place

Spain wants to reduce marine pollution and will start in an unsuspected place: the bathroom

by

Spain adds this year 642 beaches with blue flag, four more than last year, According to the Association of Environmental and Consumer Education (Adeac). This badge, which recognizes the environmental quality, security and services of the coast, returns to place the country among world leaders. Even so, the figure represents only 18 % of the more than 3,500 beaches in the country, which shows a pending challenge. To face it, Spain has begun to move. A new plan is brewing. Rather, a new bill with The goal of reducing pollution For single -use plastics, where wet wipe manufacturers will be forced to assume cleaning costs derived from the improper use of these products. In addition, the initiative wants to prohibit citizens from discarding wipes by the toilet and release balloons in the air. With this measure, Spain seeks to align with European standards on single -use plastics and move towards the UN sustainable development objectives. A serious problem. Wet wipes, even those made of natural polymers without chemical modifications, generate an important environmental impact. Its resistance to decomposition causes obstructions in sewerage and purification systems, especially during periods of heavy rains, such as has detailed The Guardian. The microfibers that release reach rivers and seas, aggravating pollution and raising management costs for local authorities. Responsibility. The new law will force companies to take care not only for the cleaning of the waste they generate, but also of information campaigns. To control who should pay, manufacturers will have to officially register. Although biodegradable wipes would be exempt, the Ministry of Environment He has insisted In that it is best not to throw any for the wiper, to protect pipes and the environment. A very economical topic. A awareness campaign of the Spanish Water and Sanitation Supply Association I already estimated Six years ago, the withdrawal of these wipes was an annual cost of 230 million euros. Until now, economic consequences have fallen to public administrations. According to eldiario.esValencia had to invest 10 million euros in 2019 to clean a three -kilometer jam. In Badajoz, a similar athlete was a cost of 200,000 euros. Murcia encrypted in more than 250,000 euros the replacement of a damaged team at a treatment plant, while the repair of pumping equipment amounted to another 200,000 euros. Other countries already have the lead. Four years ago, both France, Germany, Belgium and England They prohibited use of single -use plastic products, following the EU guidelines. In addition, on the one hand, France a year later prohibited the use of plastic To package small fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, Germany and Belgium They have been developing A fund funded by single -use plastics manufacturers, who must contribute according to the amount of plastic they sell. This fund aims to cover the cleaning costs of public spaces and waste management, reinforcing the principle of “who pollutes, pays”. It does not start on the shore. While the bill continues its parliamentary processing, its effectiveness will depend much on the citizen response. Because the care of the beaches does not begin only on the coast, but in the daily habits of those who enjoy them. Image | Pexels and Marco Verch Xataka | If the question is whether there is an “invasion” of moths in Murcia, the answer is that of every year by these dates

Internet has become such a confusing place that there are many people longing for web 1.0. And in Neocities you can relive it

by

Nostalgia is An emotional mystery that we do not know how to explain at all. We miss what we live in the past, we dyed it from Rosa and compare it to the present, even knowing that perhaps they were worse times. Because … wasn’t that internet of the beginning of the century, with demential designs, recharged and very, very unusable? Or was it that what we missed was precisely that indomesticated savagery of that time? Web 1.0 we gave ourselves. Web 1.0 is considered The first time on the Internet as we know today. It covers approximately From 1991 to 2004 And it has characteristics that the oldest of the place will recognize without problem. Among other things, communication was done unidirectionally (only information could be consumed, not significantly interacting with the pages), almost everything was simple text and images, the design relied on tables, Frames and basic html, and of course, no social networks or global collaboration. Internet was basically a container of things. Characteristic aesthetic. And first of all, it had a difficult aesthetic to cover in its entirety, but that those who lived it identify with a very specific place and moment. To that internet of hypertext (that now it seems that we die) and of the seekers organized by categories pay tribute Neocitiesa service of Hosting who wants to relive the philosophy of free geocities accommodations. He was born in 2013 and already has more than one million websites housed, most with a maximum size of 1 GB, the top that allows the free service option. HTML on fire. Neocities balances the modern and the very delayed quite grace. For example, it facilitates an HTML editor, but integrated into the browser. They can also be used to build CSS and Javascript pages, and in free mode the only files that can be uploaded are of these three languages, in addition to Markdown, XML, text and images. For anyone to make an MP3 repository that, on the other hand, would also be very of the time. In any case, the results can be enjoyed in the Webs gallery Organized by Tags reminiscent of remote time webrings. What times. And all this shoots A Pávlov type reaction That, in this case, it sounds like the meows of a modem of 56 kPbs and the need to disconnect the fixed to navigate. But above all, let’s ask ourselves What do we miss this first Internet incarnation. Possibly the novelty is the element that we remember most then: Everything was a discovery. But from the hand of that discovery is the feeling that the Internet was yet to be tame: the wild, unbalanced contents, without any sense of measure. Because they strictly obeyed the concerns and desires of the creators of the websites, not to algorithms that determined what people wanted to see. The effort is what is valued. In this nostalgia, and some of that is evident in Neocities, there is also a praise of the “effort” of any technology that takes its first steps. The experimental designs by accident, the slow connections, the rodeos to contact someone (mail addresses buried on the websites, visits books, forums, the first chat systems …): almost that the Internet had to be built as it was visiting. Neocities is a wink and tribute to those times although, being honest, with somewhat simpler websites. After all, during all these years something we have learned. In Xataka | The nostalgia industry follows a full candle wind, and an old acquaintance is benefiting: Fujifilm

The place where the blackout began

by

Huéneja, a small Granada municipality of approximately one thousand inhabitants, has become an epicenter of the eyes after the blackout that left the Iberian Peninsula on April 28. First substation to fall. With a powerful renewable energy concentration, Huéneja’s electrical substation was, according to The Energy Newspaperthe first great disconnection in the chain of events that caused the energy zero a month ago. Here, Red Eléctrica has been operating for more than a decade a 400 kV substation designed to evacuate the growing production of renewable energies in the area. Huéneja’s substation recorded the first generation drop in the moments before the great blackout. A renewable hub. Huéneja’s electrical substation is connected window, photovoltaic and thermosoles. In total, about 668 MW of installed power pour their energy into this knot: 376 MW windings, 142 MW photovoltaic and 150 MW Termosoles. That fateful day, all this connected generation was suddenly disconnected. From what we know, the protections jumped when detecting an over -the higher than the permitted limits, from outside the substation. A late expansion. On May 5, just a week after the blackout and while the causes were still investigated, the Government of Spain authorized Red Electric to expand the huéneja substation. This action, published in the BOE of May 21It has a budget of 7.5 million euros aimed at feeding the electrical train network. Bruno Vuan, connoisseur of the sector, I already pointed to Huéneja As a candidate for the start of the blackout, highlighting her concentration of power and questioning the tension control capacity for that generation. But Huéneja was not the cause of the blackout, but the first big piece of dominoes to fall. The origin is not the cause. Paraphrasing the expert Fernando Rodríguezthat Huéneja’s substation was the origin of the blackout does not mean that it was the cause. The failure of a substation does not grave the entire system, designed to withstand this type of oscillations. There were moments later other two disconnections to the southwest of the peninsula. The “causes” interacted with each other, and also with their effects, touring the system as a zipper that dulls Spain and Portugal. The complete schedule. After the incident in Huéneja at 12:32:57, two other important generation losses occurred in Badajoz and Seville in just twenty seconds, adding a total of 2.2 Gigaveatians disconnected. Luis Badesa, professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, had already signed over overthes as suspects. According to its analysis, the point of no return arrived at 12:33:20, when the Iberian Peninsula lost the connection with France, becoming an “electric island.” What failed then? According to Redeia, the Electric Red Matrix was not the energy mix, It was not the lack of inertiaThey were not the renewables. In an interview with The avant -gardehis president Beatriz Corredor said: “There was no transport network and the operation of the system was correct.” Corridor points to “some conventional generators” that had that day “some voltage control parameters below those established by the regulations.” The president of Redeia has put the focus on conventional energies, which did not control the tension correctly. Image | Voltae In Xataka | The other uncomfortable truth of the blackout: Spain does not yet have enough batteries for its renewable boom

Sinaloa has become such a violent place that even animals flee from there

by

Mexico has a problem. The Drug cartels They are tremendously influential in many of the cities, it is estimated that organized crime controls the distribution of 13% of the products and the “renewed” crisis of violence has promoted New strategies by the Government. And that violence is such that animals are also suffering. Specifically, more than 700 copies that have had to leave their sanctuary looking for quieter areas. The greatest relocation of wildlife in the history of Mexico The clashes in Mexico permeate all layers. The groups compete for the territory, something that ends up affecting civiliansbut also fight against security forces. The climate of violence implies that, although in some areas there is no explicit violence, there is uneasiness and there are those who prefer not to go through the place. A few months ago, that tension caused that Some Mayan monuments will be inaccessible Because the guides did not want to play. And something similar has happened with veterinarians and caregivers who should periodically visit the animals of the Sanctuary of Ostok. Located about 25 kilometers from Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa, the sanctuary hoste Property of criminals. In the area, these last weeks have faced two factions, ‘Los Mayitos’ and ‘Los Chapitos’, turning the city into the stage of shooting, extortion and threats that have not been alien to the sanctuary staff. As we read in CNNthere has come a point where, despite violence, employees and animals in the place had had no problem, but as one of the employees comments in the middle, more recently they have had many difficulties in reaching their job. “They practically took us out of the place because there were people who wanted to extort us,” says Ernesto Zazueta, the director of the installation. In CBS They tell how this resurgence of violence is affecting civilians more because criminals have begun not only to extort, but also kidnap and steal vehicles to obtain funds with which to continue their particular war. This theft of supplies and vehicles has prevented the activity in the park from developing as it should, and in addition to employees, animals also suffer. “There is not a single sure place in the city these days,” says Diego García, an employee of the sanctuary, in Mexico News Dailywho has had to do with some of the animals have been eating days because there were no supplies and because employees could not arrive. The highlight was when one of the elephants of the place suffered an infection that required the review by veterinarians and they refused to enter the area for fear of that violence. It is evident that everything adds, but this is what caused it to be decided to relocate the animals, as Ernesto says in W Radio Mexico. This move was made without any advertisement for fear that the members of the cartels will take over the specimens and the destination is the El Charnto Biopark, a new sanctuary that will open in August and that is in Mazatlan, about 200 kilometers from Culiacán where things seem to be calmer. To carry it out, 15 trucks were needed and were accompanied by both members of the National Guard and by veterinarians and experts in fauna management. For Zazueta, who have been forced to have to make this decision is another sign of the deep War has permeated in everyday life of civilians. And in the Facebook account of the sanctuary, the caregivers They have shown How they say goodbye to them, since they will not be the ones who take care of them from now on. Because we have talked about the Sanctuary of Ostok, but it is estimated that, since September 2024, 97 schools, 800 businesses have closed and almost 1,000 murders have been reported only in Sinaloa. Images | Ostok Sanctuary on Facebook, CCTV In Xakata | The María Islands: The “Alcatraz” of Mexico where the most dangerous criminals in the country ended

Pocket was the place where you saved articles you never read. The dopamine chute of social networks has killed it

by

I was an Pocket user. And like many others, I still did not read the articles that kept me. It was the condemnation of a service that opted for deferred and repossed reading of all kinds of articles – especially long – but found an apparently invincible nemesis: social networks. Mozilla closes Pocket. The Mozilla organization has announced That closes the Pocket service. On July 8 the platform will stop offering articles and will enter “mode only export”: users can export their articles saved until October 8, 2025, at which time “user data will be deleted permanently.” Reasons. According to those responsible, although Pocket has helped millions to save articles and discover stories that were worth reading, “the way people use the web has evolved, so we are channeling our resources to projects that best fit their navigation and online needs habits. “ A great service … Pocket was born in 2007 as Read It Later, a service that allowed to mark as favorite articles that you could read quietly when it came to you. The idea was gaining traction by focusing on extensive pieces of both journalism and creative writing. Mozilla He bought it In 2017 and made it one of the star services associated with its Firefox browser. … that we did not use so much. Many users will coincide with me that Pocket was fantastic but we did not take advantage of it. I kept keeping articles regularly with the hope of reading them in my Kobo e-book reader (which had this function integrated), but rarely ended up doing so. And on top we used a little bad. Pocket was so simple and comfortable to use that many ended up using it not only to keep promising – but not always wonderful – long texts (Longform), but all kinds of links with news or even tweets. And when you opened Pocket, two things used to happen. The first, the feeling of having another obligation before you, another list of tasks in the form of a list (endless) of articles to read. The second, to throw yourself for the short items that you knew you were going to consume in a short time to be able to “erase” from the list. Check “Reading later” had become a “take it off later.” But it was still a fantastic service, and it has not been we who have killed it. The culprit is another. Doomscrolling. Social networks They have stolen us Our capacity to concentrate. The dopamine chute that they offer us with the famous Doomscrolling has proven unstoppable. We love to displace the screen vertically on our mobile phones to see the following content, and that immediacy and instant gratification have ended up shaking our attention capacity. Until always, Pocket 🙁 Slot machine. The algorithms that govern social networks They are inspired by the slots. Its objective is to generate addiction and have us glued to the platform on duty without leaving it. A study Of 2021, the diabolical simplicity of our way of dealing with these contents revealed precisely. The experiment was overwhelming: A group of participants were given a single video and asked if they preferred to see another or perform a certain task. Another group were given five videos and asked them the same question. The second group was much more predisposed to watch more videos. Then the two groups saw the same number of videos, but the first group saw more diverse videos and the other saw more homogeneous videos. The second group showed its predisposition to see more videos instead of moving on to another task. AND ECO CHAMBERS. These results reflect our current reality. Social networks not only raise infinite content, but also do so Locking us increasingly in echo cameras with homogeneous content that reinforce our tastes and opinions. In Pocket we probably also built a large echo camera, true, but at least we did it, not an algorithm. The problem was to reserve 5, 10 or 15 minutes to read a long article is increasingly difficult before the avalanche of images, texts and especially short videos always suggestive, great and fun. Google Reader moment. Pocket’s closure remembers to some extent that we live with Google Reader, feeds RSS reader that the searches giant killed because although we loved him it was probably not profitable. As in that case, Pocket was a fantastic product but also very niche. And even in that niche, underutilized. Digital Diogenes. In fact, Pocket contributed to Our digital diogenes syndrome. It was the place where you saved, saved and saved articles that you never read. In that sense, it was less functional than Google Reader, that when you used you did, you took it to read those headlines of the news that were coming from the feed RSS. But that Save everything syndrome In order not to consume it or enjoy it, it occurs in many other scenarios, Like photos and videos of the mobile or in the video games that we download and to those who will never play. In fact it is not that we no longer play: is that We prefer to see others play. Alternatives. Pocket’s death makes us look for inevitable alternatives to continue keeping articles that we may never read. Among them stands out Instapaperbut they are also Readwise, Wallabag, Rindropeither Mymind. For those who have a kobo there is also somebut not so direct. Curse. Image | Mozilla In Xataka | Internet, let me forget

Airbnb does not want to be just the place where you reserve the floor of your vacation. Now you want to look for chef and coach

by

Airbnb no longer wants to be (alone) the place you go to search and book the house where you will spend your next vacation. That, He assured Tuesday His co -founder and CEO, Brian Chesky, has fallen short. With the tourism market upthe recent memory of pandemic and regulatory challenge every time More presentAirbnb has decided to undergo one of the biggest changes he has lived in its 18 years of history. Its objective: to be a comprehensive tourist platform. And that happens to facilitate the search for accommodation, but also offer Hairdressers, chefs, masseuses, or even a plan to learn flamenco in Madrid or riding a horse in Cuzco. Everything you need for your trip. “Much more than Airbnb”. The phrase is from Chesky and although it could perfectly go through a commercial slogan, it captures well the essence of the change that the company wanted to apply to the summer doors of 2025. After 18 years of travel, Millions of active ads And more than 2,000 million registered stays, Airbnb has decided to undergo an image change and expand its scope. His idea is very simple: he no longer wants to limit himself to accommodation management. Now the app will also allow to hire services and experiences. Do you want a personal coach? You have it. Do you want to resort to the services of a chef, a masseuse or an original experience, such as a gastronomic route, a horse ride or shopping with a stylist? You have it too. Airbnb’s goal is to make the leap to services and complete the experience of tourists. Why’s that? The company assures who wants to stand up to his main competitor: the hotels. “Often people decide Explain. The truth is that its new business turn arrives in a stage marked by other factors, not only the competition that accommodations can exercise. Challenges on the horizon. After almost 20 years of accelerated expansion and add millions of offers in much of the planet (in 2024 Statista spoke Of almost eight million advertisements in 100,000 cities), Airbnb has seen how its regulatory scenario has been complicated. In New York They have put limitsin Norway it applies A ratein cities like Madrid or Florence Its expansion has been stopped by Moratory and restrictions on the opening of new tourist floors and in Barcelona directly wants to end With them. And that to quote just some examples of territories that have moved to paliar tab The impact of the sector in its residential market. The company has also suffered A fall In the stock market Regarding 2024 before business and BBC precise That, despite the strength of his latest profits, Airbnb has warned that the increase in reserves could slow down this quarter. Two ideas: services and experiences. Airbnb has decided to articulate its new offer around those two groups: services and experiences. The first has in turn divided it into 10 categories among which are chefs that prepare food at home, photographers, masseuses, coaches, hairdressers or catering. Airbnb says that it has “evaluated the knowledge and reputation” of all its “hosts” and guarantees that they have an average of ten years of experience, have contributed the necessary permits and also verified their identity. “Best of all, it is not necessary assures. Regarding prices, options are included for less than 50 euros. Airbnb presumes in addition to having recognized professionals (chefs with Michelin stars) and offers that can only be hired through the platform itself. Go out of route or go shops. The other leg of the new Airbnb offer are the “experiences”, available a priori in several hundred cities. As an example the company quotes A route For the Parisian heritage with an architect who has documented the reconstruction of Notre-Dame, Kitchen classes With a Japanese chef, excursions on horseback by Inca sacred places with an anthropologist or a Fight class in a Mexican ring with a professional fighter. Again, Airbnb presumes that part of those experiences are “Airbnb Originals”. And how do you intend to do it? Airbnb Clarify That the services will start in 260 cities with a dozen different categories, “although new types of offers and additional locations will appear in the app every so often,” he says. As for the experiences, they will be launched in more than 650 cities in the world. The country Precise that services and experiences will be available in destinations such as Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Malaga or Seville. For example, flamenco classes are included, a visit to the meadow, wines and oils or tapas routes. To articulate the new Airbnb offer, it has also decided to “totally renew” its app to facilitate that it becomes a comprehensive travel platform: a tool with which to reserve stay, services and plans. “When users reserve accommodation, the application will suggest services and experiences depending on where they are going to stay and who will accompany them,” Clarify. The change comes more than two years later that Chesky proposed to transform the company and an investment that would be around 250 million dollars. Images | Zed Mendez (UNSPLASH) and Airbnb In Xataka | Norway implemented a 22% rate for Airbnb floors years ago. It has only served to raise more

Neither London, nor New York, nor Tokyo. The largest city in the world is a place that you have never heard

by

We recently told something we sensed, but there were no data to confirm it. For a long time it was thought that we were 8,000 million people on the planet, but a study calculated that we had left Between 1,000 and 3,000 million along the way. It is not a trivial figure, and gives an idea of ​​the “massification” of people on earth. If we add to this that most live in cities, the thing is complicated a little more. In fact, there is only one city that has two records: it is the bigger and the most populatedand possibly you had never heard of her. Colossal and unknown. To the question of the world’s largest city, many candidates may be repeated: London, New York, Tokyo… However, none of those well -known cities really holds the title, neither by total nor surface population. No, the true urban giant is found in China and is a name that the general public is unknown: Chongqing. This monumental metropolis, located in the geographical heart of the country, where the Yangtsé and Jialing rivers cross, has not only become the city with the greater number of inhabitants in its jurisdiction, but also in the most extensive on the planet, with More than 82,400 square kilometersan extension comparable to entire countries such as Ireland or Austria. Context. However, its real size is not easily perceived from the outside, this occurs especially because much of Its territory is ruraland because its urban structure challenges all cartographic logic, built on steep slopes, deep valleys and high urban platforms that force its residents to move between tunnels, phones, stairs, elevators and catwalks that intersect as in an endless vertical dream. A three -dimensional city. More than a flat city, Chongqing is a three -dimensional urban phenomenon, as vertical as expansive, as abruptly as unbeatable. In fact, He told the Guardian Architecture critic Oliver Wainwright when describing his experience there Like a mixture Between the Inception movie and a snake and stairs game. In Chongqing, what seems like the ground floor can actually be the roof of a thirty -story building, and moving a few apples can involve changing levels five times. Its urban design, far from following a classic pattern, Respond to the mountainous topography which forces the neighborhoods clinging to the cliffs since the subway lines cross housing buildings. In such a context, even maps lose meaning: the city is only understood in motion, from within and in all directions. The Chinese city in dusk More than an inflated statistic. Plus: Although it may seem that its classification as “the greatest” is based on administrative technicalism, the argument goes beyond the mere surface. While the urban area occupies a much smaller portion of the total, More than 70% of the population (about 33 million inhabitants) lives within that area concentrated, a figure that exceeds any other city in the world. In addition, Chongqing is not a recent experiment or a planned city overnight: its history goes back to More than 3,000 yearswith a key role as regional capital, strategic river port and even logistics node before the Qing dynasty. The city already had more than two million inhabitants before the economic reforms of 1968 that opened China to the globalized world. From that moment on, growth It was vertiginous: 6.3 million in 1979, 13.9 million in 1983 and almost 29 million in 1997. The urbanized “China”. If you want too, Chongqing symbolizes the perfect model of Intensive urbanization That China has promoted in recent decades, with a state machinery that has doubled the urbanization rate of the country in twenty years, and that projects to reach 70% of urban population by 2050. Moreover, four of the five largest cities in the world by population within its administrative limits They are today in Chinareflex of a national process that has merged economic development with urban planning on a continental scale. Within that framework, the enclave not only represents a statistical feat, but a key piece of Chinese economic and territorial gear, a kind of megalopolis built on the basis of public investment, administrative reorganization and forced mobility towards urban poles. Touching roof. It is the last of the legs to analyze: its future. Like that of many other Chinese cities, he faces a new reality that we have gone counting: Stagnation and posterior Demographic decline of the country. Despite its colossal size and its central role in the economic growth of the nation, it may have already reached its maximum point. The new generations, less numerous and With other goals and valuesThey could reduce the expansion pressure that its recent history has defined. That said, even if it does not grow anymore, Chongqing will continue to be a unique city: with 33 million people And a territory that covers more than some states and countries combined, the city of impossible heights and asymmetric densities is already, in its own right, one of the most extreme urban expressions that humanity has conceived. Image | JUUKEIHC, Kristoffer Trolle In Xataka | We thought we were 8,000 million people throughout the planet. Until some researchers began to make numbers In Xataka | In Japan there is no doubt that they live worse than 30 years ago. Literally, houses are getting smaller and smaller

A controversial hippie community wanted a remote place in which to celebrate its lunar party. And Huesca has chosen

by

Abellada is A town of the municipal term of Sabiñánigo, in Huesca, which has just been swelling the growing list of ghost peoples of The emptied Spain. A quick look comes with the help of satellite photos of Google Maps to verify that today there are little more than a church and a handful of collapsed houseswith sunken roofs, naked beams and facades overcome by time and weeds. That has not prevented Abellada from being held today in the Aragonese press and nationaljust like did it in 2016. Then, like now, the person responsible is an organization that a priori has little to do with the Rural Oscense: the organization Rainbow communitybetter known by its original name in English, The Rainbow Family. What happened? The news He advanced it last week Diario del Alto Aragón: The rainbow community has chosen the ghost town of Abellada to celebrate one of its annual meetings, the Rainbow Gatheringswhich usually last a lunar cycle (more or less a month) and are organized with tents. In fact, The newspaper requiresthe town has already arrived in the town that will be in charge of setting up the “Seed Camp” and the Civil Guard Comandancia itself Recognize have proof of a “settlement of the rainbow community in the Guarguera area”. “Control of the people who go to the place,” they guarantee. But … who are they? The rainbow community is somewhat a “non -organization of non -members”, as defined by the unofficial website WELCOME HOME! “We have no leaders or organization. To be sincere, the rainbow family means different things for each person.” Hence it is not easy to define it. Broadly speaking, the group was founded in the 1970s, in the US, with a clear hippie inspiration and starting from a philosophy of nonviolence, egalitarianism, absence of hierarchies and respect for the environment. In their meetings they seek to share experiences of community coexistence outside the cities. In fact The collective insists in which it is formed by “people who love the mother earth” and want to “live in harmony with nature.” And what do they do? That link explains that the Rainbow Gatherings are held in remote places, in the middle of nature. In fact Diario del Alto Aragón assures That people who are arriving in the region travel aboard buses or doing Caketop to get as much as possible to Abellada. The rest of the road to the camp covers it on foot, guiding themselves with clues like fabrics tied to trees. Other of its most striking peculiarities is that some members (not all) They are nudists. In their meetings a basically vegan diet is practiced, they are not allowed Neither alcohol nor drugs and can deny the use of electrical devices or cameras. Meetings serve to meditate, play music or do yoga. Why are they news? That rainbow community decides to settle temporarily in the Rural of Huesca is striking in itself, but so far the news has been involved in controversy rather than by the meeting itself (or its content) by how it is organizing. Although at the beginning of May to subdelegation of the Government I recognized Being that “a group of people” planned to settle temporarily in Alto Gállego, the newspaper claimed last week that the rainbow community seems not to have requested permission. “In the region we have no request for authorization,” assured The entity. In An article Published today, eldiario.es affects that same idea: the settlement lacks official permits, which is especially relevant if it is taken into account where it is located: in the peripheral area of ​​protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the protection of the Natural Park of the Sierra and Los Canons de Guara. In fact, the authorities of Alto Gállego have confirmed to the newspaper that in the entity there is still no record of any request for authorization. At the moment, yes, the sub -delegation confirms that the Civil Guard is “monitoring the situation”, especially to monitor the environmental regulations. And to date, he maintains, “no incident has occurred.” Is it the first time? No. Throughout the last years the rainbow community has already met in other parts of Spain, such as La Rioja, The Sierra de Grazalema either Cerulledain León. In fact, this is not the first time that its members visit Abellada. They already did during the summer 2016 (between July and August), when a hundred and a half people gathered in the abandoned village. The newspaper Herald dedicated them at the time A chronicle in which he explained that the camp had also mounted illegally and began to deploy around a bonfire in the Sierra de Guara Park. “Spanish anti -fire regulations do not allow fire. However, we believe that the natural environment is our home and the system is removing it,” reasoned Then one of the members of the community in one of his forums. “We don’t know who they are”. The memory of that camp has served to increase the controversy now. In 2016 the camp was accompanied by cars and vans that ended parked In the accesses to the villages of the Guarguera and complicating the passage through some roads, for the anger of the neighbors. “It is not just a matter of space, we do not know who they are or what impact they can have in the area,” warn now A resident to eldiario.es. Images | Wikipedia, Guano (Flickr) and Satemkemet (Flickr) In Xataka | Remote town of Segovia is sold for 180,000 euros. Just for what it shows on Google Maps is already worth it

There is only one correct way to place the toilet paper. A patent ended the debate in 1891

by

We have been freeing all kinds of battles, and in some cases the response passed between disputes of each other. Among those debates there is one that never seems to disappear because both sides have it as clear. We refer to toilet paper and correct way to hang it. If we take decades to achieve a significant advance of the roll, it makes sense that the controversy has endured. The funny thing is that the answer was from the beginning. A “war” of the century and a half. Eternal dispute over How to hang up The toilet paper (with the “above” or “below” sheet) has generated opinions found, family debates and even discussions lit. Those who prefer the “OVER” method (above) Feel practical and hygienic reasons: it is easier to locate the end of the paper, reduce the risk of wall contact (and therefore with germs) and is visually more orderly. However, on the other sidewalk, the supporters of the “under” (below) appeal to a more discreet appearance and the fact that, for example, it makes it difficult for pets or children at home unwind the whole paper. An enlightened invention. However, all this controversy seems to have found an official response in an unexpected place: a document more than 130 years ago. In 2015, writer Owen Williams He rescued an image historical of Google Patents Archives which showed the patent recorded in 1891 by Seth Wheeler, nothing more and nothing less than the inventor of the perforated toilet paper. In it, it is clearly enlightened how the paper should be hung: above the roll (image below). The patent, registered by Albany Perforated Wraping Paper Company, includes unequivocal diagrams in which the paper unwinds from the front. The Wheeler patent Wheeler’s reasons. The inventor not only patented the concept of perforated paper in 1871, but, two decades later, perfected the roll design, with the intention of minimizing waste and facilitating its use without the need for complicated portarrolls. Your goal It was efficiencydo not feed endless debates: “My improved roll can be used in simpler supports,” wrote in the text of the patent. In its original conception, the paper had to fall forward to facilitate the individual tear of the perforated leaves, thus avoiding accidental unwinders or an unnecessary waste. Yes, Nokia played toilet paper before mobile Rescue science. There are more data that corroborate that the “pro-insane” are right. Science also supports this orientation for purely health reasons. According to Dr. Christian Moro explainedProfessor of Health Sciences at the Bond University, hanging the paper with the blade above reduces the risk that users touch the rear wall of the support when looking for the end of the roll, which can minimize that propagation of bacteria. Moro remembered that among the potential infection agents which can be found in the bathrooms are streptococcus, staphylococcus, E. coli and common cold viruses, all capable of transmitting through contact with contaminated surfaces. Preventing the hands from entering unnecessary contact with the wall or roll support is, therefore, a simple but effective measure to reduce the risk of infection in shared spaces. An invention … to review? Beyond the debate on how it should be placed, in recent years others have appeared around the invention. Explained the New York Times In a column that although its invention represented at the time a technical improvement with respect to previous methods (which included, attention, leaves, marine shells, sticks with sponges or even reusable ceramics), the persistence of its use reveals less a functional efficacy than a cultural resistance to abandoning the family. Here appears the Covid-19 Pandemia, at which time the toilet paper acquired An unusual prominence: Not because of its medical utility, but as a symbol of control against chaos. The Collective hysteria He led to empty shelves, ignoring that neither the supply was threatened nor the role was the most hygienic solution. And despite this, experts agree that it is far from being the cleanest or healthier option. The evidence. The Times explained That researchers in infectious diseases and colorectal health agree that the exclusive use of paper does not guarantee adequate cleaning and can, in fact, cause irritations and favor disease transmission. Among the pathogenic agents that can survive in poorly eliminated fecal remains are those germs and bacteria that we comment before and that are the cause of urinary infections. Even traces of the same were detected Coronavirus at the time in human feces. According to Dr. H. Randolph Bailey, colorectal surgeon in Houston, many anal ailments that he observes in consultation come from Excessive cleaning or with inappropriate products, such as wet wipes with irritating perfumes and chemicals. Water as a solution. Here a parallel debate opens, surely more bitter. The reason? The most hygienic method, according to many specialists, is the rinse with water, either by drums or similar. In Japan, for example, smart toilets with jets of warm water They are the normwhile in the West adoption remains marginal. The reasons are not technical or economic (today there are compact and accessible solutions), but rather cultural. Bidé rejection has been historically associated with prejudices of modest During World War IIwhen American soldiers met the bida in French brotheses, which made them “suspect” objects. The anecdote of an American tourist who confused it with a bathtub For babies illustrates to what extent the discomfort in the face of the unknown has stopped its adoption, even in France, where it was originally common. O Tallitas. In recent times a “plan C” has emerged in front of the fundamentalists of roll or water: wet wipes. The problem is that it has been accompanied by Environmental consequences. Its accumulation in sewerage networks, combined with fat and waste, has given rise to huge obstructions (known in the world Anglo as “Fatbergs“) capable of collapsing urban sanitation systems. Under that prism, instead of improving the panorama, the wipes have added a new problem to another already existing one, fed by an industry that promotes … Read more

While almost all Spain immersed in chaos, a place continued to function normally: Mercadona

by

We are on Monday, April 28, 2025. Spain suffers the effects of a Mass blackout which has a good part of the country’s industry and commerce. All? No! A Valencian chain of irreducible supermarkets remains open and even speaks of “normality” in the middle of the chaos. His name: Mercadona. Under his label, the lack of supply that yesterday stopped the activity of other chains in the sector resulted in something different: Customer queues, Full carts and razed baldas. His They were not the only premises that followed at the foot of the canyon (Carrefour, Alcampo or El Corte Inglés had operational establishments), but it did stand out on a key front: neighborhood stores, closer to the citizen, which gave it considerable visibility. The big question is … How did he do it? Of blackouts and urgent purchases. If something demonstrated the pandemic, just five years ago, it is that the Spaniards do not like to play it. In exceptional situations, such as the announcement of an alarm or A mass blackout that leaves much of the peninsula without electricity for hours, we leave home, we go to the supermarket and We buy what is necessary To fill our fridge. Even in days like yesterday in which the fridge served rather. X is a barbarian mirror of that answer. A quick search shows tens of videos of saturated stores, long lines, empty shelves And people with loaded carts of water carafes. The funny thing is that all these videos are recorded in the same place: Mercadona. That the images have left some of their 1,600 establishments It is not surprising. Roig’s premises were operational and with supply while those of other firms in the sector They remained closed. “The bunkers would be landowned”. The situation was so curious and in a way he remembered the first days of the pandemic, that there were those who threw a sneer in networks. “Spain collapsed and Mercadona today running even with datáphones”, He joked in x Álvaro Wasabi. “If Fallout’s apocalypse was fulfilled, zero doubts that bunkers would be landowned.” “Mercadona when something extraordinary occurs and people believe they should buy toilet paper for 50 years,” Comments Nebreda Italohispano Next to an image of a pool crowded with people. “As with each catastrophe, the only one who has won with the #Cortedeluz is Mercadona,” Add in another tweet Eduardo Bernal. A unique case? No. Mercadona is perhaps the chain that has generated more expectation and comments in networks, but It is not the only that yesterday managed to keep operational at least part of his network of stores. The English Court was also able to open department stores thanks to the use of structure, as well as Alcampo or Carrefour, who served in hypermarkets and part of his supermarkets. Other chains did not run the same fate with wide implementation in Spain, such as Lidl, Eroski or Day, than They were forced To lower the blind at least its smallest stores. Precisely if something has made the networks look at Mercadona is that it managed to maintain local neighborhood operations, not only large hypermarkets located in polygons or the outskirts of the cities. But and that … why? In Xataka we have contacted Mercadona to know which equipment they have exactly in their stores and how they could keep them active in the mass blackout. Waiting for these clarifications, the company’s environment has already sliding Some clues. The key is in its generators, which at least in a good number of stores allowed to maintain the uploaded blinds, operational boxes and even make charges with dataphone, an impossible option in other businesses and that made yesterday The cash was imposed (very briefly) to payment with cards or mobile. “Today we open”. In the last hours the company assured to Expansion that all their places were “open” and functioning with “normality.” Moreover, while other stores were forced to close the doors waiting for the supply to be reactivated, the abnormality in the Mercadona premises was marked by a different reality: a customer “boom”. This morning the company A tweet uploaded With photos of his shelves answered and a message: “Today we open.” Adapting to the stage. One of the keys to Mercadona’s response, says one of his employees to Xataka, is his flexibility when adapting. The stores could work thanks to the existence of their own generators, but that does not mean that (at least in some cases) the operation was the “normal”: automatic tapes were dispensed with in the boxes and part of the merchandise took the cameras to avoid spoiling and saving energy consumption. “Under minimums tried to leave essential things,” he explains. “Everything works. What happens is that the consumption is minimized to serve the customer (…). The lights were more faint than usual to save also.” Refrigerators. “The refrigerators have been emptying them throughout the day to get into the refrigeration chamber or in the frozen and be able to turn them off and that only large cameras work, which is where more merchandise can be maintained in good condition,” details the same employee. “As that merchandise is removed, the refrigerators are turned off to save electricity.” At least in its store, he recounts, the company has consulted employees if they could enter a little earlier than usual to recover normality. Bathroom tails and prepared dishes. That Mercadona remained operational while other businesses were forced to close the door turned their premises, in a way, more than supermarkets. After visiting one of the stores in the center of Barcelona, ​​a reporter of The country He spoke yesterday In the afternoon of queues in the bathrooms and people eating dishes prepared in tables with stools. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The blackout in Spain has demonstrated which is the ideal means to inform in a crisis: the radio

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.