problem

Salamanca has a problem and that problem is not being controlled

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In Spain we have a problem and they are called ticks. In recent weeks, the Junta de Castilla y León has confirmed two cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (FHCC) in Salamanca, both linked to tick bitesone in a 68-year-old man and another in an 84-year-old man, admitted and isolated according to protocol at Gómez Ulla. Previous epidemiological reports already placed Salamanca as the Spanish province with the highest number of CCHF diagnoses in recent years, with several cases in 2024 and 2025, which has led to it being described as a risk area within national maps. Worst? That is spreading. Going to the countryside, risky sport. In the Béjar region they talk about the “proliferation” of ticks and warn that certain rural environments have become hot spots for the genus. Hyalommathe main vector of Crimea-Congo in Spain. “You can’t go there to the countryside, come on, in no way,” says Antonio Muro, professor of Parasitology at the University of Salamanca, within the framework of the 24th Congress of the Society of Parasitology. The problem is that the risk is not homogeneous and depends on the ecosystem, humidity and fauna present. Spain today registers more ticks, in more places and during more months of the year, with a presence both in rural areas and in urban parks and peri-urban areas. The fault? Various factors; climate change and the favor of the entry of wildlife into cities. City ticks. In Madrid, the concern has spread to the Sierra de Guadarrama, Miraflores, Buitrago and to the south, such as in Aranjuez, where veterinarians warn of proliferations linked to the heat and spring rains. Anecpla also maintains that the presence is no longer limited to the countryside and it is also easy to find outbreaks in parks, urban gardens and even coastal areas, because its biological cycle is lengthening, with activity earlier and later in the year. Researchers from INIA (National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology) such as Felix Valcácel They point out that there are now ticks in metropolitan environments because rabbits, hedgehogs and wild boars approach garbage cans, beaches and green areas, depositing the parasites, which then settle on people who are walking or having a picnic. The activity season has also been extended: previously it was concentrated between March and October, with the peak in June and July. Now it is easy to spot specimens throughout the year because temperatures exceed 10 degrees. This means that the risk of being bitten exists both for hikers in Béjar and for families who go with children and dogs to the park. Although not all ticks are the same. Lyme and Crimea-Congo. These are the two diseases that worry the most. The Lyme disease It is transmitted mainly by Ixodes ricinusa wet climate tick that feeds on wild animals infected by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. From there, to humans. After the bite, the first symptoms are usually a rash (skin erosion), headache, fever and fatigue. Of course, the clinical picture varies greatly between people and can become chronic if it is not diagnosed and treated in time, with joint, neurological or cardiac involvement. This is how they emphasize it from Health. Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a serious virus that in Europe it is associated with ticks of the genus Hyalomma -above all H. marginatum and H. lusitanicum— widely distributed in dehesa areas and drier climates, such as parts of Castilla y León and Extremadura (Cáceres). Symptoms: high fever, muscle pain, intense discomfort, digestive symptoms and, in severe cases, bleeding and liver disorders; lethality in hospitalized patients can around 30%. In the last decade, around twenty cases involved a third of deaths. Identify them and take action. In the humid and forested north they predominate Ixodes ricinus and Haemaphysalis punctata. They are small, dark in color, found in bushes and tall grass and are mainly responsible for the risk of Lyme. To the question about whether a tick can kill you We already know that it is, so it’s better not to take it as a joke. In the Meseta and drier areas, such as part of Salamanca, Soria and Ávila, there are abundant Hyalomma lusitanicum and Dermacentor marginatus: they are larger, with ringed legs, “with visible eyes”, very mobile and capable of following a host over the ground for a certain distance. Is it affecting tourism in the area? What’s going on: in March records were set about a series of historic figureswith a total of 129,387 travelers and 101,924 overnight stays in the first quarter in May alone. The general photo of the market depends a lot on weekends and short getaways, yes. Associations like ANECPLA agree that the key is not to cancel trips, but to change the way you go to the countryside: long, light-colored clothing, pants tucked into socks, closed boots, appropriate repellents, walking in the center of the trails, avoiding sitting on the grass and keeping the dogs dewormed (flea pipette, collar, pills on duty, etc.). Recent guides estimate that, while in central Europe there are about five relevant species, in Spain between 15 and 20 are detected, which complicates the risk message and forces more emphasis on prevention. In fact, the recommendation is that, after a trip to the countryside or to areas of dense vegetation, you check your body, whether it is an adult, child or pet, paying attention to the groin, armpits, waist, scalp, behind the ears and navel, where ticks look for thin skin and good blood flow. What to do if you have been bitten. If a tick attached to the skin is detected, it must be removed as soon as possible with fine-tipped tweezers (eyebrow tweezers usually work, if done carefully), holding it as close to the skin as possible and gently pulling upwards, without twisting or crushing the body, without applying alcohol, oil or Vaseline, and then cleaning the area with soap and water or antiseptic. In the following four weeks, it is key to monitor for fever, … Read more

Madrid is preparing to have robotaxis this fall. The problem is that almost no one is clear how it is going to work.

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Madrid is about to become the first capital of the European Union with driverless cars circulating through its streets. Uber, Waymo, Cabify and several Chinese technology companies are already fighting for a million-dollar business that, according to current plans, should begin rolling out after the summer. Although there are still quite a few questions unresolved. What is happening. Uber was the first to announce the movement. In June confirmed an alliance with the Chinese technology company WeRide to operate in Madrid sensorized electric vans manufactured by Geely, the Chinese giant that also owns Volvo Cars or Polestar. To make it possible, Uber relies on two partners: Moove Cars, which provides the VTC licenses (of which Uber itself owns 30%), and Avomo, which is responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the vehicles and which already manages similar fleets in Austin and Atlanta. The legal framework. To launch a service of this type, three pieces were needed: regulation, licenses and fleet. According to share From El Confidencial, the first two were “the most conflictive” and had already been resolved, so now “it is the companies that have to take the step.” So, on the one hand, the DGT is in charge of homologating and technically certifying vehicles, while the Community of Madrid manages authorizations, insurance and the distribution of licenses between operators, based on changes in the regional Mobility Law. To avoid new conflicts with taxis, the regional government has chosen not to issue new VTC licenses, but rather to reuse existing ones with a limit of 100, to which a specific permit called “additional authorization for autonomous transport” will be added. According to El Confidencial sources, they point because the first pilots could start in central Madrid, Leganés and Móstoles, with Alcobendas also on the table. The Waymo mystery. Alphabet subsidiary has registered In just two weeks new companies in Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid (Waymo Iberia), adding to the one it already had in Munich since June. The name chosen for Spain, “Iberia” and not “España”, suggests that the company is also looking at Portugal, which has recently opened a legal framework favorable to autonomous driving tests. Even so, the commercial registration is only the first step, so it does not give us clues about a possible launch date, since to operate in Spain Waymo needs VTC licenses. Of the country’s three large fleets (Moove Cars, Auro and Vecttor), the first is already committed to Uber and WeRide, and Auro has confirmed that it is not negotiating with Waymo because it is focused on its expansion in Germany. This leaves as the only plausible way an agreement with Vecttor, the fleet owned by Cabify, which acknowledges maintaining “open conversations with the leading companies in autonomous mobility technology”, although it clarifies that, for the moment, “we do not have any closed alliance.” The Phoenix precedent, where Waymo just broke their alliance with Uber to recover its cars and operate with its own app, suggests that its long-term plan is to dispense with intermediaries as soon as it gains its own brand in each market. What Uber doesn’t count. The company announced in style that its robotaxis would arrive in Madrid before the end of the year, but for our part we did not receive a response from either Uber or WeRide about how many vehicles there will be in the first phase, whether the service will cover the entire city or just some neighborhoods, or whether any user will be able to order a car without anyone at the wheel. On the other hand, the DGT itself confirmed us last month that there was no request from Uber or its partners to test autonomous vehicles. The organization remembers that there are three test phases: a controlled one (maximum three cars, always with a safety driver), an extensive one (up to ten, also with a driver) and a pre-deployment phase, where the vehicle limit disappears and the driver becomes optional, although always supervised remotely. Right now, the only company in that last phase in Spain is Tesla, which test your FSD system with 30 vehicles throughout the national territory. The risks that Waymo already knows. Just like stand out From El Confidencial, the experience in the United States leaves two clear warnings. The first is vandalism, since in June, anti-ICE protesters burned five Waymo vehicles in Los Angeles, each valued between 150,000 and 200,000 euros, forcing the suspension of service in the city. The second, more serious for the business, are technical failures. And in just one month, Waymo had to first recall 3,800 cars for entering flooded roads and then 3,900 (97% of its fleet) for a software error that led them to sections of highway under construction. Despite this, the company defends that its cars suffer 94% fewer serious or fatal accidents than those driven by humans, and 84% fewer accidents with cyclists or motorcyclists. And now what. The calendar indicates that, starting in November, the first Uber robotaxis will begin to be seen in Madrid, with a safety driver at the wheel during the first months until the service becomes fully autonomous. The routes will be requested from each operator’s app and the cost is still unknown, but they are expected to be more expensive. Waymo is still a sea of ​​doubts, since it has a company created, but it still lacks a fleet partner to start. And at the bottom of the board we have Cabify and Bolt, who could be added later with vehicles from the Chinese companies Pony.ai or Baidu. Cover image | Hoseung Han In Xataka | A veteran Tesla engineer has summarized his workers’ feelings about the FSD: “We have all seen it fail”

The oldest human remains in Antarctica are more than 200 years old. The problem is that it doesn’t make any sense.

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In 1912, the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott He arrived at the South Pole convinced that he would be the first to set foot on it. There he found an unexpected surprise: a tent with the Norwegian flag and a letter from Roald Amundsen They showed that someone had been more than a month ahead of him. The history of polar exploration is full of “firsts” that, with the passage of time, have ended up being revised. The remains that should not be there. Antarctica has never had a permanent population. When humans arrived on its shores, it was already a continent too cold and isolated to be inhabited without modern technology. That is why it is so disconcerting that the oldest human remains found there belong to a deceased woman. between 1819 and 1825just when the first documented explorations of the continent were just beginning. A half-buried skull. The discovery occurred in 1985, when the Chilean biologist Daniel Torres Navarro found a skull partially buried on Yámana beach, Cape Shirreff. Years later they appeared other scattered bonesincluding a femur, which probably belonged to the same person. Analysis suggests that she was a young woman, possibly of Chilean origin, whose death occurred sometime between 1819 and 1825. The chronology turns the discovery into a puzzle. The problem is not only who that woman was, but when she died. The first confirmed observation of Antarctica is usually attributed to the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820. If the dating of the remains is correct, the woman lived exactly during the period in which the first expeditions were just beginning to approach the continent. This temporal coincidence makes it extremely difficult to explain how he ended up in one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. The first Russian expedition to Antarctica (1819-1821) The hypotheses and the mystery. Researchers are considering several possibilities. The first suggests that he could be part of a group of seal hunters from the 19th century who abandoned it after his death. The second proposes that she died on board a ship, was buried at sea (as was common then) and that the currents, together with scavenging birds, They would later disperse their remains to the beach where they were found. None of these explanations have been proven and, four decades after the discovery, new remains have still not appeared that would allow us to reconstruct what happened. The alternative. While that enigma remains open, another study invites us to review another of the great certainties about the continent. Researchers at the University of Otago maintain that Polynesian sailors, and in particular the explorer Hui Te Rangiorathey were able to reach the Antarctic waters already in the 7th century. The hypothesis is supported by Maori oral traditions which describe a frozen ocean, large masses of ice and a dark, fog-covered landscape, descriptions that some specialists consider compatible with the Southern Ocean. Between legends and archaeological evidence. The authors of the study make it clear that these traditions do not constitute a definitive demonstration that the Maori ever contemplated Antarctica. However, they do question the idea that the history of the continent began exclusively with European expeditions of the 19th century and claim the role of indigenous traditions in the reconstruction of the great oceanic explorations. If this interpretation ends up being confirmed, the first human contact with the southern tip of the planet would be more than a thousand years ago to what usually appears in history books. Two investigations that force us to look with different eyes. The two studies They speak of very different times, but they converge on the same conclusion: we still know surprisingly little about the first human contacts with the most isolated continent on Earth. One suggests that Polynesian navigators could have arrived much earlier than previously believed. The other remembers that the oldest human remains found there belong to a woman whose presence remains extraordinarily difficult to explain. Two centuries after his death, the biggest mystery is not who he was, but why he appeared on the only continent where, quite simply, no one expected to find it. Image | US Embassy, Bourrichon In Xataka | The map of Antarctica has been made for decades. And yet we just found something that changes what we knew about her. In Xataka | Antarctica was practically the last corner of the Earth immune to touristification. That’s ending

The raw milk that Haaland drinks is authorized and regulated. Even so, in your kitchen it can become a serious problem.

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After seeing how it is performing in the World Cupmany people want to be like Erling Haaland. There are things that you are born with, like being almost 2 meters tall. Others are trained, such as their soccer skills, but you also have to have a certain innate talent. What we can try is to eat like him to be just as strong. That is why there are so many media outlets that have covered their diet, which highlights foods such as sourdough bread, eggs, coffee or raw milk. Yes, raw milk. The Norwegian footballer does nothing illegal, of course. In fact, buy raw milk from authorized farms for the sale of this drink that he describes as a superfood. The problem is that, even if purchased from authorized establishments, raw milk can be very dangerous. It is necessary to handle it at home following very specific safety measures, which are not always easy to achieve. If not done properly, an innocent glass of milk can become a food time bomb. Therefore, before increasing the hype of this type of food by announcing them as part of the stars’ diet, we should make these measures clear. What are the risks of raw milk? Raw milk is milk that has not undergone the pasteurization process to eliminate contamination by possible pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, its consumption can be very dangerous. Among these organisms are the causing diseases such as listeriosis, Q fever, typhoid fever, salmonellosis and brucellosis. The risk is especially high in vulnerable people, such as immunosuppressed or pregnant patients. In all of these people, the aforementioned diseases can become quite complicated. However, the consumption of raw milk can be a problem for the entire population, even without being vulnerable. Pasteurization is commonly used with liquid foods and consists of heating them to a certain temperature for a specific time and then cooling them quickly. This temperature varies depending on the type of pasteurization. For example, in what is known as slow pasteurization (LTLT)the food is heated to 63ºC for 30 minutes and then quickly cooled to 4ºC. Instead, the rapid pasteurization (HTST) resort to heating at 72ºC-75ºC for 15 to 20 seconds. Again, it is immediately cooled to 4ºC. Finally, there is the ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurizationwith which temperatures of 135ºC to 150ºC are used for only 2 to 5 seconds, also followed by immediate cooling. The latter is what is normally used in milk, as it not only destroys pathogenic microorganisms, it also eliminates spores that could cause poisoning later. Although it is true that it may produce slight changes in flavor, the nutritional conditions remain intact. Therefore, it is the most worthwhile technique for this type of food. What security measures should be taken? Consumption of raw milk it is not prohibitedbut it is very regulated. In SpainFor example, only those establishments that have registered in the General Health Registry of Food and Food Companies (RGSEAA). Logically, these establishments must comply with a series of very exhaustive hygiene measures and undergo periodic health checks. Furthermore, milk must be sold bottled and inform on the label about a shelf life of less than three days after milking. On the other hand, the label must include recommendations for use and conservationsuch as the importance of boiling milk before consumption and the temperature at which it should be stored (from 1ºC to 4ºC). Dairy farms must meet very exhaustive criteria to be able to sell raw milk Where does Erling Haaland buy milk? As he himself has shown on his social networks, Erling Haaland buy raw milk at Greenoaks Farma dairy farm located in the English county of Cheshire. This establishment meets all UK criteria for the sale of raw milk. We can also assume that Haaland follows all subsequent safety regulations when handling milk at home. Even so, great care must be taken with the advertising of this drink, since, in reality, it is very difficult to comply with all the established safety regulations. Be careful when handling raw milk Livestock from farms that meet the safety criteria for the sale of raw milk undergo regular veterinary examinations. However, some bacteria as Escherichia coli either Salmonellathey can naturally be in the udders of healthy cows. Therefore, milk can also become contaminated and must be boiled. Now, boiling it is not as simple as we think. There are studies which suggest that, when heating milk at home, it must be exposed to 63ºC for 30 minutes, 72ºC for 15 seconds or a sustained boil. Very few people have a kitchen thermometer and, if they do, it is not easy to ensure domestically that all the milk has been subjected to the necessary temperature for an adequate time. Therefore, at home it is best to boil milk. The bad thing is that there is a problem. Milk rises very quickly when it starts to boil, so we usually rush to lower the temperature so that it doesn’t spill. Thus, it is not heated for enough time to eliminate all the microorganisms. That’s why, in a thread on his Twitter account from 2018food safety expert Gemma del Caño explained that it is advisable repeat the process 3 times. It is something that is not indicated on the labeling, so almost no one does it. Another thing that is not usually done is the rapid cooling that is carried out in pasteurization. On the other hand, not everyone has their refrigerator at the right temperature or does not handle milk properly once it has been boiled. The consequence is that, in many cases, boiling raw milk is not enough. What about Haaland? Haaland has no problem. We have already seen that he buys milk from an authorized establishment and, on the other hand, no one denies that he handles it properly. The problem is that he has been a benchmark for a long time, but he is becoming even more so in the current football competition, which is why many people want … Read more

Alibaba’s Qwen AI model is the new crown jewel. The only problem is that they don’t make money from it.

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Jack Ma he returned like a prodigal son to the international scene in February of last year. He did so at an event with the president of China, Xi Jinping, and that represented an important support for the technological leader. Since then his company, Alibaba, has not stopped flooding us with its open AI models, Qwen, but that strategy is having the same lights and shadows as its competitors. Devastates downloads. Alibaba launched its Qwen family of models in 2023 and released them with open weights almost immediately. That made them a perfect alternative to be able to use them locally and to also be able to tune them in all types of scenarios. In January 2026, Qwen was already the open AI model most downloaded in the world with close to a million daily downloads according to data from Hugging Face. By the end of 2025, Qwen was already the most downloaded open weight model in the world by far. Source: AI Base. But popularity does not equal income. In the first quarter of 2026, Alibaba indicated that it had obtained revenue of $1.3 billion related to AI, just 4% of its total revenue. The figure is very short, especially if we take into account that Alibaba plan to invest $55 billion in AI infrastructure by the end of 2027. Investors want profits now. Company shares have fallen 37% on the Hong Kong stock market this year: investors are clearly concerned about the lack of return on this bet on AI, something that we have also been seeing for some time in the US market. Internal divisions. The pressure to turn these open models into a business seems to be dividing Qwen’s own team. In March its chief engineer, Lin Junyang, announced his departure from the companyand he was followed by several key engineers amidst internal disagreements on how to monetize the model. The company has already started move token in the field of proprietary models: in April already released three of them in a few days. War with the US and Anthropic. Meanwhile, the company also faces external pressures. The Pentagon has included it on a blacklist of companies that Washington says support the Chinese military, something Alibaba denies. Additionally, Anthropic recently sent a letter to US senators accusing Alibaba of try to copy their technology using 24,000 fraudulent accounts. Alibaba has declined to comment on the matter. Alibaba has the same problem as OpenAI. Richard Lin, vice president of the company Datastrato, has been involved in the panorama of open AI models in China for some time, and his message reminds us of a palpable reality not only for that market, but for all startups and AI companies: “At the moment there are no AI companies with a sustainable business model. It is not a healthy industry.” The message is as true as it is forceful, but all AI companies would surely respond with what Zuckerberg said: “Losing a couple hundred billion dollars would be a bummer, but that’s better than being left behind in the race for superintelligence.” The funny thing is that they are both (probably) right. Image | qwen In Xataka | China’s open AIs aren’t “beating” ChatGPT, they’re doing something more important: catapulting their industry

In its final stretch of having a Formula 1 circuit, Madrid has encountered a problem: sheep

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January 2024, Madrid confirms that it will have a Formula 1 circuit after years of chasing him. Without a permanent circuit that can host the event, the FIA ​​and Madrid political leaders welcome the proposal that the streets of a PAU north of Madrid and the IFEMA facilities They lay the foundations of the show. It is a movement, that of using a city as an attraction but not passing through any of its emblematic places, that the organization of Formula 1 has been practicing for some time. A sport that has been filled with semi-urban and insubstantial circuits, very far from the concept of Monaco. The problem is that the only thing that keeps Monaco on the calendar is tradition and glamour. The streets of the principality have become too small for cars much larger than decades ago and the spectacle on the track already seems to be the least of it. The solution has been to bring these circuits to spaces such as outskirts of Miami or Madrid. The problem is that people live there. Yes, there are people who are not always willing to have their streets transformed into a circuit, taking up assembly and disassembly work for weeks and having to suffer the noise of cars passing at 300 km/h a few meters from their portals. “They are selling my health to make money”said one of those affected by the Stop F1 Madrid platform. And the neighborhoods have their own dynamics and spaces that were there long before Formula 1 arrived there. For example: the sheep. Year and a half of notices Although it may not seem like it, the roads, paths and roads of Spain are the result of a planning designed centuries ago but live for the daily use of them. Sometimes, like roads, they have been used to structure our country. In other cases, although invisible to the untrained eye, they live for a handful of the most unexpected users. Every year, at the end of October, Thousands of sheep continue to pass through Madrid’s Gran Vía. Although it may have some folklore for those less familiar with the countryside, it is still part of the path for those who practice migration. Because yes, no matter how few they may be, there are those who keep transhumance alive. One of those historical paths that contemplate the passage of animals is the Vereda de los Leñeros, one of the livestock routes that pass through Madrid. These steps, points out the Community of Madrid itselfdefine the spaces intended primarily for the transit of livestock and which in the case of trails have a width of 20 meters. When the modification that IFEMA had to make to host the event was put on the table, environmentalists and neighbors confirmed that they were diverting the livestock route but, according to Antonio Giraldo, Spokesperson for Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility of the PSOE in the Madrid City Council, it was falling into illegality. “Either they ventilate a livestock trail (illegal) or reduce the surface of municipal green areas (illegal). But you cannot do both at the same time,” Giraldo then pointed out because according to their calculations, there was no space in the neighborhood to divert the livestock route without falling into one of these two assumptions. It has been a year and a half since the controversy began. The first voices that warned of the problem came in February 2025. In July 2026, weeks before the cars compete in the north of Madrid, those responsible for the region have presented the modification with a publication in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid: raise the livestock route to save the Formula 1 circuit in style. They explain in The Country that the Vereda de Leñeros has existed since the 19th century and that its original route passes through IFEMA, which has been trying to move it to the margins of the complex for years. However, it has not been until now coinciding with Formula 1 that the modification project has been presented. For the opposition, it represents a clear example that private interests are altering “land with very high protection that could derail the project.” Since then, the tug of war between the opposition and the Madrid City Council has been constant. Also the criticism from neighbors who have found in this supposed illegality the possibility of preventing the event from going ahead. However, everything seems decided for the livestock route to be modified. The City Council’s plan involves dusting off a preliminary project that proposed building an eco-bridge to save the M-11 and join the Vereda de los Leñeros with that of Valdecarros, which were separated when this road was built. That is, the plan goes through carry animals over a 12-lane stretch. A decision that the opposition, neighborhood groups and environmentalists continue to criticize. From the Madrid Ecologist Platform they point out that: “The livestock trails are public domain assets owned by the Community of Madrid, they cannot overlap with another public domain such as a green area (referring to the park through which the new path is intended to pass)”, in words collected by elDiario.es. The environmental group explains that the sections should be transferred by IFEMA since they were the ones that completely closed the passage of the road with their facilities and are the promoters of the event and that it cannot be the Madrid City Council that gives up land in a green area to give way to said modification. And from Liberum Natura they already announce that they will argue against the project (Justice already admitted another allegation of his in May) because they consider that if it is given free rein it could be used by other municipalities in the future so that the livestock trails are raised above green areas and thus they can continue gaining ground for private businesses such as building apartments… or a Formula 1 circuit. Photo | Madring and Sam Carter In … Read more

Apple has a plan for its memory problem. The only problem is that it goes through a company on the US blacklist, according to FT

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The perfect storm hits the memory market and shakes consumer electronics like we have rarely seen. This stretch of the year has become a bad time to update your computerbuy a console or even expand the RAM of a gaming desktop with a new module. The effects They also reach storage units and other components that until not so long ago seemed more or less predictable. Looking back, that problem with graphics cards during the rise of cryptocurrency mining It begins to seem, for many users, almost small next to what we are seeing now. For months, some large manufacturers have tried to buy time with a tool that the user does not see: inventory. Lenovo is a good example. According to statements by its financial director, Winston Cheng, collected by Bloomberg TV and later cited by various mediathe company even had stocks of memory and other critical components around 50% higher than usual to cushion the blow of shortages and price increases. This type of mattress helps to resist better than others, but it also has a limit when the market continues to tighten. Memory has become a problem for Apple, prices and geopolitics And that’s where Apple comes in. We are not talking about a small company trapped by a specific increase in costsbut one of the companies with the most negotiating power in the entire technology industry. Its supply chain has been operating with extraordinary precision for years, supported by huge agreements, global suppliers and a purchasing power that few can match. Precisely for this reason it is so significant that, according to Financial TimesApple would also be looking new ways to relieve memory pressure. The path that has come to light is especially delicate. According to the British business newspaper, Apple is pressuring the Trump Administration to obtain authorization, or at least a favorable signal, that allows it to buy memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese manufacturer singled out by the Pentagon for his alleged links with the People’s Liberation Army. The media adds that the company approached the Department of Commerce more than a month ago and has also sought support in other parts of Washington. The goal would be to alleviate the financial pressure caused by the rising cost of memory. If you’ve been following Apple for a while, you probably already know: these types of moves are almost never made public. The company does not usually explain its internal purchasing operations, much less its conversations with suppliers or administrations. Financial Times attributes the information to six people familiar with the mattera relevant basis to take it seriously, but we are not facing official confirmation from Apple, the White House or the Department of Commerce. To understand the dimension of the movement, CXMT must be well located. We are not talking about a brand of consumer RAM that the user chooses in a store, but about ChangXin Memory Technologiesa Chinese DRAM manufacturer founded in 2016. The company presents itself as a supplier of chips for mobile phones, PCs, tablets, servers and other equipment, memory that can then end up integrated into finished products. In the case of Apple, therefore, the debate is not about a visible brand, but about who supplies a particularly sensitive internal part. The search for alternatives does not come out of nowhere. It’s no secret that the memory industry is highly concentrated on Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix, the DRAM suppliers that Apple relies on for its devices. When the market is balanced, that dependence can be managed with contracts, volume and planning. When prices rise sharply, however, each additional supplier counts. CXMT appears there as a possible way to add capacity. The memory industry is highly concentrated in Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix. As we have seen, what is behind it is not just an isolated increase in prices, but a change of priorities. The AI ​​craze has put advanced memory at the center of the data center business, especially HBM, needed to power high-performance servers and accelerators. That demand has contributed to a prolonged shortage of traditional memory for consumer electronics. That is why the problem is felt in very different products: not because they all use the same memory, but because they compete, directly or indirectly, for a limited industrial capacity. At Apple, that pressure has ended up reaching the showcase. The company raised the prices of MacBooks and iPads by around 20% and attributed the movement to some “unsustainable” memory prices. The same medium maintains that the decision had an immediate stock market impact: $263 billion less in capitalization, Apple’s second largest daily drop. It is advisable to read these figures together, because they tell something broader than a specific increase: when memory triggers, even a company used to protecting its margins begins to transfer tension to the final product. The expression “blacklist” helps to understand the seriousness of the matter, but it can lead to a conclusion that is too quick. CXMT is on the Pentagon’s 1260H list for its alleged links with the People’s Liberation Army, a very sensitive label in the midst of the technological rivalry between the US and China. However, according to the Financial Times, that designation does not automatically prevent Apple from purchasing chips from CXMT or YMTC. The issue is what would happen if the US hardens its position later. The British economic newspaper says that the Department of Commerce had already included CXMT in a package of Chinese companies candidates to enter the Entity List, a much more restrictive trade listbut that the White House asked to wait for negotiations with Beijing. That background explains why the company would want a political signal before moving. It is not enough for a door to be open today if tomorrow it can be closed with Apple inside. John Moolenaar, Republican chairman of the House China committee, told the same newspaper that partnering with a Chinese military company would be “a serious mistake.” He also argued that helping the “Chinese … Read more

“The problem is not drinking coffee, it is needing five cups to be functional”

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It is the first action of the morning for millions of people, the starter of offices, the companion of night shifts and the fuel of exam times. For a long time, coffee has been at the center of the nutritional debate, often demonized for its stimulating effects, but now this is something that is slowly changing. The problem. Just like pointed out Recently, the psychologist María Ros, the real elephant in the room is not the substance itself, since the problem it’s not drinking coffee“it takes five cups to be functional”. In this way, when we cross the line between enjoyment and absolute dependence on keeping our eyes open, the focus must move away from the coffee maker and onto our lifestyle. The consumption barrier. To understand when coffee becomes a problem, you must first establish what is safe consumption. The main international health agencies are quite unanimous on the matter, since, for example, the EFSA established at the time a clear opinion that today serves as a standard: for healthy adults (not pregnant), consumption of up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day does not pose safety problems for our health. To put it in perspective, an espresso is around 60-80 mg, and a cup of filter coffee can be closer to 100-150 mg. That is, we are talking about a margin of about three or four cups a day. In the case of the US regulator, matches with these figures, and points out that unwanted effects begin to emerge the moment this threshold is exceeded. The positive side. Beyond not being dangerous, the latest evidence point because regular consumption of 3 to 4 cups a day could be more beneficial than harmful. This fits into different articles that associate moderate consumption with lower mortality and a reduced risk of developing various pathologies. Even at a cardiovascular levelan area where coffee has always generated suspicion, current medical literature emphasizes that in regular consumers the effects on blood pressure are transitory and reversible. The danger of coffee. We speak at these levels when it stops being something pleasurable and becomes an urgent need to combat mental exhaustion. This way, if a person needs to binge cup after cup simply to avoid experiencing crippling drowsiness or to be able to stay focused on their work, coffee is acting as a painkiller for an underlying problem that needs to be addressed. We must remember that caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, the neurotransmitter that makes us feel tired. It doesn’t eliminate tiredness, it simply puts a “bandage” on the brain’s sensors, so using large amounts of caffeine to compensate for chronically insufficient rest creates a perfect storm. The experts. Institutions like the Mayo Clinic warn of the cascading effects of this excess by pointing out that tolerance is capable of developing, causing more and more caffeine to be needed for the desired effect. The problem is that overconsumption quickly leads to anxiety, nervousness, headaches, palpitations, tachycardia and digestive problems such as worsening gastroesophageal reflux. Furthermore, a vicious circle is created, since if you drink a lot of coffee to perform because you have slept poorly, that excess of circulating caffeine will prolong sleep disturbances the next night, feeding back stress and insomnia. Images | Taylor Franz In Xataka | Coffee doesn’t just wake you up: science now suggests that it also improves your mood (even decaffeinated)

We believed that loneliness was just an emotional problem. Science points out that it is a risk factor for dozens of diseases.

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Loneliness is undoubtedly a scourge that is integrated into our society and that on many occasions goes unnoticed, especially affecting older people who are practically confined to being at home and with little social contact. And although this is something that a priori can remain in the psychological fieldthe reality is that loneliness emerges as a major public health threat as it is related to very serious diseases. A big risk. When we talk about risk factors in the field of medicine, we immediately think about nutrition or lack of exercise that are related to very serious diseases. But loneliness must also be added to this entire list, since numerous studies have found a direct association with cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic pathologies, although unraveling the exact cause continues to be one of the great challenges of current medical literature. The problem. In 2023, the United States Surgeon General public a devastating report pointing out that we were facing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” And it was not a mere poetic metaphor, since the WHO has been warning that social disconnection not only affects us emotionally, but also alters our body to the point of increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, dementia and premature death. A measurable impact. When we talk about disease risk, cardiovascular health is the first to suffer. Here, a scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in it Journal of the American Heart Associationconcluded bluntly that loneliness and social isolation are independent risk factors for poorer heart and brain health. And the percentages are not anecdotal, since a meta-analysis pointed out that loneliness or social isolation is associated with a 29% increase in the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease and a 32% increase in the risk of stroke. It goes further. A massive analysis led by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2026, after following more than 400,000 peopleconfirmed a strong association between isolation and multimorbidity, highlighting that physical social isolation is a relevant risk factor even if the person does not subjectively perceive that loneliness. The case of dementia. Among dementias, the most important disease is undoubtedly Alzheimer’s and the data are clear in pointing out that unwanted loneliness is an important risk factor for all dementias. Among the reasons that exist, the Alzheimer Center of Barcelona points out in a recent note as follows: “The relationship between isolation and cognitive decline is supported by research showing how a lack of social interaction impoverishes vocabulary, reduces cognitive flexibility, and accelerates brain decline.” Here the advice given to be less likely to suffer from this disease when you reach a risk age is to participate in group activities, take advantage of technology to maintain contact or create a social routine. In mental health. In addition to the organic section, if we move on to mental illnesses, the fact that there is no adequate social support network also leads to an increase in the probability of illnesses as important as depression or even the schizophrenia. Many causes can influence here, such as genetic factors, but in the end a cluster of situations can generate the final trigger for the disease. The great nuance. The question we must ask ourselves here is the following: do we get sick because of the biological impact of disconnection, or because loneliness is accompanied by other conditions? And here the science suggests that isolated people tend to do less physical activity, have poorer diets and have a greater propensity for smoking or alcoholism. Factors that can trigger a whole battery of serious diseases. Even with these factors in the equation, loneliness demonstrates surprising predictive strength. For example, recent research in patients with diabetes revealed that loneliness was associated with a greater probability of suffering from coronary heart disease, even outweighing several classic risk factors. Images | Anthony Tran In Xataka | Generation Z is both the most connected and the loneliest in history. And there is nothing casual about it

The University of Córdoba has found a pesticide in the eggs of up to 14 different wild birds. The only problem is that it has been banned since the 70s.

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One has the intuitive idea that within each egg lies the promise of a story that is just beginning. But it’s a lie. Nature is amazing and elusive and blind and cruel: many eggs, in fact, never even hatch; They end up lost in the countryside or as food for scavengers. For this reason, one day, a group of researchers from the University of Córdoba They decided to collect them and analyze them as what they are: capsules that summarize the chemical memory of the place where they were placed. They collected eggs from bearded vultures, red kites, gray teals and many other species. And inside found everything: from veterinary drugs to heavy metals to all types of pesticides, pesticides and fungicides. Among them were traces of DDT, the organochlorine that we banned in agriculture in the 70s (and could no longer be used as an insecticide in 1994). Curiously, this is not the most worrying thing. What does an egg hide? An egg, as I said, is a photograph of the environment. What accumulates in each bird’s body turns out to be a fairly accurate reflection of what it eats, what it drinks, and where it spends its day. The entire trophic chain is hidden inside each egg. Therefore, when we approach them as the UCO has donewe are not talking about bird problems… we are looking at the chemistry of an entire territory in which we are also. And what have we seen? The most striking thing is not, in fact, DDT (or DDE, its main derivative). Although it is curious that there is a pesticide banned decades ago floating around the environment, it is almost expected: it is what toxicology predicts and why it was ultimately banned. The most interesting thing about the UCO’s work is that it allows us to see, at a single glance, the reality of the pollution with which our mountain coexists. The AGR-125 Veterinary Toxicology group and the Center for Analysis and Diagnosis of Wildlife of Andalusia they used the eggs as ‘non-invasive matrices’ and their data are a canvas that covers many compounds, many birds and a lot of time. There we have found, along with the remains of DDT, commonly used pesticides and fungicides, persistent exposure to endocrine disruptors, heavy metals (such as lead, mercury and cadmium) and, in two bearded vulture eggs, veterinary drugs. And now what? Little, really. The history of DDT shows how difficult it is to work with these realities. As I said, it was banned in agriculture in the 70s, but it remained as an insecticide until 94 and, in fact, It continued to be manufactured (a derivative) in Monzón until 2008. The world of pesticides is a rabbit hole from which rural society never emerges unscathed. Besides, as the authors point outthe concentrations they have found are low. This means that, although we are concerned about the long-term effects, it is very difficult to take extra measures to control the exposure of these birds to these compounds. Luckily, as I also said, this work opens a new door for us to understand what is happening in the countryside and in the mountains. And that, believe me, is already a lot. Image | Kishan Upadhyay In Xataka | We have a problem with pesticides in agriculture. And a bigger one with the panic they generate

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