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Thousands of people have fallen in love with seven dogs abandoned and on the run in the middle of China. It was just another AI video

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The image was undeniably powerful, almost cinematic. In the freezing darkness of the night, with temperatures below zero, a pack of seven dogs walked in formation on the shoulder of a highway. The video of just 11 seconds, published in chinese platform Douyinshowed a motley crew: a German shepherd, a golden retriever, a Labrador, a small corgi, and several mixed breed dogs. The clip went viral, quickly racking up more than 230 million views. The audience, saturated with news about wars and disastersfound an emotional balm in these animals. But what the network hailed as a miracle of loyalty and survival, the real version of the Disney movie Homeward Bound or the children’s series Paw Patrolturned out to be a completely prefabricated story. The birth of a viral myth. It didn’t take long for the internet machinery to build an epic narrative. From there, speculation became “truth.” Rumor spread that the seven dogs had escaped from a traffickers’ truck that was taking them to a dog meat slaughterhouse, and it was even claimed that they had walked 17 kilometers together. The anthropomorphization of the pack reached extraordinary levels. As illustrated by the comments of Internet userssocial networks assigned a role to each dog in this pack: the injured German shepherd was the “General” whom everyone protected; the golden retriever was the “guard” that was placed near traffic to shield them; Chinese rural dogs were the “guides” with a sense of direction; and the little corgi was the brave leader and “nurse” who walked 50,000 steps—twice as many as the rest—retracing his steps to make sure no one was left behind. The truth behind this story. The event, however, was much less romantic and lacked villains. Extensive field research carried out by reporters City Evening News dismantled the theory of the great escape. There were no meat traffickers, no kidnapping trucks, nor a 17-kilometer trip. Reporters located the village in Shuangyang district where the animals came from. Three of the most famous dogs belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Zhang: the corgi, affectionately called “Big Fatty” (Dapang); the German Shepherd, “Four Treasures” (Sibao); and the golden retriever, “Long Hair.” As the family explained, around March 13, the German shepherd simply went into heat. Since the dogs in the village usually roam freely, the males in the area were attracted to her and began to follow her, going just 4 or 5 kilometers away until they reached the highway. The rescue was not out of a movie either. Although volunteers from rescue bases such as Tong Tong or Bitter Coffee (led by Professor Liu) used drones to search for the herd, the resolution was purely customary. As detailed City Evening NewsMr. Zhang had a dream in which he was feeding his dogs. Convinced that they were alive, he went out to look for them in neighboring towns and found them safe and sound in the walled patio of a house where they had entered to take refuge. The other dogs in the video turned out to be pets of other neighbors in the area, such as Messrs. Guo and Jing, who returned home on their own. The engine of deception. If the story was so simple, how did it become a global phenomenon full of false details? The answer is in technology. According to an in-depth analysis of cnnalthough the original clip of the dogs walking on the highway was authentic, the story was hijacked and inflated using Artificial Intelligence. After the video went viral, AI-generated “spin-offs” proliferated: cinematic posters of the seven dogs, fake trailers showing their “exciting escape” and hyper-realistic images of the animals tearfully reunited with their supposed owners. The reason is purely economic, since “attention is money on the Internet”, as TJ Thomson explainsassociate professor of digital media at RMIT University. Content creators saw a golden opportunity to capitalize on a trend. As Tama Leaver, a professor at Curtin University, adds, inventing or embellishing these stories using AI is “a very effective way to increase an account’s numbers quickly.” The implications beyond. Although it may seem like an endearing and harmless anecdote, this viral hoax has tangible consequences. On the one hand, it perpetuates stigmas. Although since SCMP contextualizeciting the Dalian Animal Protection Association, that pet theft for meat is a real problem in some areas of northern China (which prompted genuine concern from many), in this specific case the false narrative fueled the fires of racism. As pointed out cnnthe invention of the “meat factory” fueled negative stereotypes against Chinese citizens, something especially dangerous in a climate of growing xenophobia. On the other hand, there is the damage to our information ecosystem. Chinese state media and the Jilin tourist office had to intervene to deny the rumor. as quote Guardianauthorities warned that this incident “reflects deficiencies in the dissemination of information online, where subjective speculation is easily taken as fact.” Professor Tama Leaver warns about danger of complacency: If we let our guard down and accept AI-generated images without questioning them because they are “cute dogs”, our critical skills will be atrophied when faced with false images about serious topics, such as war conflicts. @cnn A viral video showed a group of dogs in China who were purportedly captured to be eaten, escaped, and made the long journey home. The problem? The story’s not real. CNN’s Jessie Yeung explains how this kind of misinformation can spread. #cnn #news ♬ original sound – CNN The fragility of our eyes. The ending of “The Adventures of the Seven Dogs” in Changchun did not require an epic soundtrack, but a leash. Owners now leash their dogs during the mating season. However, the trail they leave on the network is deep. In an era dominated by AI and the desperate search for clicks, our need to consume happy endings it makes us deeply vulnerable to manipulation. The true story of the German shepherd or the corgi teaches us a hard journalistic and social lesson about the contemporary internet: as Professor Thomson … Read more

Shakira wants to put 300,000 people in a place that does not convince the Government at all

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Live Nation and Shakira have now officially presented Macondo Park, a 40-hectare temporary venue at the Iberdrola Music in Villaverde designed for close the tour ‘Women no longer cry’ with a nine-concert residency in Madrid in September. The problem: the Government delegate in Madrid has been warning for years that the space does not meet security conditions for massive events and has formally asked the City Council not to authorize them. Stadiums make money. What Shakira and Live Nation have presented is not exactly a concert: it is a temporary infrastructure designed ad hoc by the international study BIGknown for projects such as the Danish pavilion at the Shanghai Expo or the expansion of the National Museum of Qatar. According to data from the organization, the so-called Shakira Stadium will occupy four hectares within the Iberdrola Music space, with capacity for 50,000 people per night: 26,688 seats in the stands, 25,000 standing and around 3,000 in the VIP area. Macondism. Macondo Park will be deployed around the stadium, which takes its name from the fictional town created by Gabriel García Márquez in ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’: 40 hectares active for twelve hours each concert day. The cultural program, baptized ‘Es latina’, includes gastronomy, workshops, exhibitions and sales of Latin American crafts, all selected by Shakira herself. There will also be a specific area for children called Macondito, designed (according to the organization) with the participation of the artist’s children, Milan and Sasha. The goal, according to Live Nation, is to “demonstrate what it means to be Latino” and project that cultural imaginary in Europe. Minitour without moving. Some pertinent figures: nine performances in Madrid, scheduled for September 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27, to which have been added October 2, 3 and 4 due to the very high demand and how quickly the pre-sale sold out. The entire project expects more than 300,000 attendees throughout the residency. Ticket prices range between 73.50 and 181.50 euros, with VIP packages exceeding 1,000. And it will take 69 days to build the complete structure of this spectacular theme park around the artist. Problems in Villaverde. This great plan collides with a somewhat complicated background. Iberdrola Music is the same space that has hosted the Mad Cool festival for years. It was also the scene of the Harry Styles concert in 2023, where organizational failures led to monumental traffic jams and part of the audience ended up walking along the M-45. In the letter he wrote to the City CouncilGovernment delegate Francisco Martín recalls that he already warned about the venue in July 2023 on the occasion of the Reggaeton Beach Festival. According to Martín, in an institutional meeting held in 2024 it was found that there continued to be “relevant deficiencies in terms of accessibility, mobility and organization of entry and exit flows, incompatible with the celebration of large events in safe conditions.” The administrator of the Mad Cool festival even faced a request for a two-year prison sentence from the Prosecutor’s Office for violations related to noise pollution. It’s not a festival. Martín also differentiates between the festival model, where the public enters and leaves in stages for hours, and the “fan phenomenon”: a massive concert where 50,000 people try to leave the venue in a very narrow time frame. It is this second scenario that, in his opinion, Iberdrola Music is not prepared to absorb. Crossing of accusations. As it could not be otherwise, this open letter was followed by an exchange of accusations with little or nothing to do with music. Borja Carabante, Urban Planning delegate of the City Council, accused Martin of “trying to boycott, harm and harm the city.” Mayor José Luis Almeida pointed in the same direction: he described it as “extraordinary” that Shakira chose Madrid as the culmination of her tour and even hinted that up to ten dates could be held. Mariano de Paco, Minister of Culture of the Community of Madrid, defined it as “great news.” The preceding Adele. Promoter Pino Sagliocco, president of Live Nation, avoided entering the political fray. He defended that the mobility plan “is already done” and endorsed by engineers, and insisted that Iberdrola Music is “an experienced and well-conditioned space.” He compared Shakira’s plan to Adele’s precedentwho established his residence in a park in Munich, comparable in size to this Macondo. The center of the debate. There is slaps for pre-sale ticketsbut municipal authorization has not been granted, and the Government Delegation has made it clear that it will go “as far as necessary” to ensure that the venue offers guarantees. For now, there is silence from both sides of the Administration. The conclusion of all this is that the debate is not led by Shakira, but by Madrid’s real capacity to manage massive events outside the urban center, with access infrastructure that several reports consider insufficient. After 17 countries, Shakira’s tour culminates in the only place on the planet where organizing a live show means invoking a perfect storm. In Xataka | We Spaniards have stopped watching TV, going to the cinema and reading books: the only thing that interests us is going to concerts

There are people modifying their router so that ads stop appearing on their refrigerator

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A man had to install an ad blocker directly on his router to stop his $1,400 refrigerator from showing ads. They tell it in the Wall Street Journal and, although it sounds absurd, it is just one of the experiences of those affected by the questionable decision that Samsung made a few months ago. What has happened? Samsung Family Hub refrigerators (those with a screen built into the door) began showing ads in September last year. Samsung admitted itconfirming that it was a pilot program for some users in the United States. Six months later, the ads are still appearing, some showing Samsung consumables like water filters, but others are third-party ads and in some cases they are full screen. Samsung says that the latter appear when the browser is opened and that it cannot control them. The problem of the official solution. Samsung allows you to remove ads from its refrigerators, but be careful because there is a catch. The advertising is integrated into a widget that also displays news, weather and calendar. To remove them, you have to delete the entire widget and there are users who do not want to lose it. The unofficial solution. Brian Bosworth is one of those affected by this decision, but he refused to give up the widget because he found it very useful, so he took the long route: he logged into his router, installed ad-blocking software, and made sure his refrigerator was included in the filter. Result: You keep the widget and don’t see ads. Discomfort. There are owners who feel directly deceived by this situation. They paid $1,400 for a premium appliance and now it has been turned into an advertising panel, all without their prior consent. One of them wants to return the refrigerator and has said that he will not buy any Samsung device again, which leads one to wonder if Samsung has correctly calculated the benefit of this decision. Making things worse. Cases like this are one more example of the drift that the internet and digital services are taking. It’s what was coined as ‘enshittification’which translated would be something like shit. It is a deliberate degradation of products and services that responds to an economic objective. Advertising is one of the forms of this degradation and we have seen it flood all types of services such as Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Instagram and even apps to control home cameras. We didn’t expect to see it also in refrigerators, but that’s the way things are. Image | Xataka In Xataka | “I take things that are good and make them worse”: Norway has a plan to reverse the decline of the entire Internet

My name is Tama, I am a station chief in Japan and 3,000 people have come to my funeral. Ah, I’m a cat

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It is only 14.3 kilometers of line but it is key for the residents of Wakayama and Kinokawa, the towns that connect the Kishigawa Line located south of Osaka. Right now, on the train you can find locals going here and there but, above all, there are tourists. They are not just any tourists, for that we have to go a few kilometers higher where we will find them taking photos with the famous Glico Man of Dotonbori. Here we will find tourists interested in two of the most deeply rooted hobbies in Japan: trains and cats. A formula that can be explosive, capable of recovering a train line by itself, attracting local tourism and positioning two small towns on the map of those seeking a different experience in one of the most extravagant countries in the world. Because here, the trains arrive dressed as cats and the station masters are… indeed, cats. My name is Tama and I am the boss of this station The Kishigawa Line was born at the beginning of the 20th century. The objective was to unite three sanctuaries and make it easier for those who made the pilgrimage there to get around. Nichizengu Shrine, Kamayama Shrine and Itakiso Shrine linked by a train line, count in Japanism. The line remained in operation for decades and in the 1960s the Nankai company took over its operation. But time moved on and large cities became a black hole that absorbed and absorbed workers. Cities grew first with Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Then with accelerated development that made Japan the most technologically advanced country in the world. And at the same pace as they conquered the world market with electronic devices at rock-bottom prices, cities grew at the same pace. Workers were needed for all types of tasks. the book Tokyo, Ueno station It explains very well how workers left their hometown and disappeared for years, unable to spare a handful of days to return to their place of origin. That depopulation little by little it was killing the Kishigawa line. The use of it fell so much that in 2006, Nankai decided to close it, unable to make the service profitable. And in the 2000s, the passengers had fallen in half compared to a decade ago. The solution came from the local governments through which the line passed, who took charge of the land and infrastructure, leaving a new company in charge of its operation and maintenance. The only problem is that no one wanted to take charge of a line of just 14.3 kilometers with a debt of more than five million dollars. At that time, local governments came knocking on the door of Okayama Dentetsu, a company that had already achieved some success with other similar public-private collaborations. Hand in hand with this new company, Wakayama Electric Railway was created, the company that was going to take charge of the Kishigawa Line. That day, a cat would forever change the future of the line. After the reopening event, at the Kishi station, a woman asked if a cat that was barely two months old could stay at the station since she couldn’t find a home. Mitsunobu Kojima, president of Okayama Dentetsu and, by extension, of Wakayama Electric Railwaynot only welcomed her at the station, he also gave her a job in a clear show of trust. Tama, which was the cat’s name, was now another worker on the new line. The rise was meteoric because in 2007, just a few months later, Tama was appointed Station Master. And he saved the line. Attracted by the news, tourists multiplied. More and more passengers approached the Kishigawa Line to meet the cat who, in uniform, guarded the station. Attracted by the supposed good luck of the new worker, more and more people came to take photos with her. The success was such that from the less than two million passengers who took the line before 2005, 2.3 million passengers were reached in less than a decade later, they explain in Japanism. Office of Tama, station manager The Tamaden was Japan’s first theme train Aware of the popularity of their new worker, Wakayama Electric Railway wanted to take advantage of Tama’s potential even more and in 2009 they inaugurated the Tamaden, the first cat-themed train, dressed with cat ears and whiskers, as well as numerous caricatures of the cat herself. Inside there is specific decoration with cat motifssuch as the upholstery or the fabric of the seat cushions. It’s not the only thing. Handles, lamps, curtains, footprints on the floor… everything is reminiscent of the cat world. By the way, the upholstery is brown with the characteristic color of the cat Tama. In fact, everything that surrounds this line lives for and to remember the figure of Tama. Kishi Station now has cat ears and eyes clearly visible from its exterior. There Tama had her own office, as she earned stripes in the company. His impact was key to resurrecting the line. Unfortunately, in June 2015, at the age of 16, Tama passed away. The affection of its neighbors was seen in the following days when the governor of the prefecture to which the train line belongs issued a statement. And, above all, when… 3,000 people attended his funeral. Tama was replaced by Nitama. It was logical if we take into account that Nitama was a station manager at another of the stops on the line and replaced Tama during her days off. That is to say, Nitama received painful recognition from Wakayama Electric Railway. One of those promotions you never want. The cat Nitama also worked with dedication. In fact, the president of the company that operates the train line noted at the end of 2025 that “it worked diligently and provided irreplaceable comfort. Nitama, please monitor the Wakayama Electric Railway from the sky,” in words reported by Independent. And Nitama died last November 2025. Until then, this new station chief could be seen every … Read more

Millions invested in AI graphical improvements so people say it looks like an Instagram beauty filter

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Nvidia presented DLSS 5 at GTC 2026 as the greatest graphical advance that video games have experienced since the ray tracing. The reaction has been almost unanimous: the gaming community and industry professionals themselves have described it as a “slop AI filter.” The rejection has been so frontal and almost unanimous that Nvidia has had to come out to clarify how the technology works and what control developers really have over these visual improvements. What is DLSS 5. DLSS technology was born in 2019 as an intelligent upscaling system: the GPU renders at lower resolution and the AI ​​reconstructs each frame up to 4K with minimal quality penalty. With each iteration (DLSS 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5) the goal remained the same, but DLSS 5 breaks that logic. According to Nvidia’s own announcementwe are looking at a real-time neural rendering model that analyzes the color and motion vectors of each frame and generates lighting and photorealistic-looking materials on them. The system recognizes the semantics of the scene (skin, hair, fabrics, metals) and applies its own interpretation of how those elements should look under real physical lighting. Jensen Huang defined it with a phrase that well summarizes the ambition of this new iteration: “Twenty-five years after Nvidia invented the shader programmable, we are reinventing computer graphics.” Digital Foundrywhich had access to the technology before the announcement (and which has been heavily criticized for its glowing coverage), called it “the most amazing I’ve seen in my time at Digital Foundry” and pointed to genuinely notable improvements in environments from ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ or ‘Oblivion Remastered’. The faces, Juan, the faces. The problem is that the official demo video included sequences from ‘Resident Evil Requiem’, ‘Starfield’, ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ and ‘EA Sports FC’, and in all of them the system visibly altered the characters’ faces. The protagonist of ‘Requiem’, Grace Ashcroft, has been the most widespread example: more pronounced cheekbones, fuller lips and uniform skin tone. According to Kotakuthe effect seems to apply a TikTok beauty filter on characters with an artistic intention other than physical attractiveness, as is the case with Ashcroft. Another example is that of the ‘Starfield’ characters, which are not very detailed in themselves, and which gain facial resolution but lose all aesthetic coherence with the original design. In ‘Hogwarts Legacy‘, an old woman with gently modeled wrinkles begins to show off a deeply cracked face completely alien to what was seen in the game. Therefore, the dreaded term ‘AI slop‘ appeared on social networks in a matter of minutes. He Nvidia GeForce on X announcement post was buried by negative replies, which accumulated favs and RTs in much greater quantity than the original post. Also the comments of the Digital Foundry video They were almost unanimously negative. The answer. Given the volume of criticism, Nvidia published a statement on YouTube clarifying how the system works. According to the companydevelopers have complete artistic control over DLSS 5: they can adjust the intensity of the effect, the color grading and mask specific areas where they do not want the AI ​​to act (the company calls it “controllability”). The company also clarified that the technology is not a filter applied on top of the image, but rather takes the color and motion vectors of the game to generate its output, “anchored to the source 3D content.” Bethesda, one of the most active studios in the initial support (Todd Howard had appeared in the presentation video praising the results in ‘Starfield’) posted hours later a more nuanced response on the studio’s official account. There they stated that “our art teams will adjust the lighting and final effect to look the way we consider best for each game. Everything will be under the control of our artists and will be completely optional for players.” Two ways of looking at it. The disparity in reactions reflects two legitimate ways of evaluating the same technology. What a good part of the community and numerous media outlets have criticized is that the modifications make the characters more realistic but different from how they were designed by the game’s art team. For example, concept artist Jeff Talbot said that: “In each shot the artistic direction was removed to add meaningless ‘details’ (…) This is a garbage AI filter.” Poor optimization. a few weeks ago There began to be talk that the proliferation of tools of upscaling and AI has reduced the pressure on studios to optimize their games: when DLSS or FSR can more than compensate for performance issues, the incentives to polish the native engine disappear. There is already someone he says it bluntly: Some studios design their games from the beginning assuming that the upscaling It will fix what’s broken, rather than using it as a further improvement on an already solid foundation. With DLSS 5 that takes a qualitative leap, and the risk is not only aesthetic: it is work-related and creative. And then there’s an additional detail: the GTC demo required two GeForce RTX 5090s running in parallel (one to render the game, another to run the DLSS 5 neural model). Nvidia claims that the final launch, scheduled for fall 2026, will work with a single card, but the magnitude of the hardware raised questions about the actual requirements. If studios start designing with DLSS 5 as a safety net, what version of the game will the player without that GPU receive? Real video games. There is something that Nvidia seems to have not taken into account: people like video games because they look like video games. Imperfection has a human touch that is part of the product’s identity. Grace Ashcroft works as a character in ‘Requiem’ precisely because her appearance reflects exhaustion and vulnerability. DLSS 5’s AI makes it something that has been described as the result of applying Nvidia’s system to a character whose aesthetic is not designed to be photorealistic. The problem isn’t just that the result is aesthetically questionable: it’s that the entire premise is wrong. Nvidia assumes that “more … Read more

In 2003, NASA suffered a serious accident that killed seven people. The person in charge: a PowerPoint

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On January 16, 2003, NASA’s STS-107 mission was underway. The space shuttle Columbia was launched with its seven crew members into low orbit to test the effects of microgravity on the human body. Those seven people never returned to Earth. The tragedy could have been avoided, but years later the analysis of everything that happened those days has left a terrible conclusion: a presentation of PowerPoint He killed those seven people. The launch, as said James Thomasseemed to be perfect. The crew began to carry out their task, and were expected to spend 16 days in space performing 80 experiments. Just one day after the mission began, NASA officials realized that something had not gone right. NASA has a protocol for reviewing the launch with external cameras. After 82 seconds, a piece of spray foam insulation (SOFI) fell off one of the ramps that attached the shuttle to its external fuel tank. As the crew rose at 28,968 kilometers per hour, the piece of foam collided with one of the tiles on the outer edge of the ship’s left wing. The insulating foam coming off was nothing new: it had happened on the four previous missions and was the reason the cameras were deployed to analyze the launch. The problem is that the blow had occurred in the layer that protected the ship during its re-entry to Earth. The slides of yore What did NASA do? Study the possibilities and conclude that there were three: First, the astronauts could have done a spacewalk to check the helmet. Second, NASA could have sent another shuttle to pick up the crew. Third, they could risk simply re-entry. Those responsible for the mission analyzed the situation with Boeing engineers and created a report in the form of a PowerPoint presentation with 28 slides. The conclusions revealed something important: it was assumed that the wing tiles could tolerate foam impacts, but that assumption had been made under very particular conditions. The pieces of foam in the tests were 600 times smaller than those that had hit the Columbia. To reflect those details, the engineers created this slide: At NASA they listened to the explanation, and the engineers believed they had conveyed the risks well. However, NASA believed that the engineers, even without being certain, suggested that there was no damage that would put the lives of the crew in danger. The option they chose was the third. Columbia would re-enter on February 1, 2003, at 9:16 AM (EST). At 9 that day, Dallas residents saw how the ferry had disintegrated into pieces. The entire crew died. The investigation into the tragedy revealed that NASA and engineers had had the right information, but had made a bad decision. Edward Tufte, a Yale professor, explained that the problem had been with that damn slide and the way it had been presented. The title already seemed to indicate that the risk was not particularly high, but the slide also had four cascading points with no detailed explanation of what they meant: interpretation was left to the reader’s discretion. It was not clear whether the first point (1) was the main one, or if the rest of the points had the same relevance. The different font sizes, strange hierarchy, and text density didn’t help. There were over 100 vague words and adjectives (“sufficient,” “meaningful”), making the slide too open to audience interpretation. The biggest problem is in the last two points, where it was indicated that what they had tested in the preliminary tests was very different from what had happened. NASA itself indicated in your report after the investigation that they had relied too much on PowerPoint. The expression ‘death by PowerPoint’ has been used for years to indicate how there are presentations that induce boredom or fatigue due to their information overload. A bad design and the overuse of points to order each data are common problems in this and other similar applications. Unfortunately, in this case that expression became tragically true. In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. In Xataka | Boeing was trying to put the Starliner fiasco behind it: NASA has just classified the 2024 incident at its highest level

Nintendo knows that most people who go to its parks and watch its movies have never touched a video game. and he loves it

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The success of the park Super Nintendo World and of the Mario’s first animated film (with a sequel just around the corner that also promises to break the box office) has confirmed what the company has known for years: that its characters are worth as much inside a console as in an outdoor version. The strategy coordinated by Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, points towards an entertainment model where the video game is only the origin, not the objective. Not just video games. Shinya Takahashi, senior CEO of Nintendo, He has been repeating a phrase for years which sounds almost like a wake-up call: “People see us as a video game company. But we have always considered ourselves an entertainment company.” The distinction is important: Nintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyoto as a manufacturer of Hanafuda cards. It went through toys, taxis and hotels before reaching video games in the seventies. Software and consoles have been its core business for decades, but they were never the only thing the company thought it could do with its characters. The problem is that for a long time all of the company’s forays outside of video games had been failures. 1993: disaster. The most famous case is the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993. Nintendo transferred the rights through a simple licensing agreement and did not participate in the production. The result was an experiment that It raised only 40 million dollars with a budget close to 50 and which is remembered as one of the worst video game adaptations in history (although over time it has acquired, thanks to its outlandish production design, a well-deserved cult status). Miyamoto himself acknowledged the root of the problem with that film in an interview, and why it took them so long to try again: “We were afraid of all the failures of IP adaptations of the past, where there is a license and a distance between the original creators and those of the films.” The consequence of that failure was almost thirty years without giving up film rights to its main franchises. Nintendo stopped licensing its IP to external studios and only allowed occasional appearances of his characters in films like ‘Wreck-It Ralph!’ or ‘Pixels’, none with real creative control. New adaptations. When Nintendo sat down to negotiate with Universal and Illumination for an animated film, the conversation started from a different beginning. Miyamoto served as executive producer and was involved in every significant decision, from casting to animating key characters. The same logic was applied to the construction of their first amusement park, Super Nintendo Worldin collaboration with Universal and announced in May 2015. Construction of the park in Osaka began in 2017. The investment reached 351 million dollarsa scale comparable to what Universal once dedicated to the Harry Potter franchise. A real game. Super Nintendo World is designed so that visitors feel like they are in Mario’s world. They wear an NFC bracelet with which they interact with the question blocks, collect coins, complete challenges and end up facing Bowser Jr. as the final boss. There is no controller, but there are game mechanics, score markers, hidden secrets, and a slight internal narrative. Attention to detail permeates spaces such as bathrooms and restaurants. Nintendo is doing well. The financial results support the bet. According to Comcast data released during an earnings call, CFO Jason Armstrong noted that Universal Studios Hollywood (home to one of the two Super Nintendo Worlds in the United States) recorded its best gross profit in that period of the year in its entire history, thanks to the impact of the Nintendo park, and experienced an increase in visitors of 15%. The Super Mario movie has also been extremely profitable: 1.36 billion dollars worldwidebecoming in just 26 days the first adaptation of a video game to exceed one billion. It was the second highest-grossing film of that year, only behind ‘Barbie’. New philosophy. There is a quote from Takahashi that sums up this new business philosophy: “We knew that Mario was adored by video game fans, but the park helped us understand that Mario also has non-gaming fans.” and Miyamoto adds: “There are many people who know who Mario is but have never played the game.” The park’s target audience, according to Takahashi, is not any age group or any specific player profile: “It’s all-encompassing, whether it’s someone who knows Mario from the games or a kid who’s never played before.” Mario is an IP that generates value regardless of whether its audience has ever touched a controller. In other words, he is a much more valuable client, because there are no limits regarding age or hobbies. It doesn’t stop, it doesn’t stop. The expansion continues: Donkey Kong Country opened in Osaka in December 2024, expanding the space of Super Nintendo World by 70%. Epic Universe, Universal’s new park in Florida inaugurated in May 2025has its own Super Nintendo World. And there is a version under construction in Singapore. Takahashi has mentioned that franchises such as ‘Splatoon’ or ‘Zelda’ are part of the expansion plans into new media, although there are hardly any specific announcements. Of course, the sequel ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ arrives on April 1. Video games are just one more link in a chain of dividends that have turned Nintendo into a very different company than it was a few years ago. In Xataka | No one would think of leaving ‘Super Mario 64’ on for 14 months. But whoever does it will find a surprise

Thousands of people were following the Iran war with satellite images from Planet Labs. So the US has closed it

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The satellite images are a key piece for modern military intelligence. They are the eyes on the ground, they allow you to see where the enemy is, their supply routes, their defenses and plan more precise attacks. For the public, they are the direct window to the battlefield and in the Iran conflict there are two companies that are deciding whether to let us watch or not, one is American and one is Chinese. Guess who is who. The Planet Labs blackout. It is a satellite earth imaging company based in San Francisco. It operates a network of more than 200 satellites that allows them to provide global coverage of the planet, recording more than 300 million square kilometers of images collected every day. Planet Labs images have been key in conflicts such as the ukrainian war or the escalation of tensions between China and Taiwan. However, when it comes to a conflict in which the US is the protagonist, things change. The restriction: On March 6, Planet Labs announced a four-day delay in the publication of its images of the Middle East, a measure they described as “temporary and intended to protect personnel and operations.” The controversy: What is striking is that the delay affected countries with a US military presence (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), while the images of Iran continued to be published almost in real time. This unleashed reviews on Xcalling it a measure to manipulate public opinion by hiding the damage to US bases, while only showing the damage caused to Iran. The extension: The company recently extended this delay to 14 days. According to statements to Reutersseek to ensure that your data “does not contribute in any way to attacks against allied, NATO personnel or civilian populations.” Mizar Vision. Given the Planet Labs blackout, there is a company that continues to offer satellite images almost in real time. It is about Mizar Vision, a Chinese startup based in Shanghai that does not have its own satellites, but instead purchases commercial images. Its value is that it applies an AI layer that detects, geolocates and tags military assets in almost real time and publishes them on Weibo, the Chinese social network. There is an account on X with the same name, but the company has already confirmed that It is not an official account. Attack prediction. Two days before the attack on Iran, Mizar Vision published images which showed planes lined up on the runway of the Diego García base, signaling that the attack was imminent. They were high resolution images in which details such as the model of the aircraft could be distinguished. They also identified other key infrastructures such as the anti-missile systems that the US has in Jordan and the al-Udeid base in Qatar, all of them. attacked by Iran days later. Mizar Vision is the open window to the battlefield, but we can all look, the Iranian army too. The shadow of Beijing. The images prior to the attack were shared by accounts with links to Chinese People’s Liberation Army. They count in The Country That analysts wonder to what extent the Chinese government is encouraging the publication of such detailed images, with such precision and in real time in a context of such tension. The company continues to publish images of US military movements in the region. In Xataka | A creepy sound is being repeated in the Middle East: it is called C-RAM, it comes from the US, and it is the prelude to a firestorm Image | Mizar Vision

We thought that in prehistory people ate pure meat. The burnt bottom of a pot just showed that we were refined chefs

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For years, popular culture has sold us the image of a prehistoric man whose diet was based almost exclusively on devouring large amounts of roast meat. However, science has been dismantling this myth for years, and now a study has analyzed the remains embedded in ancient vessels, which is the equivalent of ‘socarrat‘of Valencian paella. And the results suggest that our ancestors were, in reality, extremely creative cooks. What has been seen. Beyond what we think, that the prey of the day was hunted and immediately roasted on the fire, science has proven that European hunters almost 8,000 years ago combined freshwater fish with a wide variety of vegetables, using advanced culinary techniques to improve flavors and neutralize toxins. Something similar to what we do today in the kitchen, as reported by El País. Where did we see it? The study, with Spanish participation, reached this conclusion without having to search in the fossilized bones, but in something much more subtle such as the scabs of charred food adhered to 85 ceramic fragments that come from 13 archaeological sites in northern and eastern Europe. How it was done. Once these remains were located, it was decided to apply cutting-edge technology, such as scanning electron microscopy combined with molecular analysis of these remains. Until now, plant remains in archeology used to be underestimated because they degrade much faster than animal bones. But the electron microscope has revealed an astonishing level of detail, detecting plant cell tissues and microscopic fish scales that have been able to survive millennia thanks to being burned and adhering to clay. The results. With all these techniques we have been able to answer what was cooked in those clay pots, and the truth is that we must forget the idea of ​​​​having a piece of meat on the fire, but instead recipes have been revealed that meticulously mixed proteins and carbohydrates. The researchers were able to see remains of freshwater fish here, highlighting carp and barbel, leafy vegetables such as spinach, roots and bulbs such as beets, and also berries. Viburnum opulus. A prehistoric chef. Perhaps the most fascinating discovery of González Carretero’s team is the sophistication of the culinary techniques, since the berries of Viburnum opulus They are known to be slightly toxic when raw and have a tremendously acidic and bitter taste. However, prehistoric inhabitants discovered that by simmering them in a broth with high-fat fish, the bitterness was neutralized, making them digestive and safe for human consumption. And this mixture was not accidental, but a handed down recipe that always sought to improve the flavor. Culinary revolution. This work joins a growing wave of studies that are rewriting the history of our diet. Already in 2018 it was published in PNAS the discovery of the oldest “bread” in the world in Jordan, baked 14,400 years ago, long before agriculture was invented. But now these food remains point to the fact that the so-called paleo diet did not exist as they wanted to sell it to us. We learned that our ancestors knew their environment perfectly, mastered the processing of toxic plants and spent time preparing complex stews where vegetables and tubers were main dishes, not a simple garnish. Cover | Generated with Nano Banana 2 In Xataka | We have been relying on the Nutri-Score in stores for years. Science believes that its real impact is zero

Many people hide behind anonymous accounts thinking that no one can discover them. AI has bad news for them

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Accounts without a profile photo or real name plague social networks; perhaps even you, who read these lines, are the owner of one. We do not judge, there are many reasons not to show your face on networks and, in fact, anonymity is the pillar on which the internet has been built. However, if you thought that calling yourself ‘user84721’ and having a landscape photo protected you, researchers have just shown that accounts can be deanonymized in minutes with AI (of course). The study. A team of researchers has published a study called “Large-scale deanonymization online with large language models” which is echoed Guardian. In it, they demonstrate how an LLM-based agent is able to compromise anonymous social media accounts with astonishing efficiency. The process consists of three steps: the LLM extracts identifying data (age, location, interests…), looks for possible matches in other users and finally reasons which are the best candidates, verifying the matches and eliminating false positives. Minutes. This is how long it took to identify users on sites like Reddit, Hacker News, and Anthropic Interviewer Dataset participants with this method. In the image you can see how, based on a few pieces of information such as where the student studies, the approximate age, the city and the name of the dog, they achieve a match with the user’s real profile. This is a fictitious case, but in the experiment they managed to identify real users by cross-referencing information with Linkedin profiles and other platforms. According to the researchers, LLMs allow for large-scale deanonymization of accounts, far exceeding the speed and efficiency of classical methods. They also highlight that there is not always enough information to reach a match, so everything depends on the online footprint of each user. Consequences. Researchers warn that this use of AI could be used for problematic purposes, such as governments that want to identify activists or cybercriminals seeking to launch highly personalized attacks. In addition, it must be taken into account that the system is not infallible and there may be false positives. Speaking to The Guardian, Peter Bentley, professor of computer science at UCL, warns that “People are going to be accused of things they haven’t done.” The end of anonymity. As we said at the beginning, the Internet has been built on the anonymity of its users, but we are experiencing a regulatory shift that pursues precisely put an end to it. We see it with the ban on social networks or the blocking of pornographic websites for minors promoted by countries such as United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark and now also Spain. These initiatives require the identification of users to be able to access certain content through video selfies, electronic ID, verification systems with AI… There are many options, What is not clear is its effectiveness. Image | Own preparation on a background of Google DeepMind In Xataka | There was no need to invent a “pajaport”, Google already includes it in Android. The real challenge is in Europe

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