problem

The Government of Mexico says that the measles crisis is a “global problem.” The data says it is a self-inflicted crisis

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Mexico is going through a very critical moment as far as measles is concerned, since infections they don’t stop increasing in different parts of the country and even with several dozen dead for the infection. And here the question we can ask ourselves is quite obvious: How is it possible that this has happened with a disease that was practically under control? The statements. In the offices of the Ministry of Health of Mexico they have found a rhetorical umbrella for the storm that is falling on them, pointing to the “global context”. According to the official narrative, the rebound in measles that the country is experiencing is simply the local echo of a trend that also you are living in other countriesso it may serve as political consolation not to be the only country to go through this crisis. The problem with this defense is that, when one stops looking at the world map and zooms in on the national data for each country, the excuse falls apart. All this because Mexico is not suffering from measles “like everyone else” but is suffering it with an intensity and lethality that shows structural cracks in its own public health system. Measles is here. To understand the defense of the Mexican Government, we must first grant them the part they are right. Measles, a disease from which many they had forgotten due to their high controlhas had a revival unpleasant in recent years. To give us an idea, the WHO itself registered more than 552,000 cases suspected in 179 countries during 2025, which was accompanied by vaccination coverage that was declining globally while the world looked almost exclusively at COVID-19. In this way, it is a fact that the virus is circulating and, in American countries, the Pan American Health Organization has already warned of a large increase in measles cases between 2024 and 2025 in different regions. The Mexican exception. However, hiding behind the global trend to explain what is happening on Mexican soil is cheating the solitary. The key in this case is in the figures for the month of February, which paint a quite disproportionate scenario compared to its neighbors. To give us an idea, Mexico accumulates more than 9,400 cases confirmed from the end of 2025 to mid-2026. And to put it in context, in all of 2025 America added 14,891 cases, so Mexico is not just another statistic, but is the epicenter of the problem in the hemisphere, concentrating a large part of the infections in North America. His mortality. While in other countries the different outbreaks are being contained, in Mexico the number of deaths is counted in the dozens. Right now in Mexico there are 29 deaths in seven states, and the most worrying data comes from Chihuahua, which accumulates 21 of these deaths, followed by a worrying situation in Mexico City with two deaths and Jalisco, which accounts for 60% of the cases in 2026. The extra problem is that they are not isolated outbreaks, but rather there is active transmission in 32 states and 335 municipalities, so the virus moves with a freedom that suggests that the epidemiological firewalls have failed. The reasons. If the virus is the same for everyone, why does Mexico take the brunt of it? The answer is not abroad, but in the internal management of recent years. The local press here points to a dismantling of the surveillance systems and also to a collapse in the routine vaccination system that has affected children from 1 to 4 years old. Right now the health authorities boast of having administered millions of doses of vaccine against measles, rubella or mumps, but the reality on the street is different. In this case, coverage in rural areas has fallen well below the 95% necessary for herd immunity and high population mobility, anti-vaccine misinformation and a late response that prioritized the political narrative over health containment also play a role. Images | Jezael Melgoza In Xataka | The myth of 37º: it is increasingly clear to us that there is no “normal” body temperature

There are people sharing their court cases with AI. The problem is when a judge considers the conversations as evidence

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More and more users have an AI chatbot as a companion for everything, whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Claudeor any other. The problem comes when we decide to share sensitive data with this type of tools, especially with commercial models produced by large technology companies where we will always have the doubt of where our data travels. In this sense, there are those who share their legal data with the assistant, which can lead to something like what recently happened in New York. And a city judge just set a precedent historical by considering that any conversation held with a chatbot is public and therefore not protected by attorney-client privilege. That is to say: everything you share with the AI ​​can end up being used against you in court. The case. Bradley Heppner, an executive accused of fraud worth $300 million, used Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot, to ask questions about his legal situation before being arrested. He created 31 documents with his conversations with the AI ​​and later shared them with his defense attorneys. When the FBI seized his electronic devices, his attorneys claimed those documents were protected by attorney-client privilege. Judge Jed Rakoff has said no. Because No. Just like share Moish Peltz, a lawyer specializing in digital assets and intellectual property, in a post on X, the sentence establishes three reasons. First, an AI is not a lawyer: it is not licensed to practice, owes no loyalty to anyone, and its terms of service expressly disclaim any attorney-client relationship. Second, sharing legal information with an AI is legally equivalent to telling it to a friend, so it is not protected by professional secrecy. And third, sending ‘non-privileged’ documents to your lawyer afterwards does not magically make them confidential. The underlying problem. As the lawyer recalls, the interface of this type of chatbot generates a false sense of privacy, but in reality you are entering information into a third-party commercial platform that retains your data and reserves broad rights to disclose it. According to Anthropic privacy policy In effect when Heppner used Claude, the company may disclose both user questions and generated responses to “governmental regulatory authorities.” Dilemma. The court document reveals Also an aggravating factor: Heppner introduced into the AI ​​information that he had previously received from his lawyers. This poses a dilemma for the prosecution, according to account Peltz. And if you try to use those documents as evidence at trial, defense attorneys could become witnesses to the events, potentially forcing a mistrial. What does it mean to you? If you are involved in any legal matter, according to this ruling, what you share with an AI can be claimed by a judge and used as evidence. It doesn’t matter whether you are preparing your defense or seeking preliminary advice, as each query can end up becoming a factor against you. And it does not only apply to criminal cases: divorces, labor disputes, commercial litigation… any conversation with AI on these topics escapes legal protection. And now what. Peltz points out that legal professionals must explicitly warn their clients of this risk. You can’t assume that people understand it intuitively. The solution he mentions involves creating collaborative workspaces with AI shared between lawyer and client, so any interaction with artificial intelligence will occur under the supervision of the lawyer and within the lawyer-client relationship. Cover image | Romain Dancre and Solen Feyissa In Xataka | Folding clothes or taking apart LEGOs has always been a tedious task. Xiaomi’s new AI for robots has put an end to it

Florida has an iguana problem and the coldest winter in years, so it has euthanized more than 5,000 frozen iguanas

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In the Iberian Peninsula we are having one of the winters with more rainfall in recent yearsbut in the United States they are not exactly having a mild winter either. New York has arrived register colder than in Antarctica and not even the state of the sun has been saved: Florida has broken a cold record of more than 100 years. Thus, Miami or West Palm Beach have fallen below 0°C, something that It hasn’t happened since 1909. This extreme cold literally freezes the iguanas. And that has made it very easy for the Florida authorities to “euthanasia” 5,195 specimens Florida has a serious problem with iguanas. As happens in Spain with the catfishes either in Italy with blue crabs (among other parts of the Mediterranean), the United States has invasive species like the Asian carp, which bothers it so much that They have come to electrify the riversor the iguana, which mainly affects southern Florida. In addition to biodiversity problems derived from introducing an outside species into an ecosystem, altering the trophic chain or that its feces are natural carriers of salmonellais that they constitute a real danger to infrastructure: they build burrows up to 24 meters deep, damaging sea walls (a 1.8 million dollar problem in West Palm Beach), building foundations and even blackouts. Not to mention the risk that an iguana falls from a tree to the head or the hood of your car. Friendly reminder that iguanas can come to measure two meters long and weigh more than 13 kg. It’s raining iguanas. Literally. You probably read the above with surprise because, well, from time to time a little bird falls, but a tremendous iguana is less common. The iguanas They arrived in Florida in the 1960s. and since then they have moved quietly through courtyards and canals. The Sunshine State has a subtropical climate and iguanas are cold-blooded reptiles, but for much of the year, they adapt. But winter comes, especially a winter as cold as this one, and the iguanas are stunned by the cold. They are ectothermic speciesthat is, their body temperature is strongly determined by the environment (they do not generate their heat, as mammals do), so they freeze. This cold stunning affects internal processes such as metabolism, breathing or heart rate. And this is what leads them to fall from trees because they are in standby and lose their grip. A chance to get rid of them. So the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has taken the opportunity to implement executive order 26-03which temporarily allows anyone to pick up one of those cold-stunned green iguanas without needing a permit to bring it to authorities. In the first two days of February, Residents brought 5,195 copies. Subsequently, they were sacrificed following American Veterinary Association guidelines (AMVA). Or from a technical point of view, they “euthanized” them. Animal welfare vs pest control. According to the FWCnon-native reptile species such as green iguanas or Burmese pythons are only protected by animal cruelty laws. The procedure is known as “euthanasia” insofar as the method of death must be irreversible, rapid and painless. Precisely at that moment in which they are lethargic is the moment considered the most humanitarian to act. In Xataka | The coypu, one of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world, is at the doors of Barcelona In Xataka | The US has such a big problem with Asian carp in its rivers that it has decided something extreme: electrocute them Cover | Mason Jones

Months ago, Mallorca began fining drivers in its ZBE. Now he has a problem with German tourists

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Joachin Fischer is one of the many (many) German tourists who like to enjoy the landscapes, weather and coves of Mallorca. For decades he has been visiting the island at least twice a year. If his name has stood out among the thousands of compatriots who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands, it is because a few months ago posed in front of the cameras of the press showing a fine, a sanction of 200 euros sent by the Palma City Council for (and this is the key) having accessed the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE) from the city with your car. fischer claims who drives a Tesla suitable for driving on the BZE, but that is not the only feature of his vehicle. Another (crucial) is that it has a foreign registration, which partly explains the fine. Your case is important because is not the only one German tourist who claims to have suffered a similar sanction in Palma. What has happened? That the activation of the low emissions zone (ZBE) in Palma is having unexpected protagonists: German tourists. The Balearic capital launched zoning a little over a year ago and months later, in julybegan to apply sanctions to drivers who do not respect it. Until then, nothing out of this world. At the end of the day, Palma City Council has only adjusted to what the Climate Change Law for cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The surprise came after time, in Novemberwhen it was found that the measure was causing friction with tourists who arrive in Palma with their foreign-registered cars, even the zero-emission ones. Why’s that? The news gave it Mallorca Diary last fall: tourists who arrive in the city with their own vehicles risk fines if they enter the streets delimited in the ZBE. And this is basically because they do not have the option of registering their license plates to process the permit. Even in those cases where they drive models that meet the technical requirements. “They are not authorized to enter the ZBE, since the DGT system is not universalized throughout the EU and each country has its own classification method, so the level of emissions of cars with foreign registration cannot be automatically verified,” They explained in November from the municipal Mobility area of ​​Palma. “They may be exempt only if they register in the system and justify their residence, meeting the established requirements.” And what is the problem? That last nuance. In the website that Palma City Council dedicates to the ZBE includes a specific section on “vehicles with foreign registration plates” in which two points are especially highlighted. The first is that “vehicles registered outside of Spain are not classified according to the criteria of the environmental label of the General Directorate of Traffic.” The second, that drivers of vehicles with foreign registration interested in accessing the ZBE must process a “authorization”a permit designed primarily for residents and owners of properties, businesses or parking spaces. The question is… And the tourists? Many of the thousands of Germans who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands rent cars with Spanish license plates with a badge that allows them to circulate without problem through the Palma ZBE, but there are also cases like Fischer’swho prefers to disembark with his own vehicle. What’s wrong with them? In November Fischer counted to the Balearic press that he had received a fine of 200 euros from the City Council for driving his electric Tesla where he shouldn’t have been. “I only entered Jaume III for a moment to pick up my 14-year-old daughter after shopping in El Born,” he lamented the man, who assures that he prefers to use his private car and not a rental one because it “amuses him” and gives “greater flexibility” when planning his trips. “Not being able to register my car, I thought that my green ecological device and the electric car license plate would be enough to avoid the fine, as is the case in low-emission zones in German cities. But that was not the case.” Is he the only one affected? It doesn’t seem like it. On those same dates the newspaper Mallorca Zeitung assured that he was receiving “more and more messages” from readers with fines. The Mallorcan press has also echoed complaints from those affected who speak of “discrimination” against Europeans with foreign cars or point out how complicated it is to register a vehicle on the list of authorized license plates, especially for those who do not speak Mallorcan or Spanish. One of the arguments put forward by critics is a note posted on the DGT page which explains that, although Spain does not issue badges for foreign vehicles, that does not have to be a problem. “If your car has an environmental label in its country of origin (Germany, Austria, Denmark, France) it is considered to have the Spanish equivalent,” he clarifies. There is who also remembers that Palma is not the only city council (neither in Spain nor in Europe) that applies mobility restrictions in the center, and insists: the rules are the same for everyone and “ignorance does not exempt from guilt.” Images | Sergiy Galyonkin (Flickr) and Đorđe Pandurević (Unsplash) In Xataka | Houses are so expensive in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands that they are expelling even Germans and British people from the market.

Tesla’s enormous problem in Germany has an alarming figure and a clear person responsible: Elon Musk

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Three out of four potential buyers of an electric car reject the idea of ​​buying a Tesla. The study points to the German market, which is the first electric car market in Europe by sales volume, and explains an important part of Tesla’s failure in Europe during 2025. Three out of four. 75% of potential buyers of an electric car in Germany do not value the idea of ​​buying a Tesla car, according to a study by the German Institute of Economics in collaboration with the Technical University of Dresden. The figure, which in itself is bad, has even more meaning. And that 75% is made up of potential customers who believe it is unlikely to buy a Tesla (15%) and those who completely reject buying a vehicle from this brand (60%). The reason, as we could imagine, is not a question of competition or price. The disaster. Last year, 545,142 electric cars were sold in Germany. It was, by far, the strongest electric car market in Europe. The growth was 43.2% compared to 2024, the year in which just over 380,000 electric cars were sold. Its market share reached 19.1%, above the European average, according to ACEA. For Tesla, however, it was not a great year. In Europe, 150,504 electric vehicles from Elon Musk’s company were sold, 37.9% less than the previous year when 242,436 registrations were registered. The most problematic thing is that the company had achieved a market share of 2.3% (a good bite to eat on the electric car pie, which in 2024 was only 13.6% in the European Union. That is, almost two out of every 10 electric cars sold in Europe were from Tesla. The drop was even more pronounced in Germany. There, the drop was 48.4%, as recorded Reuters at the beginning of the year. And, with everything, It has not been its strongest percentage drop in European countries but the damage in volume is more than evident. The politics. The decision by which the Germans seem to completely reject Tesla is evident to the creators of the study: Elon Musk’s political positioning. According to the authors, political positioning influences the purchase of a car more than sociodemographic characteristics. They point out that young people, those with a higher level of education and those who live in urban areas are more inclined to purchase an electric car. In political terms, Green supporters are the most open to acquiring this technology and AfD (German far-right) voters are the least enthusiastic. On average, they say, the potential customer for an electric car has grown by over 40% and those who reject it outright have also fallen. But the problem for Tesla is that it is not attractive to either group. Among the Greens, only 10.8% value the purchase of a Tesla as their first option and the percentage grows among AfD followers to 15.2% but it must be taken into account that these voters are also less in favor of buying a car of this type. Just lose. The study concludes with a statement: Elon Musk has lost support for buying cars among progressive groups (those who buy the most electric cars or are willing to buy) and has not attracted enough conservative groups to alleviate this disadvantage. The result is a direct consequence of a year 2025 that began with Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s takeover of the United States and which continued with a explicit support of the company’s head for AfD and other far-right parties in Europe. It must be taken into account that this type of political positioning in Germany is much more delicate than in other countries. In Germany the Nazi salute is a crime punished with a fine in minor cases but which can be grounds for imprisonment in more serious cases. Study on preferences when buying an electric car in Germany segmented by political parties. Source: German Institute of Economics The worst option almost always. The image above shows the predisposition of Germans to the type of electric car they want to buy, segmented by their origin and the political parties that these potential customers vote for. According to this data, Tesla is the last option in four of the six political parties studied, even behind Chinese cars as the first option. The latter always surpass him except among CDU and SPD voters (although in both cases a greater percentage considers it possible to buy a Chinese car over a Tesla if we add the second level of predisposition). Tesla reaps the worst results among the Greens and Linke (The Left) and the absolute rejection is greater among the supporters of the latter political party. Chinese cars are, in all cases, the second option chosen when considering those who are willing to buy an electric car and those who value it as a possible purchase. The Germans are the ones who obtain the most support and the first option in all cases, with the greatest support among Green voters and with the AfD as the party with the greatest reluctance to buy it. Photo | Elon Musk in X and German Institute of Economics In Xataka | Tesla is discovering in real time that the most difficult thing was not to build a car brand from scratch: it was to maintain it

In 1986 a man parked on the wrong side of the gas station. That day he solved an embarrassing problem for all drivers

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The history of innovation It’s full of big names and epic breakupsbut also of silent advances born from minimal errors, from everyday mistakes that anyone could have made. Sometimes, a small mistake reveals a problem so common that no one had thought of it or knew how to formulate it, and it is enough to look at it differently to find a solution that ends up benefiting millions of people without it being barely noticed. In this case, one man saved millions of drivers from embarrassment. A universal problem. Maybe his name doesn’t sound familiar to you, but the story of Jim Moylan It is more important than it seems. The story begins with a scene as trivial as it is recognizable: a Ford engineer (Moylan) soaked by the rain, standing at a gas station, realizing that he has parked in the wrong side of the pump. Where anyone would have felt frustration or perhaps some embarrassment, he saw an everyday problem that could be solved elegantly, cheaply and definitively, and in a matter of minutes. wrote a memorandum proposing a small symbol on the instrument panel to indicate which side the tank was on, a simple idea born from personal experience and the conviction that eliminating that doubt would save time, inconvenience and, yes, small humiliations for millions of drivers. The path to a great idea. Moylan was not a media figure or a senior manager, but an engineer with a long and discreet career within the all-powerful Ford Motor Company, a man, yes, professionally obsessed. with instrument panels and with making them as clear and useful as possible. Thus, after sending his original proposal in 1986, the man did not think about it again, but the company did: the symbol he had scribbled on a page quickly went into development, it was approved without much resistance. and ended up integrating in the first models of the late eighties, demonstrating that in large organizations there was still room for a good idea, no matter how small and coming from whoever it was, to cross the hierarchy and become a reality. From Thunderbird to the entire world. Months passed until the first public appearance of the arrow came, an almost imperceptible moment, hidden in the instrument panel of a Ford Thunderbird 1989. It didn’t matter, its power lay precisely in that simplicity. It was so obvious and useful that the competition It didn’t take him long to copy itand in a very short time it went from being an internal Ford solution to becoming a de facto standard in the global automobile industry, and it did so to the point that today it appears in practically any car in the world, including electric ones, where it points to the side of the charging port with the same unbeatable logic. The inventor without a patent (or ego). Unlike other innovators, Moylan He never patented his idea nor did he ask for financial compensation or public recognition, content simply to see how his arrow worked and helped people. For decades, millions of drivers benefited from his invention without even knowing his name, while he silently watched as that little “walk of shame” at gas stations disappeared, getting closer sometimes to strangers to explain the usefulness of the symbol, but without ever mentioning that it had been his doing. Late recognition. I remembered a few weeks ago the wall street journal which was not until many years later, thanks to a chance investigation from a podcast and to the rescue of internal files, when Jim Moylan’s name came to light and he was publicly recognized as the author of one of the most discreet and universal innovations in the automobile. The man died without having sought famebut he left a legacy that lives on every time someone stops at a pump and, with a simple glance at the instrument panel, knows exactly where to stand, reminding us that sometimes true genius lies in solving the obvious in the simplest way possible. Image | Josh In Xataka | An engineer decided one day to put the BMW airplane engine in a car. The result was tremendous In Xataka | When an engineer wanted to cross Africa by car, he invented a wooden one. It would be the beginning of the end

If Spain wants to imitate China and be a “country of engineers”, this map reveals the extent to which it has a problem

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An essential requirement for an energy and digital transition to occur in Spain is that there are enough engineers to cover demand. While it is true that there are more and more degrees that have the last name of engineering, the reality is that there are fewer and fewer professionals with the legal capacity to execute the transformation of the state, such as collects the Third Report from the Institute of Graduates in Engineering and Technical Engineers of Spain. In addition, the offer is being concentrated in specific communities. And that is a problem. Why is it important. Enabling engineering is that which grants legal powers for infrastructure and safety, for example what is behind ensuring that a bridge does not fall. With classic branches such as Civil, Mining or Naval Engineering decimated, Spain would lose autonomy and competitiveness by having to resort to imports to sign its essential projects. Jose Antonio Galdón, president of INGITE, deepen on the consequences of this fact: “On the students, who access Degrees with an Engineering denomination without a clear professional exit, and on society, which needs engineers with powers and responsibility to guarantee the safety, quality and sustainability of infrastructures and services.” On the other hand, the lack of complete supply in certain communities forces talent to emigrate, emptying technical capacity to regions that need engineering professionals to develop and establish their industry. Engineers are going to be needed. Two decades ago, those studying engineering represented 24% of the total number of university students and today that weight has fallen to 17%. as detailed by the COIGT. The engineering They are the ones that have lost the most students and also this one concentrates around computer engineering and emerging technological branches. Although the global female quota in engineering is 23%, it is precisely in these branches where it is most concentrated. On the other hand, Engineering such as Mining and Energy, Topography, Civil or Naval continue to decline and in some Autonomous Communities they already have less than 10 graduates. Although there are thousands of graduates each year, it is estimated that in Spain will have a deficit of 200,000 engineers in the next decade to meet demand. More engineering but less enabling. The IGNITE report confirms a phenomenon that has been registering for a long time in previous analyzes: Non-qualifying degrees, that is, those that do not allow the exercise of the regulated profession, have increased massively and now reach 53% of the total. On the other side of the scale, those enabling them are stagnating and even decreasing in some autonomous communities. The decline has been especially serious in places such as Asturias (-28.56%), Castilla y León (-28.79%) or Extremadura (-34.02%). The report makes a special mention: La Rioja. The small upstate community takes the cake with explosive 190% growth in engineering. But in small print: the fault lies with the non-qualifying degrees, which have grown by 431%, going from 433 to 2,289 enrolled. At the opposite extreme is Extremadura, which has the greatest drop in students, with 20.25% less. Engineering students from CCAA in Spain. INGITE Spain at two speeds. According to the reportthe Autonomous Communities that concentrate the largest number of engineering students and graduates are in Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Community of Madrid. In addition to obviously because its population is larger, also because only Andalusia, Madrid and Catalonia have all the branches of engineering, revealing a territorial inequality in access to studies. The gap between public and private. The phenomenon of non-qualifying degrees is especially important in private universities, a type of center that grows out of control in the statealthough unevenly. Thus, while in the Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura there is no this type of center and Galicia opened the first in 2022-2023, in Madrid there are 13 according to data from the Community itself. Since the 2015 – 2016 academic year, the autonomous communities where the number of degrees in private entities has grown the most has been Andalusia (from two to nine), Aragón (from three to nine) and La Rioja (from two to seven). In Xataka | If the question is which countries have the most workers with higher education, the answer is not Spain In Xataka | The university degree with the most job opportunities in 2025 looks into a great abyss: that of a future conditioned by AI Cover | INGITE

The problem with Marcus Aurelius’ most famous phrase is that it is surely not his

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Initially this article was going to be about what the emperor Marcus Aurelius said, not about what Marcus Aurelius never said and we have made him say. Let me explain. With half a polarized country and thousands of families still recovering from the fights political-ideological-religious that accompany Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve after-dinner meals, a few days ago I decided to consult good old Marco Aurelio Antonio. What can the philosopher emperor teach us about tension? The answer came to me like a fall from the sky (via Google): “Everything we hear is opinion, not fact. Everything we see is perspective, not truth.” Sage. Accurate. Poetic. A plea in favor of tolerance, respect and the ability to relativize without falling into relativism resigned. One of the many (many) aphorisms of Marcus Aurelius that invite us to listen, not give in to impulses and, definitely, flee from gratuitous quarrels. The problem is that it is quite likely that that phrase, replicated infinite times in networks, anthologies and newspapershas never left Marco’s lips (or pen). Yes, it has been attributed to specialized accounts of X with more than 600,000 followers, yes, we have seen it in top level newspapers; but there are serious doubts that the philosopher emperor uttered it. Even that he sympathized with her. Emperor’s word (or not) To clear up doubts, the first and simplest thing is to turn to the great philosophical legacy of Marcus Aurelius: ‘Meditations’the work that collects his philosophical reflections. There, in point 15 of the second book, we find a more or less similar statement, although much shorter and related to another author. In fact, Marcus Aurelius recognizes its value, but with some important nuance. “‘That everything is opinion’”. Evident is what is said referring to the cynic Mónimo. The usefulness of what is said is also evident, if the substance of the saying is accepted, to the extent that it is appropriate.” The phrase refers to the philosopher Mononym of Syracuse (4th century BC), member of the Cynic school, and also connects with another great name of antiquity, the Greek comediographer Meander. Now… Why does Marcus Aurelius share it? Throughout the work the philosopher returns on several occasions about that idea, although with a form (and especially a background) that does not quite coincide with that phrase we found on Google. In book His interpretation is rather another: If you are distressed or sad, it may not be so much because of the external factors but because of the way you face them. No trace of the famous original phrase. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What we did find (again on Google) are contemporary authors who warn of two things: not only is there no evidence that Marcus Aurelius ever uttered that aphorism, but that he probably would not support it. In Medium the thinker Gregory Sadler remember the mention of Monimos in the ‘Meditations’ (“everything is what you suppose it to be”), but insists on the importance of context: “Marcus Aurelius is not really endorsing that statement as unconditionally correct. He claims that those words are clear and that they are useful if one accepts their usefulness to the extent that they are true“. “As you read these passages, and even more so as you read and understand the Meditations Taken together, it is quite clear that Marcus Aurelius not only does not endorse any kind of relativism. It would be strange if he did, since that would contradict many other things he claims,” ​​insists Sadler. He is not the only one who thinks this way. On the Modern Stoicism website is pointed out He cites it as the most obvious (and famous) example of a phrase “erroneously attributed” to the Roman emperor. It is not just about putting words into the philosopher’s mouth that he never really said. The problem, remember its authorThomas Colligan, is that in this case the aphorism lends itself to interpretations that directly collide with what Marcus Aurelius did think. “It seems to deny the existence of an objective reality and instead endorses a subjective view of the world where anything goes,” he warns: “Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics would certainly not have endorsed this view.” The emperor’s alleged phrase has also not passed PolitiFact analysis (a project of the Poynter Institute), that considers her discredited. After seeing how it went viral on networks, PolitiFact investigated whether or not the happy quote can be attributed to Marcus Aurelius, for which it even contacted an expert from the University of Tasmania, Dirk Baltzly. Your conclusion? It turns out “vaguely possible” that the quote is a free paraphrase of a passage from ‘Meditations’. What does the passage in question that Baltzly points out say, a quote that we find at the end of a long reflection of the third section from book IV? As follows: “All those things that you are seeing will soon be transformed and will not exist. Also constantly think about how many transformations you have already witnessed by chance. ‘The world, alteration; life, opinion.’” In other words, there is a certain echo, but no trace of what is probably one of Marcus Aurelius’s most shared phrases on networks. It could remain an anecdote (and a frustrated article on polarization), but how they reveal Sadler or Colligan, the problem is that this is not the only phrase falsely attributed to Marcus Aurelius, nor is Marcus Aurelius the only thinker to whom false phrases are attributed. Not even the emperors and greatest thinkers in history are safe from fake news. On the contrary, they seem more vulnerable the greater their fame. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | “The greatest obstacle in life is the loss of today”: Seneca already went through your same existential crisis 2,000 years ago

In 1968 a man had the idea to create the first tablet in history. The problem is that he was decades ahead of his time.

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If I tell you to think of the oldest tablet you remember, you may go back to the first iPad, which was released in 2010 (and, by the way, I turned seven last week). Or, if you’ve been following the world of technology since before the turn of the century, you might be familiar with the Microsoft Tablet PC from HP Compaq that was announced in 2001. In reality, there was someone who already tried to create one and it was much earlier, in 1968before the term “tablet” was even coined. At that time, Alan Kay was a young worker at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center who had been mulling over the concept of a personal computer for some time (in contrast to the military, business and professional use that reigned among manufacturers at the time). After speaking with other colleagues who were beginning their research on how the programming language Logo could help younger children advance in math, Kay came up with an idea: “This encounter finally made me see what the real destiny of personal computing was going to be. Not a personal dynamic ‘vehicle’, as Englebart’s metaphors had it as opposed to IBM’s ‘railway tracks’, but something much deeper: a dynamic personal ‘medium’. With a vehicle, one could wait until high school to take ‘driving lessons’. But if it was a medium, it had to extend into the world of childhood.” In 1968, Kay created the Dynabook conceptwhich he would spend several years profiling. in the book “Tracing the Dynabook: a study of technocultural transformations” They define it like this: “Kay called it the Dynabook, and the name suggests what it was going to be: a dynamic book. That is, a medium like a book, but one that was interactive and controlled by the reader. It would provide cognitive scaffolding in the same way that books and print media had done in recent centuries but, as Papert’s work with children and Logo had begun to demonstrate, it would take the advantages of the new computing medium and provide the means for new kinds of exploration and expression.” “A personal computer for children of all ages” With the idea of ​​its function clear, Kay then began to shape it into cardboard prototypes (as can be seen in the image at the top of the article). In 1972, the researcher presented his paper “A personal computer for children of all ages” in which he offered more details not only about his motivation and his vision of personal computing at the time, but about the own device that I had in mind. His idea was to get a kind of tablet-shaped personal computer aimed at education. This would have a reduced thickness, a liquid crystal touch screen and a keyboard. Like a regular notebook in size, with a graphical interface (a revolution for the time) that allowed the reproduction of graphics, music and text, and with internal storage for 500 pages. The keyboard would not be the only way to enter information: it could also be done via voice. In the image that Kay drew, the word “stylus” can also be seen, although he did not comment on it in his paper. Kay’s idea is that the Dynabook that could be connect to other systems to “copy” information to it (among them, the ARPA Network) and even predicted the existence of content “vending machines”, which could not be accessed until payment had been made. “The books can be installed instead of being bought or loaned,” he said. Regarding digital “ownership”, Kay said the following: “The ability to easily make copies and own the information yourself is not likely to weaken existing markets, as has happened with xerography, which has strengthened publishing; and just as tapes have not hurt the music industry but have provided a way to organize one’s own music. Most people are not interested in being a source or a smuggler, but rather like to trade and play with what they have.” According to Kay’s calculations, the components to manufacture it could cost $294, so it was not unreasonable to be able to sell it for $500, something expensive for the time. “The average annual amount spent per child on education is only $850,” he said, and that is why he even proposed a different financing model: “perhaps the device should be given away as if it were a notebook, and only sell the content (cassettes, files, etc.). “This would be quite similar to the way TV packages or music are now distributed.” “Let’s do it!” he said to finish his paper. Unfortunately for Kay, the Dynabook never materialized. Despite Kay’s enthusiasm, the Dynabook itself was never manufactured for lack of support at Xerox and due to the technological limitations of the time. Do you remember what computers were like then? Well, imagine what it would be like to build a tablet. Two Xerox PARC engineers, Chuck Thacker and Butler Lampson, asked for permission to try to replicate a similar machine on their own, and so it came to light. Highwhich was also known as “Interim Dynabook”. It was not a tablet, far from it, but it maintained some of the ideas that Kay had raised in her publication. He Xerox Alto was one of the first personal computers of history and Steve Jobs and Apple engineers they were inspired in some of its innovations and concepts, such as the use of a graphical interface for its own computers. Starting at Minute 2:27, the Xerox Alto graphical interface in action Kay is not only remembered for the Dynabook itself, but for the educational vision he gave to the project, for his peculiar vision of the personal computing paradigm and for how he came to anticipate some of the problems (and even technologies) that would come later. Not only that: in 2001, Microsoft presented its Microsoft Tablet PC, a project that Chuck Thacker and Butler Lampson had led. Yes, the same ones who once tried to implement … Read more

There are 30 centimeters left before the Montejaque ghost dam becomes a very real problem

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At the beginning of the 20th century, getting light to the most remote towns in the Serranía de Ronda and Grazalema was an impossible mission. Despite “being close”, they were areas that could only be accessed with a lot of effort and any infrastructure became a logistical problem. It was at that time when the Sevillian Electricity Company decided to make a clean break: build a dam on the Gudares River and produce the energy (up to 20,000 kW) right there. They commissioned the work to a Swiss company and built an 83-meter concrete structure near Montejaque, in Malaga. Then they realized that it was tremendously stupid: the limestone soil in the area turned the reservoir into a sieve and, in the more than a hundred years since its construction, it has never been in use. Until now. Although “use” isn’t exactly the word. Because, in reality, what has happened is that, given the enormous amount of water that has fallen in the area in recent weeks, the dam has filled. Of course, this filling is relative: from the first moment the water has been filtering through the cat’s cavevery close to there. But, thanks to it, it has been possible to ‘laminate’ Gudares Avenue and control the flows. The problem is that, right now and for the first time since we have data, Montejaque is about to overflow. 30 centimeters away from it, in fact. A ghost dam filled to the brim? And draining as if there were no tomorrow: at a rate of 200 cubic meters per second. The images are not only spectacularbut (also) are completely unheard of. There were no clear precedents, but the system (using siphons, as opposed to the usual spillways) has been put into operation before it overtopped the dam. And now what? In principle, monitoring and preparation. The town councils of Jimera de Líbar and Benaoján they have evacuated 150 people and monitor both the Guadiaro riverbed and the Hundidero-Gato cave system. This dam system stands between the reservoir and the closest towns, but no one is very clear about what could happen: it is expected to collapse the possible flood, but it has never happened and the UME continues to monitor the situation for what may happen. Calm. That is the message most repeated by the authorities and, from what we know so far, it is justified. However, it shows that too often we forget what is in the bush. The Montejaque concession has already declined, but it is still there, converted into a tourist attraction. From now on it will also be the constant reminder that we have to rethink all our water infrastructures. Image | Ronnie Macdonald In Xataka | Andalusia anticipates the storm and has already canceled in-person classes and activated the UME. The doubt is placed on the workers

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