there are videos that divide society. It is the case of the videos of exploding pimples. For some users, they are as pleasurable as exploiting them in person. For others, precisely those who can’t stand it in real life either, they are the height of unpleasantness. But what is it about the act of popping pimples or seeing it on the screen? Why are there so many people who enjoy it? Actually, with psychology in hand, it is not so strange. The problem is that, if we change psychology for dermatology, it can be dangerous in some cases. Although not as much as we think Why do we enjoy popping pimples so much? For starters, our penchant for popping pimples is related to dopamine. Humans experience pleasure when a surge of dopamine is released in our brain. In reality it is a much more complex process, but we can keep that in a simplified way. It is the hormone that dominates reward systems. That is, those who They are set in motion when we do something that is beneficial to us as a species. For example, sex is beneficial, because it helps us perpetuate the species. Eating chocolate is beneficial because it gives us energy. The brain does not distinguish between energetic and healthy, so it also generates that feeling of pleasure that makes us want to repeat. If we have a lot of sex it will be easier for us to reproduce and if we eat a lot of chocolate we will have a lot of energy. That’s the summary of how reward systems work. Unfortunately, not everything that activates reward systems is always good. Drugs, for example, can replicate that feeling of pleasure, despite not providing us with any benefit. Leaving that aside, stopping feeling pain also gives us pleasure, logically. It’s good for us. Furthermore, from a much more superficial point of view, what is beautiful and aesthetic is equally pleasant. For that reason, there are people who get so much pleasure from exploding pimples. With a single gesture of her nails, they are removing something painful and unsightlyso they get a good shot of dopamine. What about the videos? The case of videos that circulate on social networks is not exactly the same. There we are only spectators. We are not directly exploiting the pimples. Even so, just take a look at the visualizations to see that they cause a sensation. A feeling that, in fact, is not new. In 2021 already There was a team of Austrian scientists who were interested in the reasons why so many people enjoy these types of videos. They carried out an investigation with 80 women, of which 38 reported that they enjoyed these videos and 42 indicated that they did not. Their brains were analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they watched several of these videos, so it was observed that, indeed, those who enjoyed them showed greater activity in brain regions associated with pleasurelike the nucleus accumbens. Later, in 2024, these same scientists They developed scales that they called the Grain Exploitation Enjoyment Scale. (PPES) to evaluate people who enjoy this guilty pleasure. The study was carried out through two experiments. In the first, 104 people participated and were asked questions aimed at evaluating the PPES scale. In addition, they were made to watch videos of people exploiting pimples, with complete freedom to move the video forward or backward if they saw it necessary. Thus, the scale was found to be appropriate, since higher scores corresponded to a lower probability of forwarding the video. Many people watch videos of exploding pimples because of the controlled risk Then, with the scale already evaluated, a second experiment was done, this time with 501 people, who were asked questions to score through the PPES scale, but also through other personality scales. The objective was to check what type of traits lead someone to enjoy these videos. Thus, it was seen that, mainly, people with higher PPES scores are those who feel pleasure with situations of possible death or discomfort in controlled and non-threatening situations. It should be said that this does not mean that possible death is pleasurable, but the adrenaline of risky situations does, when seen from the outside, without real danger. People who enjoy these situations also tend to be lovers of horror movies, for example. To a certain extent, this human tendency is also linked to the survival of the species. Enjoyment in risky situations leads us to observe them conscientiously and learn in case, when the time comes, we find ourselves in a similar scenario in real life. It is true that exploding pimples is not fatal, but it does pose a certain risk, so seeing it from the outside, in a controlled way, can cause a feeling of pleasure. If we add the dopamine from seeing something unsightly removed, we can understand the fury of these viral videos. What are the risks of popping pimples? We have seen that people who enjoy pimple popping videos do so because they see a certain dangerous situation. It is not doing bungee jumping, but it has its risk. Now, to what extent is it dangerous? To find out, I have contacted Rosa Tabernerdermatologist at the Son Llátzer Hospital (Palma de Mallorca) and member of the Spanish Association of Dermatology and Venereology. To begin with, he explained something very interesting to me: the reason why in viral videos (and in reality) you see those yellow threads when removing the pimple. The key is in the keratin that accumulates in the pores of the skin. “Pimples or blackheads correspond to what dermatologists call open comedones,” he begins. “When this opening is more dilated than normal and sebum secretion is increased, keratin accumulates in that pore.” Keratin … Read more

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