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We thought the MacBook Neo was the perfect affordable computer. AMD claims it has a big problem: games

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He MacBook Neo has been everything a missile on the waterline of the “affordable” Windows laptop market. Our analysis confirmed our expectations and we were able to verify that we are facing a more than solvent team with a outstanding price/performance ratio. However, it is not perfect, and its Achilles heel is in a specific area: video games. AMD strikes back. The company has launched an aggressive advertising campaign with a strong message: “The competition makes sacrifices. You don’t have to make them”, and then focus on how the Apple team falters in a section that is important for a notable sector of users: “While 15 of the top 20 PC games don’t run natively on the MacBook Neo, AMD systems give you access to a massive library of games across Steam, Epic Games Store, and PC Game Pass.” The hateful comparisons. In that campaign AMD compares the HP Omnibook X Flip with an AMD Ryzen 5 220 with Apple’s MacBook Neo. It boasts of its 512 GB SSD (256 GB in the Apple model indicated, although there is a 512 GB version), its touch screen and its greater connectivity options. Beware of AMD’s message. As noted in Tom’s Hardware, this AMD chip is not new, but rather a version derived from the 8540U that is accompanied by an integrated Radeon 740M GPU. It’s a modest chip that can run titles like GTA V at 100 FPS in low quality, but Hellblade 2 runs at 8 FPS and Alan Wake 2 runs at 11 FPS. So it may indeed be able to run those video games, but it’s not clear that they are actually “playable.” One thing is certain: the MacBook Neo is not for gaming. In reality, Apple does not focus its MacBook Neo on gamers, because it knows that although the A18 Pro is a truly remarkable SoCis not designed for that sector. The company has its Metal API to be able to run games and it is even possible to enjoy some native ones with some joy, but if what you want is to play (especially with top PC titles), the MacBook Neo is not your device. The laptop war for students. This counterattack from AMD is to be expected: the company has undoubtedly been affected by the enormous success of the MacBook Neo, and is trying to demonstrate that its proposals are just as valid or even better. The juicy niche of student laptops is at play here: if you convince a young person to opt for a MacBook Neo, they will likely end up trapped in the Apple ecosystem (if they weren’t already). Intel also reacts. Intel’s response to the MacBook Neo has not been an advertising campaign, but something much more tangible. The company has announced its platform Wildcat Lakechips made with 18A photolithography that are a priori up to 21% more powerful than the A18 Pro. Equipment like the Chuwi Unibook (from $449) are better at least with the specifications sheet in hand, but its real performance is for now an unknown and we will have to wait for independent analyzes. More options are coming. The Computex fair that took place two weeks ago also made it clear that other manufacturers they are going to try to take advantage this moment of uncertainty to sneak in their proposals. Qualcomm launched its Snapdragon C and Nvidia made something similar with their RTX Spark (we will see the prices). What is clear is that the launch of the MacBook Neo has awakened a segment that had become comfortable, and that is good: there will be a lot of competition and, above all, many options. In Xataka | Apple is selling so many MacBook Neos that it runs the risk of not being able to make more

BYD wants to dethrone Toyota in five years. The problem is that first he has to fix what is happening in China

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Wang Chuanfu, president of BYD, has full confidence that the next few years are going to be big for the company. However, the price of its shares is not following to the company’s exploits, and for that reason it has sent a message that is intended, above all, for its investors: the promise of becoming the world’s leading manufacturer in terms of scale. Wang spoke about the issue at the Chinese company’s annual shareholders meeting, held in Shenzhen on June 9. His words come at a delicate moment, since BYD’s actions have fallen more than 45% from its highs in Hong Kong in the last year, and 33% on the Shenzhen stock market. In fact, his promise failed to convince, as the next day, shares fell another 4.3% in Hong Kong and 1.6% in Shenzhen. This is how things are at BYD. Target: Toyota. BYD is already the largest electric car manufacturer in the world by sales, having surpassed Tesla last year. But Wang’s objective goes further, as he wants BYD become number one global in total vehicle volume, ahead of Toyota. And precisely, to achieve this, it would have to sell more than double what it is selling now. In 2025, Toyota sold 11.3 million vehicles; BYD, 4.8 million. The distance is enormous. Technology. At the meeting, Wang assured that the second generation Blade battery was the main growth bottleneck this year and has pledged to accelerate its production. He also highlighted the advances in ultra-fast charging, since this week BYD announced an investment of about 2,000 million euros in Europe to develop its Flash Charge infrastructure, with 1,500 kW of power and that would allow its cars to be charged from 10% to 70% in just 5 minutes. The firm showed it to us last April, when we were able to attend the official presentation of the Denza Z9GT. Along with this, the president of the company claimed that BYD has 3.15 million vehicles with intelligent driving already in circulation, accumulating 200 million kilometers of data per day, and that L3 and L4 level autonomous driving will arrive “sooner than expected.” “As soon as the regulation is ready, BYD will take off quickly,” Wang said. A domestic problem. The great tension of the moment is precisely at home. And the Chinese market, where BYD does most of its business, has become fiercely competitive. The price war between local manufacturers has pressured margins and hampered sales. Between January and May of this year, total deliveries fell more than 20% compared to the same period of the previous year, according to account Reuters. This internal bleeding is what worries investors, and no promises about Toyota have covered it up for now. Your business away from home. Exports are the other side of the coin, and there the panorama is different. In the first five months of the year, international sales grew 65% year-on-yearwith Brazil, the United Kingdom and Australia as the main destinations. In May alone, BYD sold more than 160,000 vehicles outside China, 80% more than in the same month of 2025. The goal for 2026 is to exceed one and a half million units exported, which would represent an increase of more than 40% over the 1.05 million last year. According to share According to CarNewsChina, Wang admitted at the meeting that the current trend aims to exceed even the initial goal of 1.6 million. Europe, opportunity and problems. The firm knows that to achieve its objectives, Europe is key to its expansion. Stella Li, chief international officer of BYD, confirmed to Reuters that the hungary plant will begin assembling cars in the fourth quarter of this year. Manufacturing locally is essential if you want to avoid the tariffs that the European Union has imposed on Chinese electric companies. However, the Hungarian factory is attracting some controversy, since organizations such as China Labor Watch have reported alleged violations of European labor legislation, and local authorities have sanctioned three companies linked to its construction for dumping excavation soils on surrounding agricultural land. The matter remains open. The shadow of the Pentagon. As if the problems in the stock market and the pressure in its domestic market were not enough, this week the United States Department of Defense added BYD to its list of “Chinese military companies”considering it a risk to national security. Beijing responded by calling the decision without a factual basis. BYD does not operate in the US market due to existing tariffsbut the label complicates its image and its possible future movements in that market. In Xataka | A German driver set out to discover how much he could stretch the tank of his old diesel car. And he has done 2,400 kilometers

the traditional solution of a town in Navarra to the most dangerous problem of seeing an eclipse

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Who has not been guided by the rooms on New Year’s Eve so as not to screw up with the beginning of the 12 grapes? Without a doubt, those sounds that precede the chimes of 12 midnight are an ideal resource to fully enjoy the last night of the year. This summer, in the Navarrese town of Lerín they will have something similar to follow the solar eclipse of August 12. It is a ringing that has been designed for the occasion by the Navarra Bell Ringers Association and that, without a doubt, will make the observation of this phenomenon much more special. And also safe. A new touch for a unique phenomenon. The town of Lerín celebrates each year some days of astrotourism and scientific tourism, known as Lerín Earth Star. This year, as it could not be otherwise, they have been planned to coincide with the eclipse. For this reason, the astrophysicist and scientific disseminator Javier Armentia contacted the Association of Bell Ringers of Navarra to find out if they have a specific ringing to announce this type of events. The objective, according to explained At the press conference in which this curious invention was announced, it was “to unite tradition and astronomy in a way never seen before.” Since they did not have such a ring, they did not hesitate to look among their members for someone willing to design it. The person in charge, finally, was Rosarina Caballín. A simple touch with several interventions. The touch designed by Caballín is simple, with a ringing that becomes more intense as the climax approaches. It is designed to indicate the beginning and end of the partial and total phase of the eclipse. Bells for security. The decision to notify the start of the partial and total phase is not only symbolic, it also seeks the safety of those attending. While the eclipse is partial, if you look at the Sun it is absolutely essential to use approved protective glasses. Even if there is only 1% of light it can be enough to damage the eyes. On the other hand, during totality, when the Sun is completely covered, you can look at it without glasses. But the ending can be difficult to discern. As soon as the first rays appear again, the glasses should already be on. Therefore, warning through chimes is a genius. Ringing bells. This ringing will be carried out through two bells that have been acquired by the Association for this special moment. They do not belong to any building, but will be installed on a scaffolding approved for the occasion. The use of bells in history. We are used to associating bells with religious issues. In the Catholic religion, for example, it is quite common for them to be used to notify the start of masses, both those that take place regularly and those that are extraordinary for any reason. However, historically bells have been used for many other purposes. They have been used to warn of fires, neighborhood assemblies or even the passage of livestock. Some of these touches have their own tradition. It is the case of touch try cloudwhich was used to warn of the arrival of a storm and which in some places in Spain was even accompanied by a verse: “Hold on, hold on, God can do more than you.” It is not strange that Navarra has wanted to recover this type of traditions and unite them with the astronomical phenomenon of the year. An event that in the north of Spainperhaps it could also be considered the most important of the decade. Image | Unsplash/NASA In Xataka | The trio of eclipses that await Spain on the horizon: an unprecedented and historic chain between 2026 and 2028

The problem is that there are police officers using it to harass their exes.

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The US authorities have a powerful tool that reads license plates and allows them to reconstruct the movements of any vehicle. This technology, called Flock, has been key in solving hundreds of crimes, but it is also being used by some police officers to monitor and control their partners and ex-partners. what has happened. They count in 404media the case of an agent from Orange City, California, who during the summer of 2024 consulted his ex-partner’s license plate 69 times in the system. In addition, he searched for his mother’s 24 times and his father’s 15 times. Using this data, the agent showed up where she was, but he was also harassing her with constant calls and had even put an AirTag in her wallet. He was accused of harassment and computer crimes and was sentenced to one day in prison and five years of probation. It is not an isolated case. According to an Institute for Justice studyhas not been the only case in which an agent has used license plate readers to stalk their partners or ex-partners. They speak of at least 18 known cases in recent years, these are only those that have ended in a conviction, but it is believed that there will be many more that have not been detected. They cite several cases, from controlling their partners, their ex-partners, and their new partners, to the persecution of strangers, such as a police officer who tracked down and detained a woman he had met on a shoot because he liked her. What is Flock and how does it work?. It is a “public safety technology” company that has a huge network of automatic license plate reading cameras. These cameras record all the cars that pass and a cloud platform stores them, later allowing all the movements of any vehicle to be reconstructed over time. The system also detects matches for warrants, missing persons, and stolen vehicles and issues alerts if a match is found. Very effective, but. As we said, Flock has been key to solving many cases. According to the company itself, up to 700,000 crimes every year they are solved using their technology and defend that crimes that used to go unpunished, such as hit-and-runs, are now investigated and end in arrests. The problem is that A court order is not required to use the system.simply a username and password that any police officer has. Many agents document their searches with vague or false reasons to cover up improper use. What Flock says. In statements to 404media, the company defends itself against the accusations by saying that it is aware of these cases, that they are a minority and that they came to light “thanks to the built-in transparency and accountability functions.” It is true that the audit functions have been useful in detecting some cases, as it is also true that there have been situations of harassment that have continued for years until they have been detected. Furthermore, it is very difficult to audit because the volume of searches is gigantic, so much so that they do not even fit in a single Excel (more than 1 million). Have I been Flocked? That’s what it’s called independent website which was born as a response to this problem. Here citizens can enter their license plate and check if it has been searched on the platform by comparing it with leaked internal records. Flock has pushed for closure this platform, arguing that it allows doxxing to police and could put investigations at risk, but it has not succeeded. Image | Jonathan Lim in Unsplash In Xataka | The 2026 World Cup starts today and brings more than just football: the largest surveillance device at a sporting event

TSMC is on the ropes and its biggest problem is not competition: it is water

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CC Wei, the president and CEO of TSMC, has just participated in the inauguration of the Pingtung technology park, southern Taiwan. The ceremony was held under very intense rain, and the head of the largest chip manufacturing company of the planet has celebrated it publicly: “Last month I was still wondering: what should we do with the water? Should we start using tankers?” Wei has compelling reasons to be concerned about water. In Taiwan it is a very scarce resource, and it is also essential for its semiconductor factories. The integrated circuit production industry faces five major shortages: water, energy, labor, land and talent. And water is probably the most precious resource of all and the most difficult challenge to overcome. Lai Ching-te, the president of Taiwan, has communicated CC Wei the Government’s plans to connect the island’s reservoirs together in a clear attempt to alleviate this problem. The water we are familiar with, such as that which comes from the tap, spring water, and even bottled mineral water, is full of impurities. It contains bacteria, dissolved gases, mineral salts and microscopic particles in suspension. This is not a problem for most of the everyday applications for which we usually use it, but this water is not suitable for making chips. Even the smallest impurity invisible to the human eye is pure poison when involved in the production of cutting-edge semiconductors, such as 2nm integrated circuits which are currently being manufactured by TSMC, Intel and Samsung. Droughts are the biggest threat to TSMC The integrated circuit manufacturing process requires cleaning silicon wafers dozens of times. Every time a geometric pattern is transferred to wafers using lithography, they need to be cleaned. Also after pouring chemical reagents and photoresist fluids on them. However, the water used to remove any residue that may have deposited on the wafer cannot have the slightest impurity. It must be absolutely pure. In fact, the industry standard calls for water with an electrical resistivity of 18.2 megaohms per centimeter, which is the theoretical limit of water purity at room temperature. The problem is that producing ultrapure water is not easy. And it is not because it is necessary to subject it to reverse osmosis in multiple stages and ion exchange treatments. It is also necessary to degas it under vacuum, eliminate any microorganisms that it can contain with ultraviolet light and filter it using membranes expressly designed to capture the slightest impurity. In this article we do not need to delve into these processes, but there is something that we cannot ignore: this treatment consumes energy and requires the use of a large amount of chemicals. Furthermore, a significant part of the water that is processed is not transformed into ultrapure water, so it cannot be used. In 2021 Taiwan faced the most aggressive drought in recent decades In 2021 Taiwan faced the most aggressive drought in recent decades. The reservoirs that supply the north of the island, which is the region where most of the integrated circuit manufacturing plants are located, reached a critical level. This scenario forced the Government to suspend agricultural irrigation in order to protect industrial supply. Even so, TSMC had to resort to tanker trucks to transport water from other areas of the island. This crisis passed, but it exposed a structural vulnerability of an industry that is deeply sensitive to extreme climate phenomena and for which water is as valuable as silicon or some rare earth elements. At the moment TSMC reuses 85% of water that it consumes in its processes, but its plants require so much water daily that the 15% that cannot be reused continues to be a very large amount. Paradoxically, some of the most important chip factories in the US reside in Arizona, which is the second driest state in the country only behind Nevada. Both Intel and TSMC have state-of-the-art plants in this region, and Samsung manages several state-of-the-art factories in Texas, another state where water is not exactly plentiful. Besides, Intel has several very important plants in Israelagain a country for which water is a scarce resource, and, therefore, of great strategic value. The choice of these locations responds to geostrategic and geopolitical factors, and not to planning that prioritizes sustainability. In addition, there is another unappealable reality that further complicates this panorama: the most advanced integrated circuit manufacturing nodes. consume more ultrapure water than mature nodes. A 3nm chip from TSMC goes through more than 1,000 individual stages, and many of them require washing with ultrapure water As transistors become smaller and chips become more sophisticated, the number of stages required for their production process is higher, making it necessary to clean the wafers with ultrapure water more times. A 3nm semiconductor from TSMC goes through more than 1,000 individual stages, many of which require washing with ultrapure water. 2nm chips are even more demanding, and those that will arrive in the future will surely multiply water consumption. The problem faced by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, GlobalFoundries and other semiconductor manufacturers is daunting. These companies are developing solutions, but at the moment they are not enough. TSMC, Samsung and Intel have very advanced water recycling and reuse programs. In addition, these companies are developing dry cleaning systems for wafers using reactive plasmas instead of water for use in some steps. And they are even looking for new materials for the ultrapure water distribution pipes with the purpose of minimizing losses in the circulation system. The problem is that these solutions do not eliminate the deep dependence that chip factories have on water. The definitive solution has not yet arrived. And it is urgent. It is very urgent. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters In Xataka | ChatGPT blocking mode: what it is, what it is for, who can use it and how to activate it In Xataka | AI is replacing one of the most hated jobs in the world: the tailcoat collector

Greece wanted to put AI to monitor traffic. The problem came when the fines had to be reviewed

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Putting cameras with artificial intelligence to monitor traffic sounds, on paper, like an almost inevitable solution: less paperwork, more speed and an administration capable of detecting violations without depending on an agent being in the right place. The problem appears when that promise comes down to the asphalt and what we have seen in Greece forces us to ask a much more difficult question for any automated system: what happens when the machine flags a possible infraction, but then someone has to check if it really existed. The problem. Ta Nea published a figure which forces us to look at the system from the inside, not only in terms of the fines that reach the driver. According to the Greek media, during the pilot phase the percentage of failures or incorrect registrations would have reached between 90% and 95%. The scale helps to understand the problem: of 5,500 records generated by the system, only 400 were validated as correct after review by the Greek Police. The remaining cases included 1,300 cases attributed to cell phone use and 3,800 due to speeding that were eventually discarded. The key. The Greek system provides for a long chain: cameras record a possible infringement, this information goes through validation by the competent authority and only then can it be broadcast and digitally notified to the citizen. That is why Ta Nea’s data is so relevant. It does not simply point to drivers who resort after receiving a sanction, but to a previous bottleneck: a huge amount of records that the system generates and that the Police have to review before considering them good. New violation management model. Greece has a pilot phase since the end of March the Digital Traffic Violations Certification System, designed to gradually replace handwritten fines with a digital registration and processing process. In this first stage, two main sources intervene: the cameras of the public transport company OSY in the bus lanes, aimed at traffic and parking violations, and the network of “smart” cameras linked to the Ministry of Digital Governance. Then comes another plane. Until May 30, 2026, according to Euronewsthe new mechanism had generated 2,453 digital fines, for which 420 allegations were presented, 17.12% of the total. Of those claims, 52 were accepted, equivalent to 2.11% of all fines issued. Most of the accepted cases were related to technical or procedural issues, such as time differences, difficult-to-read data or exceptions linked to seat belt use. The distinction. One thing is the records that the camera generates and that must then go through police review before becoming a valid sanction. Another thing is the fines that have already passed that filter, have been issued, have been notified to the citizen and can then be the subject of allegations. In other words: the system has a human review before the fine arrives, but that does not prevent some drivers from continuing to appeal sanctions that had already gone through that circuit. Conflict point. As explained by a transportation expert cited by Ta Nea, the failure would not be so much in external violations as in those that occur inside the vehicle. Running a red light or driving over the speed limit can be recorded more faithfully, while detecting whether someone is wearing a seatbelt or using a cell phone depends on much more variable factors. Shadows, colors, camera angles or objects such as a cigarette can alter the reading and turn a questionable image into an alleged infringement. Images | Greek Ministry of Digital Governance In Xataka | A German driver set out to discover how much he could stretch the tank of his old diesel car. And he has done 2,400 kilometers

We thought that the problem of insomnia was on the mobile screen. Science points to the harmless five o’clock coffee

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There is a ritual that many of us follow without questioning it. We arrived at five in the afternoon with our brains fried, we ordered a coffee—or a tea, or a Coca-Cola—and we continued. It’s the push we need to get through the rest of the day. What almost no one knows is that that five o’clock coffee may be sabotaging your eleven o’clock sleep. What we usually do when we don’t sleep well is point to our cell phone, stress, late dinner, or looping thoughts. We rarely point to the cup. And yet, for doctor Pablo Ferrero, a specialist in sleep medicine, the answer is there: “Caffeine is the number one enemy of good rest.” The chemistry behind the problem. To understand why caffeine is so disruptive, you have to know adenosine. It is a substance that the brain accumulates during waking hours and that, when it reaches a certain level, gives us that feeling of tiredness, that it is time to stop. It is, in a certain sense, the biological alarm of sleep. What caffeine does is to block adenosine receptors: Silences the alarm without disabling actual fatigue. The body continues to accumulate fatigue, but the brain stops perceiving it. The problem is not just that it is difficult to fall asleep. It’s what happens inside while we sleep. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that a dose of 400 milligrams of caffeine consumed six hours before bedtime significantly reduced sleep efficiency. Other job in Neuropsychopharmacology was more specific: Consuming caffeine before bed reduces the amount of REM sleep, the phase in which the brain consolidates memories and regulates mood. More in depth. The numbers They are concrete and not very reassuring.: That dose can delay sleep onset by up to 45 minutes and reduce deep sleep—NREM phases 3 and 4—by up to 20%. Taken to everyday practice: if you have a coffee at 5:00 p.m. and go to bed at 11:00 p.m., your deep sleep can go from the usual 120 minutes to just 96. That’s 24 minutes less brain and physical repair. Nightly. But there is something even more disturbing: a scientific review published in the magazine Nutrients concluded that caffeine can reduce deep sleep even when the person sleeps eight hours continuously. That is, it is not enough to add hours. Quality does not always coincide with the perception of having a good rest. You can wake up thinking you’ve had a great night’s sleep while your brain hasn’t gone through the cycles it needed. Time matters. One of the most common mistakes is to think that afternoon coffee “no longer works” because you are used to it. Tolerance reduces the perception of the stimulus, but The half-life of caffeine in the body is between 4 and 9 hours: That means that half of what you drank at three in the afternoon is still active at eleven at night. And the problem is not limited to coffee. Caffeine is also present in some soft drinks, energy drinks, teas and chocolates, something that Ferrero expressly points out as a factor that goes unnoticed. It’s not just the breakfast cup: it’s the entire consumption circuit of the day. The broken clock. Caffeine, however, does not act alone. Ferrero points to another factor that can be even more decisive: schedule disorder. The body works through the circadian rhythman internal biological clock that regulates when we feel sleepy and when we are alert. When schedules constantly change—we go to bed at eleven Monday through Thursday and one o’clock on Fridays and Saturdays, and we get up three hours later on Sunday—that system loses synchronization. science back this up with data: Sleeping at irregular hours can cause insomnia, daytime sleepiness and alter hormone production, metabolism and eating habits, increasing the risk of diseases such as diabetes, obesity and depression. The impact don’t stop feeling tired Since while we sleep, the brain eliminates the beta-amyloid protein, accumulated during wakefulness and directly related to Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders. Poor sleep is not just a tomorrow’s problem: it is a long-term investment—or debt. The motive is not innocent either. But the mechanism is more precise than is usually explained. The blue light emitted by screens suppresses the production of melatonin, the hormone that signals the brain it’s time to sleep. A study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health warned that this overexposure directly alters the sleep-wake cycle. Just two hours of exposure to bright screens before bed can reduce melatonin levels by 20% or moreand the time to fall asleep can go from 15 minutes to more than an hour. Using a tablet before going to sleep can delay nighttime sleep by up to 96 minutes; that of a smartphone, up to 67. Harvard Medical School noted that “just a few minutes of screen stimulation can delay the release of melatonin by several hours and desynchronize the biological clock.” The problem is that we live in a society with increasingly irregular patterns: high light exposure at night, changing work schedules, screens until the last minute. We are sending our brain signals that it is still daytime when it is no longer daytime. So what works? Ferrero’s answer is not particularly glamorous, but it is supported by evidence. Going to bed and getting up at similar times every day—even on weekends—is the most basic and most ignored advice. Added to this is a dark, quiet and cool bedroom: artificial light and high temperatures send alert signals to the brain that make it difficult to rest. Avoid screens before going to bed—at least 30 minutes—and have a light dinner, without excess fats or spicy food, close to bedtime. For those who do not have insomnia, a short nap may be beneficial; The key is that it does not exceed 25 minutes so as not to disturb your night’s sleep. And in the face of anxiety or thoughts in a loop, Ferrero points out tools with scientific evidence: … Read more

In 2014, Larry Page bought two private islands for $23 million. The problem is that they already had an owner and he won’t let them go.

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Buying a private island is not as easy as it seems. Especially if someone had already bought it before you. That is, broadly speaking, what the American justice system has been discussing for more than a decade, when Larry Page bought two of the five private islands that it has in the Virgin Islands area. The case has a little bit of everything: companies that negotiate in the shadows, a furious New York real estate developer and one of the co-founders of Google who, according to the documents that are coming to light in the trial, did everything possible so that no one knew that it was he who bought the island. Twelve years later, the dispute over ownership of the islands is still open, but the islands, meanwhile, remain in the hands of Larry Page. Two islands, two buyers. Great Hans Lollik and Little Hans Lollik are two small private islands in the archipelago of the US Virgin Islands. They are just over two kilometers from the north coast of the main island, Saint Thomas, and are located in a privileged enclave because they are surrounded by coral reefs and practically uninhabited, except for a few herds of invasive goats. In 2014, a company based in Palo Alto (California) appeared out of nowhere and bought the two islands that were for sale, closing a transaction worth $23 million, according to collected Business Insider. The problem is that a New York developer named James Eckel had been negotiating the purchase of the property for months. He had even offered 9 million dollars. The deal had not been closed, but he claimed to have a contract that gave him preference in the operation. When the Palo Alto company put its generous offer on the table, the seller chose 23 million and the developer was left hanging. That didn’t sit well with him. Trial for negotiating behind his back. From Eckel’s perspective, the seller (a company called Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company) had committed to him in a sales contract, which he then ignored when a better offer appeared. So he went to court to claim ownership of the islands. What came next has been a decade of pilgrimage through the courts of Texas and the Virgin Islands. In 2019, a court of appeal of Texas ruled that Eckel was only entitled to compensation for economic damages, but not to ownership of the islands. But that didn’t close the case. The family office which manages Page’s estate and through which the purchase was made, sued Eckel’s company (called Great Hans LLC) to have the courts officially declare that the islands belong to him without any legal burden, so that the developer could not claim ownership again in the future. That process remains unresolved today, despite the fact that Page’s lawyers have been asking the judge to act for years. The opacity of fortunes. The most striking thing about the case is not only the dispute over the ownership of the islands. This is the time it took to find out who the real buyer of the properties was because they found themselves behind a thick corporate framework that protected his identity. The company that acquired the islands was Virgin Island Properties LLC, a limited liability company without a name behind it to reveal who put up the money with which the purchase was made. In fact, as as highlighted Business Insiderit took months of court proceedings and investigations for Eckel’s lawyers to reach Wayne Osborne, the man who manages the assets from Page since 2012. Osborne then confirmed that the purchase was for Page. In his statement he also explained that the islands had been acquired without the intention of building on them, and that the agent who negotiated the transaction (Gil Simon) did not reveal to the seller the identity of the actual buyer. It is a common practice in the operation of companies who manage large assets like that of the co-founder of Google: no document of the operation directly or indirectly mentioned Larry Page. The family office most discreet in the technological world. This trial has served as a window, albeit a very small one, to see how they work management structures of one of the family office most hermetic that exist…even for such a discreet area how is the one of the family office. The company that manages the 290.9 billion dollars of the second richest man in the world It’s called Koop and is based in Palo Alto. His philosophy is total opacity and to achieve it, employees sign confidentiality agreements before entering, LinkedIn profiles are deliberately vague and internal security is supervised by a former CIA agent, as revealed in a exclusive research of Business Insider in 2022. The entire society is organized so that Page does not appear in any of the documents of his own purchases. That is, keep the millionaire as far away as possible from his possessions, so that it is difficult to unravel the corporate network that is woven between the property and who really owns it. In fact, these companies do their job so well that when the judges in the Epstein case tried to locate Larry Page in 2023 to take a statement Regarding his role in the plot, a private investigation firm was unable to find a mailing address for him. It is not that Larry Page did not have a habitual residence, but that everything was designed so that he could not be linked to any real address. In Xataka | The most luxurious “hotel” in the world costs $70,000 a night because it’s not a hotel: it’s an LVMH private island Image | Flickr (Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

The United Kingdom is experiencing a new invasion. The problem is that they are octopuses and they are devouring everything they can find.

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When explorer John Cabot returned from Newfoundland in 1497, assured who had found seas so full of fish that they could captured with simple baskets weighted with stones. That abundance seemed inexhaustible, but more than five centuries later, British waters are once again starring in a story of marine overpopulation, although with very different protagonists. An unexpected invasion. For decades, encountering a common octopus off the coast of south-west England was a rare event for even the most experienced divers. However, in just a few years the situation has changed. radically. What started as a striking increase of sightings has become the largest population explosion of octopuses recorded in at least 75 years. The animals have colonized extensive areas of the British coast, expanding from Devon and Cornwall to Wales, Dorset, Sussex and even Scotland, becoming one of the most surprising marine phenomena that the United Kingdom has experienced in recent times. Perfect weather and conditions. Scientists believe that this expansion is the result of several factors that have coincided at the same time. The juvenile octopuses probably arrived from breeding areas around the English Channel and northern France, but the real difference has been the progressive warming of British waters. Mild winters and warmer breeding seasons have allowed them to survive in much greater numbers and, more importantly, to begin to reproduce successfully in UK waters. The appearance of juvenile specimens confirms that they are no longer simply occasional visitors, but rather a population capable of completing their entire life cycle on these coasts. The big losers. The massive arrival of octopuses is having devastating consequences for part of the traditional fishing. These animals are extraordinarily efficient predators and consume huge quantities of seafood every day. Fishermen began finding empty traps, missing lobsters and ruined catches. In some areas, those who depended on crustacean fishing have seen plummets in between 70% and 100% of their catches. In fact, some businesses have closed and some owners have even sold their boats. The researchers they calculate that octopuses are consuming tons of seafood daily, altering a food chain that had been functioning relatively stable for decades. The same plague that ruins some enriches others. The paradox is that the crisis has also generated an economic opportunity unexpected. Where lobsters and crabs were once caught, octopuses now abound. Many fishermen have quickly adapted their gear and have begun to catch them to supply a growing demand in European markets. The result has been spectacular. Brixham recently sold more than 100 tons of octopus in a single day, generating more than half a million pounds in sales. Some professionals claim that they are obtaining income several times higher than what they achieved with traditional fishing, causing a real fever to catch octopuses along the coast. A reorganized ecosystem. The phenomenon goes far beyond the fishing economy. Octopuses are profoundly altering the relationships between species. While they consume large quantities of crustaceans and mollusks, they have also become food for seals, conger eels and Risso’s dolphins. The researchers describe the situation as a complete reconfiguration of the marine ecosystem, a process in which each change triggers new ones. The feeling among scientists is that British waters are going through a period of ecological transition in which the rules that seemed established for generations are no longer valid. The big difference from previous invasions. Although similar population explosions were already recorded at the beginning of the 20th century, in the 1930s and 1950s, researchers believe that this time the situation can be different. In previous episodes, the octopuses ended up disappearing when conditions changed again. Now, however, winters cold enough to drastically reduce their populations have been going on for more than a decade without production. Evidence of local reproduction and the presence of young specimens suggest that octopuses may have ceased to be occasional visitors and become permanent inhabitants of British coasts. Preparing for a new reality. The magnitude of the phenomenon is already forcing the authorities to react. In Cornwall, for example, they study emergency restrictions to limit the number of boats dedicated to capturing octopuses for fear of excessive exploitation of a population that, paradoxically, seemed inexhaustible just a few months ago. Meanwhile, scientists, fishermen and resource managers are trying to understand what this transformation really means. The big lesson is that ocean warming not only changes temperatures or currents, but can change them completely. who dominates an ecosystem. And on British shores, the new protagonists seem to be animals that until very recently were a rarity and that are now devouring everything in their path. Careful, Galicia. Image | prilfishPixabay In Xataka | We knew that octopuses were very intelligent. But not to the point of having a “brain” in each arm In Xataka | The most intimate secret of octopuses: their ‘loving arm’ not only fertilizes, it also tastes the female

It took an engineer 17 years to build the Lamborghini Countach of his dreams from the basement of his house. The problem was getting it out.

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There are motor fans. And then there’s Ken Imhoff. And this engineer from Wisconsin was not satisfied with having a poster of the Lamborghini Countach on his wall or with saving for years to buy one. He decided to make it himselfby hand, in the basement of his house. It took him 17 years. a movie. It all started in 1990, when Imhoff saw ‘Cannonball Run‘ (1981), directed by Hal Needham and featuring a Lamborghini Countach LP 400 S. Imhoff was amazed enough to make a decision that, seen from the outside, sounds crazy: build his own Lamborghini from scratch. How to build a Lamborghini in a basement. Imhoff began the project by erecting a wooden structure that served as a mold to shape the body panels. To work the aluminum he used an English wheel, a forming tool that allows you to create complex curves in sheet metal. He had to learn the hard way that welding too much at once causes deformations in the metal, so he perfected the technique with short, controlled welding points. The chassis is made of steel tube and the body is entirely made of aluminum. The model he used as a reference was the 1982 Countach LP 5000S. Details. To make the result as faithful as possible to the original, Imhoff incorporated authentic Lamborghini parts, such as the taillights, position lights, windshield and emblems. He even had replicas of the original wheels made from scratch. Where he did have to improvise was in the engine. And without the possibility of fitting an Italian V12, he opted for a Ford 351 Cleveland block, with forged pistons, polished cylinder heads and a more aggressive camshaft. The result was 514 horsepower at 6,800 rpm, according to collect CarBuzz. The transmission is a ZF five-speed and the suspension comes from a C4 Corvette. The whole thing weighs about 1,220 kilos, significantly less than a production Countach. The finish, almost at the level of a professional workshop. The body was painted in pearlescent metallic gray, a finish that has its own because it is usually more sensitive to any imperfection. The painting process was done in a professional paint booth, piece by piece (33 in total) because there was no way to get the booth into the basement. Each panel came out of the basement, was painted and carefully brought back down. Final sanding was done with 1,500 and 2,000 grit sandpaper, followed by three passes of the polisher. Just like point YouTube channel Wonder World, the shine achieved was difficult to distinguish from that of a factory car, according to those who saw it. Getting it out was an issue.. After 17 years working in the basement, Imhoff was faced with the task of removing the completed car from there. And one may wonder… Why wasn’t the project done outside or in the garage of his house? Well, according to Wonder World, Imhoff decided to do it there because the winters in his town are extremely cold, so he preferred to spend time in the basement, which is warmer. To get it out, they dug a dirt ramp outside, removed part of the basement wall and, with the help of a backhoe and some chains, pulled the car out by pulling it up the ramp over an improvised metal structure. It was the first time in 17 years that Imhoff was able to see his work in sunlight. On sale. Years after removing it from the basement, Imhoff noticed that the car was beginning to show signs of corrosion and concluded that he was not taking the proper care of it. “I’m doing you a disservice” and “actually it probably belongs to someone who may appreciate it more than I do,” counted Imhoff in words collected by the channel. So he put it up for sale on eBay with a starting price of $75,000. The bid reached 77,600, but the reserve price was not reached, so it did not end up selling on that occasion. Imhoff had invested around $65,000 in the project over almost two decades, as he confirmed. Ultimately, the car ended up selling to a Florida buyer for approximately $89,000, according to Wonder World. Since then, the car has continued to increase in value, as the Lambocars site public in 2023 that the current owner asked for $229,000 for it. It may seem absurd to have spent so much time building something and for the outcome to have been this. However, Imhoff ended up being honest with himself and decided that the value was not in having it, but in having built it and fulfilling his dream. In Xataka | This Aston Martin DB9 was sold for $57,000, but the craziest thing is not its price: it is the two flamethrowers it hides

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