problem

Spain’s problem is not the lack of buildable land. It is a huge land jam that blocks three million apartments in cities

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The brick crisis at the beginning of the century may be left far behind in time; But the truth is that, almost 20 years after the bubble burst, the sector has not yet recovered from its hangover. And that has dragged it into a paradox: although the country drags a serious deficit residential (some 700,000 homes) and prices they don’t stop going upin Spain there is a huge amount of immobilized buildable land, plots that after the crisis have ended up in the hands of municipalities incapable of promoting housing on them or of groups, funds and companies that have not been able to develop them or have not considered it viable. It might seem like a minor issue if it weren’t for the fact that there are calculations who estimate that that ‘big traffic jam’ of land is costing the cities of Spain 2.9 million potential apartments. That is, houses that could be built on developed lots, but for one reason or another they still do not go beyond paper. Just over half (1.5 million) are also concentrated in the 15 main metropolises. One figure: 1.5 million. The data comes from a study published in the last notebook of the Civic Circle of Opinion by Ignacio Ezquiagaeconomist and expert in the real estate sector. In it he basically dedicates himself to reviewing the “pending planned housing” in the main urban areas of the country. These are apartments and houses that should be built on plots of land in an “advanced state of urban development” or sectorialized (endorsed by a plan and the corresponding city council), but that still do not go from paper to work. Why is it important? Because as Ezquiaga’s study recalls, that bag of land could accommodate millions and millions of new homes. To be precise, it speaks of about seven million properties, although a good part is located in rural areas where the gap between supply and demand is not as serious as in the capitals. If we focus on the 86 urban areas of Spain, we find vacant land with the potential to host 2.93 million of housing. If we refine the shot even further and limit ourselves to the 15 main metropolitan areas of Spain, the figure remains at around 1.51 million homes. Of these, half a million would be located in areas with already urbanized land. Madrid, in the lead. In your studioEzquiaga includes a table prepared with data from the Ministry of Housing that shows that the largest housing stock planned and pending execution is located in the Madrid area, at least if we talk about raw figures. There the potential is 351,000 properties, almost 15% of the total existing housing stock in 2021. The potential is equally high in Murcia (226,600 units), Seville (142,900) and Barcelona (142,900), although in general terms it adds up to thousands of homes in all areas of the country. The smallest is Palma, with almost 12,000. In “dead hands”. To understand part of this large pool of stuck housing we have to go back almost two decades ago, to the bursting of the real estate bubble and its subsequent hangover. When brick ceased to be the business of the century and many developers were forced to close, the plots that had recently hosted residential projects began to become an asset with an uncertain future. A part ended up in private hands. Another, from the town councils. Their casuistries are different, but in the end the result is the same: what Ezquiaga calls properties in “dead hands”parked plots, stuck despite having the potential to inject millions of homes into a market that, 20 years later, is once again tense. “Judging by its urban status, blocked for more than two decades in which many have remained vacant, these are not temporary but structural situations; that is why they remind us, overcoming the distance, of those owners who went down in history as dead hands,” reflect. Who controls that land? As remember The Country There are two major fronts. 30% has remained in the hands of municipal administrations that once received them from the developers as part of the land that they had to give up to carry out their real estate projects. The problem is that not all town councils have the capacity, will or simply the resources to take advantage of that land and convert it into public housing (VPO). The result is that it ends up blocked, up for sale or redirected towards other uses, such as endowment services. The remaining 70% of the land depends on private entities, but that does not guarantee that it will be exploited and converted into housing. The key is whether or not its development is profitable. And if they can finance it. This also explains that when city councils opt for public-private collaborations to take advantage of the land they control, they do not always find partners willing to embark on the projects. One of the keys is provided by Ezquiaga in your studio: The 15 main metropolitan areas in Spain have land with potential for a million and a half homes, but only a third are located in environments with already developed land. “Vacant land”. Last year, in another study published by the think tank Funcas on the Sareb, Ezquiaga I already warned of the complexity of the scenario: “With a development industry with lower capacities compared to previous decades, the original projects were discontinued. Thus, many of the still viable lands would not adapt to the regulatory changes or the new territorial needs, paralyzing them and contributing to a surplus of vacant lands with negative consequences on the valuation of Sareb’s portfolio and, above all, for the long-term generation of new residential supply.” He is not the only one who has drawn attention to the land with still pending potential in the cities of Spain. The Ministry of Housing itself has analyzed the main pockets of land available in Spain for new apartments, focusing above … Read more

China has been using trams without rails or catenary for years. The problem is that they are not as revolutionary as they seem.

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Imagine a tram that runs on the asphalt like a bus, without needing rails, without overhead cables to feed on and without a driver. That is exactly ARTor Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, a technology that China has been developing for more than a decade and that already operates in several cities in the country. An idea that comes from afar, although it may not seem like it. Chinese manufacturer CRRC, the world’s largest producer of railway equipment, presented the first prototype in Zhuzhou, China, in June 2017. The first commercial line It started in that same city in May 2018, with a route of just 3.2 kilometers. Since then, the system has nine operating lines in five Chinese cities. Yibin (Sichuan) was the second to joinin 2019, with a 17.7 kilometer line. Later came Xi’an, Yancheng and Yongxiu, where ART circulates both on a demonstration and commercial basis. Click on the image to play the video How it works. The ART It is, in essence, an articulated bus large that imitates the shape and capacity of a tram, but without requiring the infrastructure that makes trams expensive. The vehicle does not follow physical rails, but rather what CRRC calls a “virtual rail”: a set of marks painted on the asphalt (white dashed lines) that the guidance system reads in real time using optical cameras and LIDAR sensors. A GPS system complements the navigation. With three carriages, it measures about 30 meters and can transport up to 300 passengers; With five cars, it reaches 500. Its maximum speed is 70 km/h. The propulsion is 100% electric. Initial versions used supercapacitors (which charge very quickly at stops, but store little energy) and batteries. At InnoTrans 2024, one of the largest public transport fairs in Berlin, CRRC presented an evolved version that incorporates hydrogen propulsiondesigned especially for markets like Malaysia. The “autonomous” thing is nuanced. Here in this case marketing can be misleading. Although the acronym ART includes the word autonomous, all ART vehicles in operation still operate with a driver, using optical guidance for assistance. They are not autonomous driving vehicles in the strict sense of the word. The driver supervises the journey and takes control in the event of any incident. Why is it cheaper? The great promise of ART is the cost. According to CRRC data shared According to The Conversation, deploying a kilometer of this technology costs between 7 and 15 million dollars, compared to 20-30 million per kilometer for a conventional tram or 70-150 million for the subway. There is no digging, no catenary to lay, no rails to install. In principle, it is enough to paint markings on the asphalt and segregate a lane. However, according to they count researchers from the University of Sydney in the middle, that advantage has fine print. As the vehicle travels exactly the same route over and over again, with the wheels always stepping on the same points of the asphalt, the surface ends up deteriorating more quickly than on a conventional road. A study published in 2021 by transportation researchers James Raynolds, David Pham and Graham Currie found evidence of significant pavement wear, which may require structural reinforcement of the roadway. A process that, in some estimates, ends up being as expensive as installing rails directly. Where can you see it today? ARTs continue to be vehicles with the greatest presence in China. Outside this country, progress is modest, and its record is not devoid of failures. Indonesia, for example, purchased a vehicle which was returned to China after tests in Nusantara (the new capital under construction) when it was found that the autonomous control system was not working optimally and required constant manual intervention. In Abu Dhabi two units were tested under the TXAI brand, with a view to connecting the main tourist attractions of Yas Island. In Malaysia, Putrajaya launched a pilot project in February 2024. In Auckland, New Zealand, negotiations with CRRC broke down after the manufacturer demanded that the city purchase the vehicle at the end of the demonstration, something that Auckland Transport did not end up liking. Japan, for its part, study a similar concept (with hydrogen propulsion) to connect the Mount Fuji area with the tourist centers of Yamanashi. Although the regional governor preferred that the project be entrusted to Japanese companies, and not to CRRC. Cover image | Wikipedia In Xataka | China created the C919 to stand up to Airbus and Boeing. And we already have data to know if it is being successful

The problem of depopulation and the incredible demographic polarization of Europe, on a bleak map

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Europe is experiencing a silent paradox: its total population is growing in recent decades and yet, half of its towns and cities today have fewer inhabitants than in the 1960s. Special mention deserves cities like Madrid, Athens or Lisbon, truly out of control in front of the wastelands that are right next door. It is the consequence of decades of rural exodus, falling birth rates and migratory flows. Beyond colors and figures, this has a direct consequence in those municipalities that are dying: schools that close, doctors without substitutes and trains that no longer stop at stations. The map shows the population change municipality to municipality in Europe between 1961 and 2024. Green indicates growth and red indicates loss of inhabitants. Be careful because there are places where the growth is 500% and others where the drop reaches 80%. It covers around 100,000 municipalities in 32 countries: all EU states plus the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. This magnificent map is the work of Correctiv with data from the Eurostat Joint Research Center (JRC) based on a 63-year municipal historical series with homogeneous borders. How has he achieved it? The JRC has used satellite images of residential building volume as an indicator of where people lived in each era, and cross-referenced that information with harmonized Eurostat censuses. We recommend visiting the website of Correctiv for an in-depth view of its infographic with animations, where it also allows you to filter by two periods: from 61 to 91 and from 91 to 2024 and more or less around that time there is a historical milestone that marks the future of the East: the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the 32 countries analyzed, one in five rural municipalities has lost more than half of its population in these 60 years. Is the consequence of the urbanization of the 20th century: industry concentrated employment in the cities and the service economies that came later gave the finishing touch. Rural areas, on the other hand, live in a vicious circle: the more services are closed, the more depopulation, and so on. We are talking about bank branches, bakeries, consultations… The demographer Claudia Neu warns that the aging of European societies is the greatest challenge and that health and care costs will fall on this young generation, let us remember is increasingly scarce. The Europe of Schrödinger: grows and empties at the same time Population change in Europe: 1961 – 2024. Correctiv Europe is the oldest continent on the planet: has a birth rate average below 1.5 children per woman, looking from afar at that 2.1 that stipulates the replacement level. In Italy and Spain it is 1.3. The budding demographic pyramid in a system designed to function under constant growth, that is, the pressure of health, care and pensions falls on a base that narrows each year. In fact, the Center for European Reform He already says it loud and clear: only immigration can save us. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of European borders triggered a large migratory flow from the former Soviet bloc to the west. 88% of municipalities in eastern Germany have lost population since 1991, compared to only 26% in the west. Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania and Latvia lead a unique decline in European history without wars involved. In fact, Bulgaria takes the cake: the Vidin region has lost 61% of its population. In Lithuania there is a contradiction: while 73% of its municipalities have shrunk, the capital has tripled. But what am I going to tell you if you live in Spain. Spain is the maximum expression of this trend. Correctiv Because Spain embodies the paradox of the map like no one else: Eight of the ten fastest growing municipalities in all of Europe are municipalities on the outskirts of Madrid. Meanwhile, Villarroya in Rioja has lost 98% of its inhabitants since 1961. Spain emptied. Be careful, Spain is not emptied as a whole, but it is polarized: it grows on the coasts and the big cities and bleeds into the interior. The immediate future does not invite optimism: the INE projects that the Spanish state will always have more deaths than births during the next fifteen years and that the percentage of people over 65 years of age, which today is 20.4%, will exceed 30% by 2055. The only safety valve to sustain the numbers is immigration: net inflows are projected to be around 375,000 people per year until mid-century, that is, by 2050 4 out of every 10 residents of the Spanish state will be born outside In Xataka | There is a very simple reason why it has taken Spain so long to have fiber optics in rural areas: this map In Xataka | Empty Europe: this is how the population has moved from the countryside to the city in just ten years Cover | Correctiv

The biggest problem with living on the Moon is its nights. NASA believes it has found the solution to avoid running out of electricity

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If we want to build bases on the Moon or on Mars, we must work on the development of technologies that make the lives of lunar colonists easier. For example, it is important to think about ways to obtain energy. In the case of Mars, there are already scientists working on methods to obtain electricity using carbon dioxide from your atmosphere. But the ideal would be to be able to use batteries. They would have to be rechargeable batteries, since there are no containers for batteries on the Moon (on Earth there are, throw them away where they belong). The problem is that lunar nights are very long, so solar energy cannot be used to obtain electricity to recharge them. Therefore, NASA scientists they are already working in rechargeable batteries that generate and store energy in a very original way. Only two ingredients. The battery in question, called a regenerative fuel cell, contains hydrogen and oxygen gases, which combine to give rise to water. In this reaction, heat and electricity are generated, which can be used to supply the devices necessary for astronauts’ daily lives. Once no more energy is needed, the water molecules break down, giving rise to hydrogen and oxygen, which are saved for when it is necessary to start again. Thus, the fuel is not wasted. It regenerates. Big as a human being. Let’s not think about small batteries like the ones we use at home. Not even in batteries like those in a car. This regenerative fuel cell is much larger. It is practically the height of a human being and the length of a sedan car. First tests. In 2025, the basic components were tested to verify that the previous design technology was viable. Right now NASA scientists are doing more advanced tests, with the aim of analyzing whether the fuel regenerates properly. In a test cell, the system can be operated remotely. Furthermore, once the test has started, it can continue autonomously, without intervention from the researchers. Learnings. Everything is expected to go well in the tests. But, in any case, there will be learnings that serve to perfect the device. After five years of development, the prototype has advanced a lot, but these types of experiments are what really help to perfect a technology of this caliber. Heading to the Moon. Once the tests are completed, the goal is to repeat them in an environment that simulates lunar conditions. Theoretically, the battery is designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of the Moon, even on its cold two-week Earth nights. If all goes well, the technology would be ready to be used. in the Artemis program. This is the objective with which this battery of 270 sensors and 1,000 components was designed. There will be time to think about Mars. At the moment, the closest target on the horizon is our satellite. We need energy to stay on its surface. Image | NASA/Magnific In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

Emirates and Oman are building a $3 billion megatrain. The problem is that it crosses a drone battlefield

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In the midst of a geopolitical climate where tension cut with a knifean infrastructure megaproject emerges in the Middle East that challenges the context of conflict. It is about the construction of the first cross-border rail network of the region. Promoted by Etihad Rail, Oman Rail and Mubadala, this plan proposes a corridor that will integrate the national network of the United Arab Emirates with the strategic port of Sohar, in the Sultanate of Oman. However, the immense work advances under a dense shadow. While the pillars of this train are being raised, the region is going through what in practice It’s the Third Gulf War. The impact of a commercial revolution. To understand the magnitude of “Hafeet Rail”, just look at their economic projections. This mixed corridor—designed for both passengers and cargo—promises to radically transform the flow of trade in the Gulf and lower logistics costs. The network has a monumental investment which is around 3,000 million dollars, equivalent to about 2,500 million euros. Additionally, the infrastructure will link five major ports and more than fifteen integrated cargo facilities directly. The benefits, however, will not be exclusive to maritime trade. For the average citizen, this line will mean an unprecedented change: the trip between Abu Dhabi and Sohar, which currently takes more than three hours on winding roads, will be reduced to just 100 minutes. In addition, it will offer a reliable alternative that will eliminate the usual and costly delays at border crossings. The challenge of operating in a disputed region. The main route of the project will cover a length of 238 kilometers. On these new generation tracks, passenger trains will be able to reach speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, while heavy cargo convoys will circulate at a maximum of 120 km/h to optimize international shipping times. Far from being a mirage in the desert, construction is now a tangible and has reached 40% overall progress. On the rugged terrain, backhoes have completed more than 27 million cubic meters of earthworks, and there are currently 80 key structures in different stages of construction. The big question: can it work? Military analysts warn that the recent proliferation of cheap drone attacks has shown that facilities previously considered untouchable are today extremely vulnerable. The fact that the United Arab Emirates host allied infrastructure and bases It makes them latent targets within this tense regional board, adding enormous operational risk to any large connectivity project. Technological avant-garde. On a technical level, the project does not skimp on innovation. According to the technical documentationthe railway fleet will be equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS Level 2), considered the most advanced and safest in the world in its category. This system, which will be implemented by a joint venture between Siemens and HAC, will allow absolute digital tracking and control of trains using GPS technology. Regarding the execution of the challenging civil works, these were awarded to an Omani-Emirati consortium led by Trojan Construction Group (NPC) and Galfar Engineering and Contracting. A milestone that the consortia particularly celebrate is the extreme workplace safety achieved: to date, 10 million hours of work have been recorded in the field without reporting serious accidents. Closing a historical gap. Beyond the colossal engineering figures, the project carries a deep cultural weight. The unified network has recently adopted the identity of “Hafeet Rail”, a direct tribute to the Jebel Hafeet, the imposing mountain and limestone formation that extends between the borders of both countries and that has historically served as a geographical bridge. Despite business optimism, the success of the operation will not depend solely on laying tracks. Monumental bureaucratic challenges await ahead, such as regulatory coordination between the two sovereign nations and the fluid articulation of port and customs services. In the end, time will tell if the shared vision of progress prevails. For now, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are committed to full economic integration and the creation of a new artery for global trade; All of this, paradoxically, at a time when its immediate environment is navigating a hybrid war defined by uncertainty, intermittent blockades and air threats. It is, in short, a bullet train making its way through a minefield; the maximum expression of risk and ambition in the heart of the Middle East. Image | Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash Xataka | The US believes that the war in the Persian Gulf is over. Iran believes that it will decide that when it considers

The problem with eating chocolate at 11 at night is not the calories, it is what it does to your sleep

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There are people who follow authentic rituals before going to sleep, such as a good shower to release all the tension of the day, but also take a little black chocolate so you can sweeten your mouth before going to sleep. A practice that for many is something that is an aberration, but to know if it is really a bad idea to do it, we have to turn to science and the studies that exist about chocolate. A principle against. For the detractors of nighttime chocolate, the enemy is not sugar as such, but the chocolate itself and how rich it is in the methylxanthineswhich are alkaloids that stimulate the central nervous system. And here are two that stand out above others, such as the caffeinewhich is quite well known, and theobromine, which is the main stimulant in dark chocolate. Here the scientific reviews they point that these substances act by blocking the receptors where adenosine binds to act. And it is no wonder, because adenosine is the molecule that it accumulates in our brain throughout the day to generate “sleep pressure.” But if methylxanthines block the point where they have to bind to act, the brain does not receive the signal that it is tired. Your problem. Although it is true that theobromine is “milder” than caffeine, its half-life in the body is long. This means that that 11pm chocolate could still be blocking your desire to sleep at 2am, increasing sleep latency and causing more nighttime awakenings. The importance of time. Science has now stopped looking only at calories to focus on chrononutrition, since it is suggested that chocolate influences circadian rhythms depending on the time at which it is taken. Here the studies they point Because chocolate can be a great ally to resynchronize the biological clock if it is consumed during the active phase in the morning, but taking it outside of this phase, when the body is preparing for rest, makes it difficult to synchronize our peripheral clocks. In short, we are sending contradictory signals to the body. Not everything is negative. In science there are not only extremes, but we can find a great spectrum of grays in the middle. This is because there is also evidence that qualifies the message that chocolate causes insomnia, because in animal models cocoa can improve certain sleep disorders induced by chronic stress. This suggests that, in high-stress contexts, the antioxidant and neuroprotective components of cocoa could help adjust the sleep-wake rhythm. However, researchers warn that this benefit is observed when cocoa is part of the general diet, not necessarily when it is consumed as a “bomb” of sugar and stimulants just before turning off the light. It is not universal. The effect of chocolate does not occur in everyone in the same way, meaning that each person can experience it differently, depending on the amount of chocolate consumed and also on sensitization. We must keep in mind that each person metabolizes at a different rate, so there will be people who can eat a lot of chocolate and these molecules will not affect them at all. Images | freepik In Xataka | Something strange is happening with the chocolate crisis in Spain: households consume less, but business improves

If yours is on this list, you have a problem

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We are entering a reality in which passwords are going to stop being important that they have now. However, until that happens, it doesn’t cost you anything to check the passwords you have set for critical services such as your bank app or your email account, among others. Millions of people around the world they continue betting on keys such as “1234”, “123456” and the like, which any attacker can exploit in less time than it takes to write them. Below these lines we have left you a list of the most frequent ones to encourage you to take a look at one of the pillars of our digital security. We remain the same. Every year, cybersecurity company reports like NordPasswhich analyzes real data leaks extracted from security breaches and repositories of the dark webpublish the list of the most used passwords. And every year, the result is the same: predictable number sequences and keyboard combinations so obvious that it seems we haven’t learned our lesson. Spain, without leaving the norm. If we filter the data by country, the list of most used passwords in Spain is not too surprising. According to NordPass‘admin’, ‘123456’ and ‘12345678’ are the three most used passwords in Spain. In the Visual Capitalist chart that we shared with you last year, one of the most used in our country is ‘Spain’, which yes, is somewhat more resistant, but it is another one that would take a hacker a few minutes to decipher and which is still a key that no one should use. In the NordPass report, it is curious that further down the list appear passwords like ‘Nacho2006’, ‘1234ivan’ or ‘Talocha1’, which are a little more resistant, but practically as simple and vulnerable. Do you have any of these fixed?. On a global scale, the NordPass report ranks ‘123456’ as the most used password on the planet, with more than 21 million recorded uses. It is closely followed by ‘admin’, and ‘12345678’ with more than 8 million uses. Rounding out the global top 10 are ‘password’, ‘Aa123456’, ‘1234567890’, ‘Pass@123’, and ‘admin123’. According to the Basque cybersecurity center ZIUR, which works for the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the ten most popular passwords in the entire world fall in seconds. Security gaps. The National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) managed in 2025 a total of 122,223 cybersecurity incidents in Spain, which represents an increase of 26% compared to the previous year. Of those, nearly 46,000 were cases of online fraud, and phishing led that category with more than 25,000 cases. Why a weak password is so dangerous. The most common attacks require no ingenuity or effort. Brute force programs They try thousands of combinations per second in an automated way, always starting with the most common ones. If your password is on any list of common passwords (and there are some in the public domain), you are practically unprotected. “It is not necessary to change passwords periodically for no reason, but it is necessary to do so in case of any suspicion of compromise or after a security breach. A long and different password on each important site, saved in a manager and with double verification activated in the email and the bank, for example, protects an average user against the vast majority of common threats” counted María Penilla, director of ZIUR. What makes a password really secure. It’s not about arbitrary complexity, but about length and unpredictability. Our recommendation: that it be at least 12 characters, combining upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Keep in mind that a long, random phrase is harder to decipher than a short word with a number at the end. Length protects more than complexity. That you can do if your password is on the list. Three steps in order of urgency: change it now in all the services where you use it, starting with email and your bank app. Reusing the same key on multiple sites multiplies the risk, because if your data is stolen on one platform, attackers will try that same combination on all the others. Activate two-step verification (2FA) where possible. Is the most effective measure to block unauthorized access even when someone knows your password. Use a password manager. There is no human way to memorize dozens of long and different keys without help. From Xataka we have recommended a fewsuch as NordPass, 1Password, KeePass, Bitwarden and many others. Some are paid, others are free, and others are free on one device but charge if you want to use the app on multiple devices at the same time. Change your password when there are breaches. When you suspect that someone may know it, when the service where you use it suffers a security breach, or after a long time using it on sensitive sites, the best thing you can do is change it without detours. And if you want to check if your password has been compromised on any service, you can always use tools like HaveIBeenPwned and the like. Cover image | Sasun Bughdaryan In Xataka | The European Central Bank has taken a look at Mythos and made a decision: prepare for the worst-case scenario

We have become obsessed with “natural” sleeping pills. The problem is that we are not solving much

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In a society where problems falling asleep are on the agenda, the promise of having a deep and restful rest It has become one of the great businesses of the 21st century. And faced with a silent epidemic of insomnia, millions of people have turned to a parallel pharmacy where no prescription is needed, since products such as melatonin, magnesium or CBD are available to anyone. The melatonin paradox. Health authorities in the United States have been warning for years of a drastic increase in melatonin consumption among adults. It is perceived here as a “natural hormone” and therefore harmless, and although it is true that has proven usefulnessscience calls for curbing enthusiasm. Here’s Duffy’s essay pointed Because at low doses it can improve the efficiency and duration of sleep, but what must be taken into account is the importance of following medical instructions to have a dose adjusted and controlled to the personal situation. It is true that there is still a lot of research ahead to determine the safety of melatonin supplementation, since some studies they even point to an increased risk of heart failure with taking for more than one year. The CBD. Cannabidiol is another of the protagonists that is beginning to have more and more importance on the shelves of many people who have sleep problems. Unlike melatonin or magnesium, CBD is a compound derived from cannabis to “turn off” the nighttime mental noise. And here the science suggests that the effect of CBD is promising, but there is still a long way to go to determine its safety. The most solid studies conclude that CBD is not a pure sedative, but that its greatest effectiveness is observed above all with patients whose insomnia is directly related to anxiety or chronic stress, since it can modulate the stress response, reduce nocturnal rumination and allows sleep to come as a side effect. But they have problems. Right now, marketing inconsistency is a big drawback of CBD, as much of the failures reported by users are due to over-the-counter products that are not of the proper purity or concentration. Magnesium. If there is a mineral that has capitalized on the attention on the internet in recent years, it is this one. It is promoted as the ultimate natural anxiolytic and sleeping pill; However, science suggests that they are greatly inflating the effects it has. Here, as we have repeated on many occasions, supplementing when there is no deficiency of this or other minerals is not the best decision. Some small trials indicate that specific formats such as magnesium bisglycinate can provide modest improvements in cases of mild insomnia, but at a general level, the scientific community concludes that its “miracle pill” status lacks robust support. Go to the doctor. On many occasions, when we have a problem, we want to resort to the miracle pill without doing anything else. When we are told about maintaining good sleep hygiene, keeping screens out of our sight several hours before going to sleep or forgetting about heavy dinners, the truth is that we find it complicated. Or at least more difficult than taking a pill they sell us, which will make us sleep without doing anything else. It is for all this that it is always best to go to the doctor to determine what is underneath the insomnia, to be able to treat the root of the problem and not put patches on top, which is ultimately what is achieved with supplements. Images | diana.grytsku in Magnific In Xataka | There is a whole fever for magnesium as a supplement to sleep better: science has things to say about it

Speculation with Pokémon cards is such a serious problem that some stores already give knowledge tests to their customers

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In 2024, global sales of ‘Pokémon’ collectible card game They reached 2.2 billion dollars, with a growth of 25% compared to the previous year. The Pokémon Company increased production up to 10.2 billion letters by 2025. During the pandemic, Logan Paul and other content creators began opening envelopes on videos that reached millions of views. Since then, the fever has not stopped growing, and stores are beginning to propose unusual tests to distinguish genuine buyers from resellers. This is a test. At the west branch of Ikebukuro, in Tokyo, the specialty store Bic Camera made a decision that would separate the buyers of ‘Pokémon’ trading cards from the scalpers: to buy packs of the latest expansion, Ninja Spinner, you must first beat a written questionnaire of 15 questions about the ‘Pokémon’ universe without a cell phone, without help and in Japanese. It’s just the beginning. The questionnaire is not the only requirement. Shoppers must have an active loyalty account in the chain, either via app or physical card, allowing staff to spot suspiciously frequent purchases. Additionally, the store applies a limit of one box per customer and removes the seal and outer packaging upon delivery: an opened product loses much of its value on the secondary market, where resellers need the seal intact to inflate prices. According to X user Ryo Saeba, the system is working: Several resellers failed the test and left without product, since due to the random nature of the questionnaire it cannot be prepared in advance. It is a problem that, however, does not have an easy solution even from The Pokémon Company: if more copies of the most in-demand cards are printed, speculation would be reduced, but competitive play would be affected, as would the feeling of exclusivity of finding a rare card in a pack. Why Ninja Spinner. The Ninja Spinner expansion is the Japanese version of the western Chaos Rising, scheduled for release on May 22, and which features Mega Greninja ex as the main card. The former Mega Greninja gold card was worth $593 in March and It is now quoted in thousands.. An envelope that costs around 5 euros in the store can be resold for 40 in a matter of hours. The bad yen. Additionally, there is an additional economic factor that makes the reseller problem more serious: the structural weakness of the yen, combined with the relatively affordable price of the boxes, has made Pokémon cards a common target of foreign buyers and international resellers. Japan-exclusive releases, which include illustrations and finishes not available in other markets, multiply the appeal. Sometimes new items last minutes on shelves before ending up on resale platforms. How they do it. Professional resellers have tactics to circumvent the control systems that stores establish to give preference to real buyers: they hire several people to wait in line simultaneously, use multiple payment cards and create fake accounts to access online reservations. In October 2025Japanese police arrested two Vietnamese citizens who had created thirty fictitious accounts using fraudulently obtained SIM cards to participate in purchase raffles and obtain dozens of boxes that summer. Other initiatives. Other Bic Camera branches have adopted measures such as requiring a driver’s license or Japanese tax identification document, which limits purchases to residents. Official Pokémon Center stores also maintain strict unit limits per customer to preserve prices close to the official one. Outside Japan there has also been a lukewarm response to the activity of the scalpersname as resellers are known in the sector: Walmart, for example, introduced a limit of five packs per purchase at the end of 2024 after a video with 12 million views on TikTok showed a scalper emptying a store’s entire display in one trip. Header | Pexels In Xataka | In 2016, millions of people went out to hunt Pokémon on the streets. In 2026 there will be autonomous robots guided by this

There is a new craze for steel pans and the only problem they have is that no one really knows how to use them.

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Marc Grégoire liked to fish. I know it’s strange to start a report about frying pans with a Frenchman in the middle of a river, but that’s how this story begins. What he didn’t like was the cumbersome manual process of making fiberglass rods with aluminum molds. Nobody liked it: there was no way to get a whole one the first time. Luckily, Grégoire was an engineer at the French National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research and, thinking about the problem, devised a way to coat aluminum with Teflon so they wouldn’t stick together. He became a legend in the world of sport fishing in the south of Paris. Until, sometime in 1954, his wife Colette told him to stop messing around and put Teflon on a frying pan. In a matter of a decadenon-stick technology dominated the world. A domain that, in recent years, seems to be going under. The difficult task of finding the perfect material. In 1956, when Tefal put its first frying pans on the market, it seemed like a miracle. They didn’t stick! Compared to any previous technology, non-stick pans allowed room for error, distributed heat very evenly and, for some preparations (such as slow and acidic cooking), they were unbeatable. Thus, for 2006, 70% of the kitchen utensils sold in the United States They had a non-stick coating. Since then… the situation has changed. And people are switching to steel (and iron). “They are extremely resistant, withstand very high temperatures and can last a lifetime.” These are the usual arguments that, along with pollution problems, people use to justify the jump to stainless steel pans. At least, just before realizing that “everything sticks”: that’s when Teflon is missing and when the new culinary fad turns into a tragedy. All because of not knowing how to use them. In recent days, the well-known chef Jordi Cruz has joined the boom of the tutorials to get the most out of steel pans. And, like everyone else, he follows the same pattern: explaining that the problem is due to poor technique and not to the material in question. The technique has to do with temperature: it is enough to heat it enough for the results to be appropriate. As Cruz explainsthe test to know if it is at the correct temperature is to add a teaspoon of water: if it forms drops that “dance” on the surface, it is ready. It is what is called Leidenfrost effect. Is it simple? Yes, but it is not trivial. Steel pans need more supervision and better technique: non-stick pans give more room for error and, although their results may be somewhat worse in many cases, that is what explains why they have become popular. In fact, its ‘decline’ is linked to other problems. And not exactly about health. As far as we know, PTFE is safe at normal temperatures (for it to cause problems in humans, it needs to reach 350 degrees) and PFOA were removed from European frying pans in the past decade. European regulation is now focused on lbioaccumulative persistence of PFAS in soil, water and other organisms. Why do they work “better”? Because, despite what people usually think, it is not that they conduct heat better. On the contrary, cast iron and stainless steel are poor conductors compared to copper or aluminum. The real advantage is thermal mass. The browning of the meat is due to the famous Maillard reaction which occurs at 140-165 degrees on a hot, dry surface. The problem with pans is usually that they simply do not reach that temperature and, if they do, they drop quickly, eliminating the reaction and cooking the food. With cast iron pans, their thickness prevents the temperature from sinking; With steel ones, the temperature they reach is so high that (even when the temperature drops) they are still above what is necessary. And then what do we do? The key to all this is a few lines above: that it is almost impossible to find the perfect material for cooking. Each material has its good things and its bad things. The problem is that we cannot always have the ideal. That’s why non-stick pans won at the time. That’s why, facing its possible prohibitionsteel ones are having a real revival. Image | Margo Evardson In Xataka | Stainless steel pots and pans: how to choose them, care for them and get the most out of them

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