problems

One of the biggest problems in education in Spain is also the most ignored: teachers work too much

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Yesterday, the government announced that I was going to shield by law The reduction of school schedule in the classroom of children’s, primary, ESO and high school teachers. The idea is that the recommendations of the current educational law (the Lomloe, an impaished in 2020) become mandatory norms for autonomies. Thus, teachers would have a maximum of 23 hours per week and institute professors one of 18. In this context, “shielding for Lay” means gathering support in a greatly polarized congress and, of course, that has created a huge public debate. Not only about the government’s ability to realize the measure, but also about the measure itself. And skepticism is understandable. For years, many of the work improvements for teachers have not been exactly aligned with the well -being of students. The best example is continuous day in schools: although the available evidence says that The game is better, More and more Spanish schools implement it. And the pressure of the unions in this regard has been key. However, little by we start looking at the data, everything seems to indicate that the reduction of teaching hours is a good measure for students. The situation in Spain is not good. Especially in primary school, teachers They dedicate 20% more to direct teaching of time that the average European Union: 854 hours throughout the course against 703. This, in part, is an inheritance of the crisis. At that time, Rajoy’s government expanded the hours of direct teaching to 25 in primary school already 20 in the institutes. Over time, some communities have reduced those limits (in Galicia the teachers teach 23 hours and in Castilla La Mancha the teachers, 19), but the reality is that the Lomle recommendations have generally been ignored. And the evidence indicates that downloading to teachers is a good idea. To start because it has no negative effects on students. Almost all workload reduction initiatives report the same results: An improvement in the welfare of workers and no significant negative consequence. To continue, because it is a much more cost-effective measure than reducing the rat of the classes. In the background, although reducing the number of students per class is a good measure, there is a point where the cost of continuing to lower it (the facilities that need to be created for it) do not compensate. Reduce school load for teachers has a similar effect. And, to end, because this type of measure They help to resize The non -school work carried out by teachers. The school bureaucracy is getting bigger and so? Erosion quality of teaching. Classing is the most ‘intrinsically attractive’ task for teachers, but it is also the one that wears the most. Being able to balance the impact of each task on the final workload is key in the best teaching innovation programs. Is it enough? Beyond real viability of the proposal, It is inevitable to ask if it’s enough. Education is “a powerful tool to intervene in the problems of segregation, opportunities, performance and conflict.” But We continue giving bandages Without having any plan on the table. Image | Taylor Flowe In Xataka | Opening schools during non -school hours is a good idea. The problem is that we need much more

the problems of referring to the AI ​​as simple as recognizing a photo of Francoism

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An image of a humble Spanish family in the 50s has recently become the epicenter of a viral controversy in X. The photograph It ended up unleashing the hysteria of many users, a hysteria caused by blind trust towards the responses of artificial intelligence, in this case that of Grok. Another example of verifying historical information with AI has its things. What happened. It all started when the @kritikafull user public A black and white photograph of a family in poverty conditions, accompanied by the following phrase in an ironic tone: “We lived better.” The image generated thousands of visualizations, but also aroused the interest of many users who doubted that photography was taken in Spain and ended up resorting to Grok, as usually happens lately on the social network, to verify the information. The origin of the controversy. Image: Arenas Photographic Study A problematic answer. Grok I identified erroneously Photography as an image taken during the great American depression, attributing it to photographer Walker Evans and stating that he showed the Burroughs family. This answer He replied massively In dozens of publications that accumulated thousands of visualizations, making the error an apparent truth that served to discredit the original publication. A research work. The user @ropamuig37, who describes herself in her profile as a historian, decided to verify the facts by one Inverse image search on Google Lens. The result took it directly to the photographic file of the University of Malaga, where the image appears perfectly classified as “Housing, August 1952, Malaga, Spain”. Photography is part of a series of reports that includes Spanish housing of the time. If AI says no, I believe it. When the historian gave Grok the real documentation, artificial intelligence He was inflexible For hours, insisting that it was an “UMA error” and maintaining that it had “verified” the similarity with the American photo. Even after the historian gave him obvious visual direct and comparative links, Grok took almost two hours to recognize his mistake. The damage was already done, since the publications that took the verification of Grok ended up flooding the social network with thousands of visualizations. Meanwhile, the real verification of the historian (and other users such as @Remusokamias it reminds us in their thread) barely accumulated at the beginning a fraction of what the rest of the publications that viralized Grok’s wrong response achieved. A major problem. On the platform The use of Grok has been normalized To perform all kinds of checks before user publications. “Grok, explain this” or “Grok, is this right?”, They are increasingly common expressions in X, where millions of users have begun to delegate to the verification and understanding tasks that traditionally required to contrast diverse sources. And of course, at least today, blind trust in these tools can generate Large -scale misinformation. We have already lived it over the last years after the AI ​​boom, a consequence that, given the growing refinement of these tools, goes to adults. In polarized contexts when any information can be instrumentalized politically, AI can also become a dangerous tool. Especially for its ability to Generate quick and verify responses to contrast certain facts. Luckily, this case has not been serious, but reflects the massive adoption of AI tools and how much we begin to trust them. Cover image | Arenas photographic study and Walker Evans In Xataka | Microsoft opted everything to OpenAi to win the AI ​​race. Start realizing your mistake

O Solve these four big problems as soon as possible or Intel will be condemned to a very dark future

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“I think it is too late for us (to achieve the position of Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence), Although we have other opportunities in this market (…) twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies. We have to be humble. ” These words of Lip-Bu Tanthe general director of Intel, are aimed at the company’s employees in a clear attempt to expose what challenges they face. The challenges with Those who are dealing Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC Since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the AI industry have placed it in a very compromised position. It is necessary to compete from you to compete again with AMD. Intel and AMD compete on several fronts. Three of the most important are the processors for servers and work stations, the GPUs for artificial intelligence and the CPUs for PC. The company led by Lisa supports a very solid position in these three market segments, and if we stick to CPU for PC enthusiasts During the last generations it has been very successful among users. In fact, to us your chips Ryzen 7000 and 9000 We love. In this Intel scenario you have no choice but to fight from you with AMD and recover a technological leadership that lost a long time ago. His future is in the hands of lithography 18a. Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: 18A photolithography. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that the 18A node already has the maturity necessary to enter large -scale production in 2025. and also assured that it will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated since the 20A node. In the current scenario the 18A node will be the true protagonist. That is not the slightest doubt. The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025 The internal division should be left behind. The possibility that the Board of Directors of Intel decides to split the chips manufacturing subsidiary of the company’s matrix and put it in the hands of another company has triggered a deep internal division in the company. Joseph Bonetti, main manager of Intel engineering programs, expresses it in this way: “Intel leaders, Board of Directors of Intel and Donald Trump administration, please do not sell or give the control of Intel Foundry to TSMC just when Intel is taking the technological front and starting to take off. It would be a terrible and demoralizing error.” Bonetti also maintains that Intel is not lagging for its competitors, and that the advances that their engineers are achieving in the field of chips production are very important. Lip-Bu must recover government confidence. Lip-bu Tan, the general director of Intel, is in a very compromised position. Before arriving at the company that Cadence Design Systems currently led, an American company specialized in the development of software and hardware tools to design and verify integrated circuits. The problem is that just a month ago, in July, the US Department of Justice condemned her to pay a fine of more than 140 million dollars for selling commercial secrets to China. According to this US institutionCadence Design Systems delivered this critical information to the National University of Defense Technology, a Chinese teaching and research center that is supervised by the Chinese army. Lip Bu-Tan Intel leads since March 2025but there is a crucial fact that we should not overlook: although this conflict has taken it out of Cadence Design Systems directed this company between 2009 and 2021. And this was the period in which According to the US Department of Justice There were export control violations by which this company has recently been convicted. Image | Intel In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

Renfe trusted the Avril trains to face the Low Cost of Ouigo and Iro. They do not stop giving problems

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When the competition has pressed, Renfe has seen how his commitment to a low -cost service to the AVE had been as necessary. The problem is that this service, called Avlo, is operated by trains that in just over a year have not stopped giving problems. Retired avlos. It has returned to normal with the five Avlo trains frequencies between Madrid and Barcelona for the month of August but for a few days the cheap offer of the company in the corridor faded completely. First the five trains retired. Then the frequency was in three options in the day. Finally, they can already be bought normally. It is what Víctor de Elena accountjournalist electionomista.eswho had written an article last Friday explaining that Renfe had stopped offering his services of the Avlo line between Madrid and Barcelona. Since last Friday, when the information was published, the sale of tickets has been returning to normal. What happened? Everything indicates that Renfe has been putting patches to a complicated situation. He explained about Elena that Renfe had found a fissure in one of the components of the Bogies of an Avril train. This would have caused that, temporarily, it would be suspended The sale of all Avlo tickets in Madrid-Barcelona. Hours later, Renfe sources would confirm to the medium that during one of the maintenance reviews last Monday, July 21, one of the five 106 series presented “a fissure in an element of the tractor bogie called a bast.” Subsequently, a review of the five trains that serve and the affected systems were replaced. Now, according to Renfe “trains are operating without any anomaly.” More slowly. The trains operate, yes, but below the expected speed. They point out in electionomista.es That according to the State Railway and Adif Security Agency, Renfe operates the trains at 250 km/h of maximum speed, instead of the 300 km/ha those who were operating in a stretch of 190 kilometers that extends between Puerta de Atocha and Ariza (Zaragoza). In your communicationRenfe points out that the company “through its Renfe Travelers and Renfe engineering and maintenance, as a railway company and entity in charge of maintenance, respectively, as well as Talgo in its condition as manufacturer and the State Railway Security Agency, guarantee that the circulation and operation of trains is carried out with total security for travelers.” In the statement they point out that the offer is being reorganized with the S106 trains but do not specify anything about the speed at which trains circulate and emphasize that the sale of tickets is being made “normally.” In Xataka We have contacted the company but so far we have not obtained an answer. The Avril. The S106 series in which the fault has been detected corresponds to the trains known as Avril. Trains that since they were launched in 2024 They have caused various incidents. The S106 series It is designed by Renfe to fight the lowcost but also to be able to offer a service in Galicia that You will not have competition in the short term. For this last line, Renfe has 15 trains in his hands that can change the wide track automatically. Then, it has another 15 trains to operate between Madrid and Barcelona. Of the latter, they carry the specifications to operate as AVE but in five other trains the places have increased from 507 to 581 seats and thus be able to compete as a low cost option. A controversial arrival. When the Avril trains made an appearance they have already arrived surrounded by controversy. They launched in May 2024 but The material had been delivered with three years delay. Then, of the 30 trains, 12 of them had been delivered in a first lot. The first steps of the Avril were not the best. They promised to improve the connection between Galicia and Madrid but in the first days they registered delays of more than two hours and in later days of more than 30 minutes. Neither In the Asturian line The promised time sales were being fulfilled. But, in addition, the trains did not like among the experts either. Accounts in social networks that follow the current world of the train and its novelties portrayed the excess noise and vibrationsas well as They questioned the quality of some materials used in the rolling material. More incidents. The incidents did not stay here. Above all, Avril trains are remembered by the fault in the Galician line that on the first day of this year he left thousands of passengers on the ground or in the middle of nowhere. In a kind of “2000 effect”, trains were retained by a software problem With the year jump. And Barcelona-Madrid has not been the only one. Just a few days ago, a S106 series train collapsed at low speed at the Gijón station without consequences for travelers. At the moment, Renfe has not given explanations about what happened. Photo | André Marques 432 In Xataka | “In 1961 it took Bilbao for three hours and five minutes. Now it takes three and ten”: Cantabria and the drama of Spain with the train

The end of mathematical problems without solution

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To the models of artificial intelligence (AI) Currently, mathematics are good. In fact, in October 2024 Goal AIthe finish line, managed to generalize Lyapunov’s function. The Russian mathematician Aleksander Lyapunov proposed the concept of the function that bears his name in 1892. His work is a very important tool in the study of dynamic systems, but mathematicians have since struggled to find a general method that allows identifying the functions of Lyapunov. And they have not been successful. However, Goal AI has had it. This is not at all the only recent success of AI models in the field of mathematics. Sergei Gukov, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), leads a team of researchers who are looking for The way to use this technology to solve advanced mathematical problems that require thousands, millions, or even billions of steps. Currently these scientists are working on the conjecture of Andrews-Curtis, a problem of combinatorial theory of groups proposed 60 years ago. Google and Openai AI have won gold in the mathematics Olympiad Gukov and his team have not yet managed to solve the main conjecture, but with the help of AI they have achieved something important: they have refuted several families of problems related to the conjecture of Andrews-Curtis and known as counterexamples that have remained open for more than 25 years. Gukov acknowledges That current AI models have important limitations when facing very complex mathematical problems, but it has the hope that in the future this technology allows the human being to solve Mathematical Millennium Problems. The best asset that researchers have to face this challenge is to instruct AI by resorting to learning for reinforcement According to this mathematician, the best asset that researchers have to face this challenge is to instruct AI by resorting to Reinforcement learning. Anyway, something important has just happened. As we anticipate in the holder of this article, the models of Google and Openai AI They have won the gold in The International Mathematics Olympiad. Both managed to solve five of the six problems posed using general purpose reasoning models capable of processing mathematical concepts using natural language. This strategy is different from the one they have previously used the AI companies in mathematical tests. In any case, According to SCMP An expert they have consulted argues that the speed with which the AI models are being developed suggests that they are less than a year after being used to solve some mathematical problems that still have no solution. As we have seen, Sergei Gukov defends this same idea, although this last mathematician has not dared to specify the moment in which AI will begin to solve the problems in which mathematicians have been engaged decades. Who knows, perhaps the solution to the millennium problems is close. Hopefully. Image | Jesus Thomas More information | SCMP In Xataka | These two problems have baffled mathematicians for decades. A genius has solved them with a stroke

The problems of evening 5 to exhaust tickets

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Not even Ibai’s evening It is indestructible. This fifth edition Boxing combat between Influencers And celebrities that the content creator offers every year is leading with a series of problems that it is not clear that they will have been resolved in the same week of its celebration, on July 26. Tickets halfway a few days ago, calls for help in social networks, suffocating heat forecasts … These are all the dramas that Ibai is facing in the 2025 evening. Exponential growth. From the 2021 edition, held in a disco and with 1.5 million virtual viewers to the Fourth in 2024celebrated In the Bernabéuthat beat the world record of Twitch With a peak of 3.85 million simultaneous viewers during live broadcast, the event led by IBAI has not stopped growing. However, it is this 2025 edition that is finding more critical voices and doubts about the profitability of the show: although the fourth evening He exhausted 70,000 entries In the aforementioned Bernabéu, things have not gone so fast on this occasion. Input problems. As they are echoing different media and content creatorsthe sale of tickets of evening 5 has meant a headache for Ibai. To start, this year has been the first time in which Tickets did not run out in minutesespecially in the highest price sectors. The sales rate, therefore, has been the worst in the history of the event. Request for help. The thing has reached the point that Ibai had to record a video asking their followers to buy tickets for the track area. The tickets have ended up selling, a few days after the event, finally the 80,000 tickets have been exhausted. A problem for this year has been slower this year has been possibly Price increase: up to 200% more compared to evening 3, which caused strong criticism by the community. They have also risen, although to a lesser extent, with respect to the prices of the fourth edition: the most expensive tickets cost 170 euros last year, while this time they reach 190. Criticism of fighters. This year, without a doubt, the combatant squad is as remarkable as that of previous editions, with Streamers of first row among them, like Thegrefg. But at the level of popularity beyond the environment of the evening, only the fight between Roro and Abby has caught attentionpossibly by the attractive controversy that the first one has in circles outside the world streamer. They have made pulsesthey have undergone polygraphand the videos of their faces, challenges and statements, have between 3 and 7 million views on Tiktok and Instagram. They are figures that double or triple those of most of the rest of the evening. This attention, although it is interesting for the promotion of the evening, devalu to the rest of the fighting. Focus most of the debate and morbidity on A single fight The most casual spectators event makes less attractive. And also affects the business from the point of view of the brands and sponsors of the rest of the fighters. Less attractive artists. Another criticism that It has been done This year’s evening is Down of interest For the artists who will perform in the event. While other years have seen names such as Will Smith, Bizarrap, Nicky Jam or David Bisbal, this year Melendi and Aitana maintain that quality, and there is no presence of international artists. It is especially striking in a year where the price of tickets has increased ostensibly. Very hot. Finally, a topic that is amazing that no one has stopped to think: Seville at the end of July, a place where 40 degrees of temperature are easily exceeded, causing dehydration and exhaustion, and affecting the fighter performance. The Colombian Westcol has affirmed that his doctor has forbidden him fight more than 25 degrees of temperaturewhich could mean the cancellation of his fight, the most important of the night (against ESGREFG). Finally, there are the risks for the public itself, since an agglomeration of 80,000 people significantly increases the temperature in areas such as the pit. To avoid incidents, the organization has taken A series of measures that will make the experience more bearable: the start of the event has been delayed at 8:00 p.m. Lighten the agglomerations. Exhausted tickets, but with touches of attention. The initial intention of the organization, exhausting entries, has been achieved. But Ibai’s thrust has needed with videos dedicated to the subject to encourage those who had doubts. A thrust that makes it clear that this year the public was not so convinced of departure for the attractiveness of the evening and, as we have explained above, reasons were not missing. Possibly, there are good reasons to rethink many of the aspects that could make the most attractive event for next year. In Xataka | Ibai is going to launch its own football team to start from the lowest. There is actually a very thoughtful strategy

Mexico City wanted to shine as Lisbon did. Now they have the same problems: Gentrification and Digital Nomads

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In recent weeks, Mexico City has been the scene of a wave of protests that have put in the center of the debate the coexistence of its inhabitants. The increase in housing prices, due to the gentrification of the most popular neighborhoods in the city, and the uncontrolled tourist They have put the Digital nomads In the spotlight causing an unprecedented social reaction in the Mexican capital. Mexico City is thrown out. Thousands of people went to protest through the streets of the most central and busy colonies (neighborhoods) like Rome and Countess, where rental prices have increased above 100% In the last three years. What began as a peaceful manifestation against the gentrification and the increase of life in those colonies, soon took a more violent look: Several businesses frequented by tourists and digital nomads were attacked under slogans From “Gringo, go home!” Some protesters carried banners with “gringos written messages, stop stealing the house”, while demanding laws to regulate the tourist and policies that allow access to a home at affordable prices for the premises. “They are expelling us from our own neighborhoods,” the protesters shouted. The government responds and the US does not lose Comba. The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, He expressed his outrage before the violence registered in the demonstrations and condemned Xenophobic attitudes that the protesters showed against the digital nomads and tourists who found in their path. “It cannot be that due to a lawsuit, however legitimate, that is gentrification, the demand is ‘any nationality of our country,’” said Sheinbaum. “Mexico is a country open to the world and is not discriminatory; then xenophobic attitudes cannot be justified.” The increase in tension against digital nomads, mainly Americans, also have a response component from citizenship to deportation policies That the Government of Donald Trump is applying, expelling many Mexican citizens from the US, while these digital nomads now occupy the homes in which the protesters lived. “Gentrification is colonization!” Some of the banners exhibited in the demonstration. For its part, far from showing a conciliatory message, the US National Security Department, on which mass deportations depend, threw more firewood by the fire by publishing In his X profile The message: “If you are illegally in the United States and want to join the next protest in Mexico City, use the CBP Home application to facilitate your departure.” THE ORIGIN OF THE PROTEST: Gentrification. Such and As I pointed out The president of Mexico in her speech, the origin of the discomfort of the population of Mexico City has as a backdrop Gentrificationa process that has accelerated in recent years. During this period, the local government promoted the investment of foreign real estate funds and the Use of platforms such as Airbnbracing the way for the arrival of professionals with high purchasing power from the global northern. As a result, the price of housing in central colonies It has doubled In the last decade, and the cost of living has become unsustainable for many residents resulting from the pressure of investment funds for removing maximum profitability to their real estate investments. “When talking about real estate cartels, it is rightly said, because between cartels there are disputes over a territory or square, and today the (colony) Juarez is the center of a similar dispute,” assured In 2023 a BBC Neighborhood activist Sergio González. The average rental of an house in Mexico City went from 16,100 pesos per month (about 738 euros to change) in January 2018 to 20,426 pesos (about 936 euros) five years later, although this figure shoots more than double in colonies such as the Countess. The minimum monthly salary in Mexico City is around 8,364 pesos, the equivalent of just less than 384 euros. Digital nomads are not the (unique) responsible. Although US digital nomads have become the main objective of protests, Expert voices like that of the lawyer and activist Carla Escoffié indicate that her presence is only A part of the problem. The mere presence of a few thousand people with high purchasing power in a city like Mexico City does not elevate prices alone, explains Escoffié in his book ‘Country without a roof’. The true Gentrification Motor They are the real estate fundsthe greats LESSORSand the Tourist Rental Platformswhich modify the nature of the neighborhoods building luxury homes and replacing the local trade by multinational chains. President Sheinbaum pointed out that foreigners rejection is a response to mass arrival of digital nomads After the pandemic, mainly from the United States. These “visitors” have much greater purchasing power than the local population and its presence It increased In 60% compared to figures in 2019, and currently, some 700,000 Americans live in Mexico. The precedent: Portugal. Lisbon would have served of Canarian in the mine For the Mexican government to anticipate what would happen in the colonies of Mexico City, since Lisbon has suffered the same symptoms that the Mexican capital now presents. Such and as analyzed in The Guardian The researcher at the University of Lisbon Agustín Cocola-Gant, Portugal promoted for years a low taxation for real estate investors foreigners and launched “golden visas“To attract digital nomads and investors, granting tax advantages over local inhabitants. These policies caused a 105.8% increase in the price of housing in Lisbon between 2015 and 2023, according to published data by The confidential. The result was the expulsion of thousands of Portuguese of its traditional neighborhoodsunable to face the increase in life and housing. As Cocola-Gant explained, Portugal went from occupying the 22 of the 27 countries with the most expensive housing in 2015, to occupy first place today. In Xataka | Cities full of empty houses and neighbors incapable of finding housing: the cities of “Las Persianas descedas” arrive Image | Unspash (Keith Helfrich)

A driver has been arrested for overloading his Seat León with 700 kg. The traffic fine is the slightest of its problems

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The punishment for breaching one of the sections of the Traffic Law in its article number 76 is clear: 200 euros of fine. It is what corresponds to someone who circulates with “vehicles with the poorly conditioned or with a danger of falling.” The relative to article number 77 of the Traffic Lawin which it is stated that “circular with a vehicle that breaches the technical conditions that seriously affect road safety” is a very serious infraction, punishes drivers with 500 euros of a fine. Any of these two articles, we believe, can be applied to those who drive a car loaded with 700 kg of luggage The problem is that this luggage is stolen cable. Or that the car is not even yours. In that case, you are before the youngest of your problems. When you have a much more serious problem than a traffic fine Because this way the driver of a Seat León circulated, arrested by the Civil Guard in Pilas (Sevilla), as he collects ABC. The detainee was intercepted by the Civil Guard by spotting a very loaded vehicle. When they wanted to stop him, the driver fled on foot to try to mislead the agents who finally ended up stopping it. And the driver knew perfectly that the youngest of his problems was overweight inside his car. The car intercepted, the agents discovered that distributed in the trunk and the rear seats carried 700 kg of stolen cable. Obviously, the intention was to resell copper. But, in addition, the car appeared in the records In the name of a deceased personwhich clearly demonstrated the intention of going unnoticed. The subtraction of the telephone wiring was located between Jabugo and Castaño del Robledo (Huelva) so the driver managed to cover a part of his escape. In total, it is estimated that the detainee stole 1,250 meters of telephone wiring that would have tried to move inside the vehicle. To know how much weight we can carry in our car, we must go to the technical file. In it we will find the data of the maximum authorized mass (MMA), which is forbidden to overcome because we will be putting our safety and the performance of our vehicle at risk. There is no concrete figure of how many kg we can load in a car but, yes, the maximum figure that we can find in a MMA is 3,500 kg because above this weight we could not circulate with a driver’s bnea B that this license is designed exclusively for cars. Photo | Civil Guard In Xataka | How to take the luggage without receiving the 200 euros of the DGT fine

Some neuroscientists believe they have found the trick to solve the most complicated problems: take a nap

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Surely, on some occasion you have obcended to find the solution to a certain problem and, no matter how much you insist on finding a solution, nothing, there is no form. However, another day, Without coming to mindZas! A brilliant and creative solution appears before you as a revelation. Congratulations, that’s a “Eureka moment“ No one knows exactly what mechanisms in the brain activate that spontaneous creative lighting momentalthough a group of neuroscientists of the Institute of Psychology of the University of Hamburg, believe they have found a culprit: the light sleep or N2, which is mainly reached to take a nap. But a brief, we know each other. N2 dream and creative connections A group of neuroscientific has published A study in the scientific journal PLOS BIOLOGY which points to sleeping one (or several) light naps during the day can be the key to unlocking creativity and the ability to solve difficult problems. This discovery not only attracts attention for its simplicity, but also values ​​a practice as healthy as it is nap. The study results suggest that, far from being a loss of time, sleeping a few minutes can activate certain mechanisms involved in the Creation of neuronal connections and in the processing of abstract concepts. To reach these conclusions, scientists recruited 90 young and healthy volunteers. Each one was assigned a seemingly simple task, but they were not revealed that there was a trick to solve it more easily, so they had to discover it for themselves. After four rounds of trials, the volunteers were invited to Sleep a 20 -minute nap while monitoring their brain activity with an electroencephalogram. The results showed that all groups improved their performance after nap, but the difference was notable depending on the sleep phase is achieved. 85.7% of those who reached the N2 phase of the sleep, that is, a light sleep state, managed to discover the solution to the problem. Instead, only 63.6% of those who stayed in phase N1 (a more superficial sleep level) achieved it. Only 55.5% of those who remained awake found the trick to solve the task. “Sleep EEG data showed that sleep N2, but not the N1, increases the probability of having mental lucidity after a nap, suggesting a specific role in the deepest sleep. We find a beneficial effect of sleep N2 in the Probability of having a vision after the napwhich suggests the need for a deeper dream to have a vision, “says the researchers in the study. “What really struck me by sharing these findings with my environment, especially with creative people, was the great impact they had. Many identified with our results and personally experienced a great advance (creative) after a nap,” assured to Newsweek Anika Löwe, one of the study authors. Limitations and nuances of the study Although the data is promising, the authors themselves warn that the method used does not allow precisely to be completed if the benefit observed is exclusively due to entering a certain Sleep stateto the simple rest, or other mental factors that occur during the pause. However, as indicated in their investigation, the results obtained only delimit an increase in the chances of getting a time Eureka after reaching a N2 sleep phase, but recognize that they cannot determine exactly the reason why this spontaneous inspiration occurs. “In summary, our findings suggest a role of sleep N2 in facilitation of inspiration, but more work is needed to determine precise mechanisms and to distinguish the effects of the dream of other factors such as disconnection of the task or rest,” which implies that there are still open questions about the exact mechanisms that facilitate these moments Eureka. Get away from the problem to find the solution Rest, approach change or simple fact of “take distance“The problem could be playing such an important role Like the dream itself In itself. Therefore, although phase N2 seems to be associated with a greater number of chances of having a eureka moment, it cannot be ruled out that other elements, such as mental relaxation or temporal disconnection of the task, they are also decisive. In statements to Eldiario.esPablo Barrecheguren expert neuroscientific In sleep, it emphasizes that the candidates were exposed to the evidence under a lack of sleep of 30% during the previous night, so “in addition, when performing only very short naps, the work also does not give information about what is the effect of leaving the subjects to sleep longer naps until reaching the deepest states of sleep.” Beyond the technical details and doubts about the neuronal mechanisms involved, the main message is clear and applicable to everyday life: if you face a complex problem and You can’t find the exitit is best to change activity, take distance and, if possible, sleep a brief nap. “It is often informed that inspiration occurs during periods of rest or sleep, when the mind is disconnected from the problem in question,” so the moments Eureka usually appear in the shower, When you try the dishes Or while driving. These are times when the brain is not consciously focused on the problem and can activate its abstraction capacity. This idea is not new. Geniuses like Thomas Edison or Salvador Dalí They already practiced The creative nap to stimulate its ingenuity by promoting the appearance of these moments of revelation. Friedrich August Kekulé, said he had deciphered the secret of the benzene chain After waking up a nap. Now, science begins to demonstrate that, indeed, sleeping a light nap can be The definitive trick to solve the most difficult challenges. If it doesn’t work, then what you take. In Xataka | “Doing nothing” is a great technique to improve your productivity. Neuroscience is clear Image | Unspash (Mika Ruusunen, Adrian Swancar)

An existential threat looms over several US chips companies. And China is just one of its problems

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Several US companies involved directly in the integrated circuit industry are suffering. Some of them, in fact, They are flirting with bankruptcy. In this context it is inevitable not to think of Intel and The difficult stage that crosses Currently, but from the company Led by Lip-Bu Tan We have spoken a lot in recent months. The companies in which we are going to investigate in this article are smaller, but, even so, they play a very important role in the US chips industry. The worst is happening is, without a doubt, Wolfspeed. And this company of Durham (North Carolina) It has officially declared in bankruptcy. Its specialty is the development and manufacture of silicon carbide (sic) and gallium nitride (GAN) semiconductors for high -power electronics applications, which positions them as extraordinarily attractive integrated circuits for the electric car industries, renewable energy, data centers, fast -charged infrastructure and aerospace and military industries. Robert Feurle, the general director of Wolfspeed, has declared That “after evaluating the options available to strengthen our balance and adjust our capital structure we have decided to take this strategic step (declare in bankruptcy and look for new financing routes) because we believe that it will place Wolfspeed in the best possible position for the future.” An interesting note before moving forward: Spain has launched The Godic project with the purpose of contributing to the independence of Europe of silicon carbide semiconductors from China and the US. China is not the only cause of the problems of American companies Wolfspeed is not at all the only company in the US chips industry that is in difficulties from a financial point of view. The American subsidiary of the Israeli company Tower Semiconductor, Globalfoundries, on semiconductor, Skywater Technology or Ayar Labs are some of the companies that are also facing economic difficulties. The competition from China is subjecting them to a pressure that does not cease to increase, but the competitiveness of Chinese companies is not the only factor that is putting in trouble some US chips companies. The competitiveness of Chinese companies is not the only factor that is putting in trouble some US chips companies Tariffs linked to Imports from China which has deployed US administration seeks to protect the business of US companies within your market. However, most of the companies that I have mentioned in the previous paragraph also sells their semiconductors outside the US. And the competitiveness of Chinese companies in other markets is very high due mainly to two crucial factors: their prices are moderate thanks to contained production costs and the quality of their products is comparable to that of their western and Asian competitors. In any case, the economic problems faced by some designers and manufacturers of American chips do not have their origin solely in China’s competition. Wolfspeed is at a very delicate moment because, beyond the pressure exerted on it, its Chinese competitors, The global demand of the high -power semiconductors it produces has fallen. In addition, during the last five years He has borrowed To be able to build new integrated circuit factories, and currently you cannot assume this economic burden. The panorama of other US companies that are dedicated to chips is not very different to the context with which Wolfspeed is dealingso it is possible that in the short or medium term other companies also enter in bankruptcy. Image | Xataka More information | GLOBALDATA In Xataka | The US is willing to do anything for advanced chips not to reach China. And Malaysia is an obstacle

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