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While everything is going through the roof, a product is cheaper than ever in Spain: cocaine

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Those who are dedicated to probing the coca market have encountered a curious phenomenon: while the CPI rises and the prices of products such as the coffee either cocoacocaine undertakes the reverse path. Its cost seems to be in free fall. If a few years ago there was talk of more than 30,000 euros per kilogram of white powder, today there are sources that place it at barely 13,000a collapse that also coincides with an apparent increase of traffic and a high consumption. A difficult equation to solve. What do the figures say? It is not easy to talk about cocaine trafficking and the price. There is data and people dedicated to studying it, but for obvious reasons much of the information available is based on estimates. I shared the last one a few days ago The Catalan Newspaper in an extensive report in which he assures that right now a kilo of cocaine on the black market is around 13,000 euros. The same newspaper recalls that not so long ago a kilo brick was around 20,000 euros, but if you use the newspaper archive you will find information which show that a mere decade ago it was priced at between 27,000 and 29,000 euros in the Rías Baixas or even above 30,000 in Madrid and Valencia. What’s more, just a few months ago The Voice of Galicia assured that the official reference with which the Ministry of the Interior worked when calculating the value of the seized drugs set the value of a kilo at just over 30,500 euros. Is it something new? No. And that’s the curious thing. The media has been reporting on the drop in the price of coca for more than a year, sometimes with slight swings. Now does it The Newspaperbut a year ago I did it the Galician press and in 2023 it had the same message ABCwhich already at that time included the words of Fernando Iglesias, head of the Customs Surveillance Service in Galicia: “Its price has plummeted and that leads to a brutal offer.” “Cocaine prices have been devalued by almost half compared to just a few years ago, and that is a very clear indicator of the current abundance of this drug,” agreed the head of the Galician Foundation against Drug Trafficking. According to the data what he was driving at the time ABCthe kilo of Colombian coca that 20 years ago was paid for 30,000 euros had gone to price 17,000. Prices, however, always refer to a kilo. Curiously, this accelerated cheapening of drugs does not seem to have transferred to the street. Where the gram still costs the same than before: it remains around the 50 and 60 eurosdespite the fact that those who handle large quantities of drugs do so at a much lower cost. Are there more trends? Yes. Again they are based on estimates and indications, but they are just as interesting. The first tells us about the type of drug that is consumed. Not only has a kilo of coca become cheaper, it also seems to be purer. That at least is what emerges from the data from Energy Control, an agency dedicated to analyzing samples delivered by anonymous buyers. Their studies show that, on average, the samples that arrive have a purity that exceeds 70%. Other studies They have also noted an increase in purity. What about consumption? If there is a clear (and relevant) trend, it is the one that tells us about demand, which can be analyzed based on two key clues: studies on consumption and seizures of caches. In the first case (demand), the European Drug Report 2025 stands out, which reveals that Spain is the country with a highest percentage of population that has taken coca at some point in their life. The figure here reaches 13.3%, well above France and Denmark (9.4%). Do we have more clues? Yes. The European study, presented in June, slid that there are indications that consumption is increasing in the EU and even advised administrations to prepare for a rebound in demand for treatments. The percentage of people who admit to having tried the white powder also has been increasing over the last few years. The latest EADES survey (2024) indicates that 13% of individuals from 15 to 64 years old admit having used cocaine at some time, which marks the maximum in the historical series. In 2022 that indicator marked 11.7% and if we go to the early years of the 2000s the data was even lower. The Man Project Observatory also has noted its increase among users seeking to detoxify: in a matter of a decade it has gone from being the main addiction of 27% of users to extending its shadow to reach approximately 41%. What about seizures? They are another thermometer. At the end of the day, whether more or fewer caches are ‘hunted’ depends on the authorities’ aim, but also on the intensity of traffic. The Newspaper remember that the police only manage to seize a relatively low percentage of all the drugs that arrive at the ports. In the absence of more updated data, the 2024 Annual Drug Statistics published in July by the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO) shows that last year Interior recorded an increase in cocaine seizures of 5.2%, which places them at approximately 123 tons. “There is more cocaine than ever”recognize police sources to The Newspaper about the situation that exists in cities like Barcelona. The same medium specifies that in 2023 and 2024 Customs Surveillance located just over 60 million tons of coca hidden in containers arriving by sea from South America. The reason for these data? One possibility is a change in routes that reduces the volume traveled through Holland and Belgium and places Spain as a gateway to Europe. What about the prices? If demand does not seem to be suffering… Why are prices falling, at least in the channels where kilos are moved (another … Read more

In 1995, the first product in eBay history was sold. The only problem is that it was broken

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In 1995 the Internet was not what it is now. Many of the great companies and sites related to the network were born then. AuctionWeb was the first official name of what we now know as eBay. Its creator, Pierre Omidyar, gave that name to a personal project that he wrote from his home in Silicon Valley taking advantage of one of the classic long weekends in the US, Labor Day. How do they count in The Perfect Store: Inside eBayfaced with the need to test whether that personal auction website worked, Omidyar grabbed the first thing he had on hand: a laser pointer. The choice was not random. Two weeks after buying it, it had broken, so he thought that if he managed to sell it, he wouldn’t lose anything if they gave him very little money for it. For a week that laser pointer that had cost him 30 dollars He failed to receive a single offer. Pierre Omidyar had not lied and admitted in the description of the item on AuctionWeb that it was indeed broken. There was no way to make it work. A week after being published on the Internet, that AuctionWeb object received the first offer for it. Pierre Omidyar asked for one dollar but the auction ended up closing at $14.83. What was his surprise that, even though he had already warned it in the advertisement, he preferred to make sure that it was clear to the buyer that the object purchased was broken and wrote him an email. Despite everything, the buyer kept it because it was just what he was looking for. This was eBay in 1995, when it was a personal project called AuctionWeb Mark Fraser I had seen some of those pointers and wanted one. But they were still quite expensive, on the order of $100 in those years, so he relied on his skill as electrical engineer to build yours. And he needed a part that he thought he would get from the broken pointer that was being sold on a new online site that he had found out about through a referral in the forums and information exchange places that he frequented on the Internet. Today, and as he confessed in a funny video that could be seen at eBay’s 20th anniversary party, the pointer still doesn’t work but he still has it. In Xataka |

The normal thing when a product is successful is that the manufacturer renews it the following year. Hello iPhone Air

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Apple has a problem, almost a syndrome with the fourth iPhone. For years it has been trying to integrate a new variant of the “classic” iPhone into the family, but the success of these models has always been limited. It happened with the iPhone mini and then with the iPhone Plus in its different versions. And now it seems to be happening with his brand new iPhone Air. No iPhone Air 2 at the moment. As indicated in The InformationApple has warned “engineers and suppliers that they would remove the future iPhone Air (next generation) from planning without providing a new release date.” Three different sources have confirmed that Apple has no intention at the moment of relaunching a second iteration of the iPhone Air. We expected it in 2026. Theoretically, the second-generation iPhone Air should have been launched next fall alongside the iPhone 18 family and the rumored iPhone Fold. And it was going to be much better. It was expected to be even lighter than the current iPhone Air and still have a higher capacity battery. In fact, sources close to the project also reveal that Apple was working on a new cooling system that debuted with the iPhone 17 Pro and that would be adapted to those hypothetical iPhone Air (2026). It was even rumored that instead of a single camera I would have two. Bad sales. The reason for that decision seems to be sales of the iPhone Air below expectations. News had already appeared that Apple had ordered a huge production cut to just 80% of the original capacity: that ultralight model does not seem to have attracted the mass public. Minimum production. In The Information they confirm this reduction in production. According to their data, Foxconn has “dismantled all but one and a half production lines, and expect to stop production completely at the end of this month.” Apple’s other major manufacturing partner for the iPhone Air, Luxshare, already stopped its production of this model at the end of October. New release schedule. Following the news, what is now expected is that Apple will present its new family of devices in two different phases: Fall 2026: iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, iPhone Fold (unofficial name) Spring 2027: iPhone 18, iPhone 18e The other possibility. Sources close to the company reveal that the iPhone Air could simply be suffering important changes —like those mentioned— for a theoretical second generation. That would make its development process a little longer, but it is not ruled out that this model will end up appearing in spring 2027 along with the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e. The condemnation of iPhones that are liked but do not sell. we loved it the iPhone mini—like everyone else who bought it—but it didn’t sell much. The iPhone Plus also proved to be an interesting product, but it didn’t catch on either. In both cases, Apple ended up abandoning these models to focus on what worked in sales, and now seems to be doing the same, or, at least, adjusting production to demand, something that makes perfect sense from a business point of view. In Xataka | If the question is which of the big tech companies is winning the AI ​​race, the answer is: none

participate in our tournament and choose your favorite retro product

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The Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025 They approach slowly, but without pause. In these awards we choose (and you choose) the best technology products, the best innovations of the present that underpin the future, the crème de la crème, Oh. But in this edition there will also be space to look to the past and fondly remember those products that marked our childhoods. From Xataka we launch the Xataka Retro Award and we do it with a twist. It is not a new category in the Awards, but a tribute to the technology of yesteryear. Instead of the usual voting (xatakeros and jury vote for their favorite candidates through forms, here you have them all), this prize will be decided with a tournament through Instagram and Instagram Stories. So grab your PDAs, dust off your Walkman and look for your memory cards, there’s a real shot of nostalgia coming. when and where Duel of nostalgic titans Over the next few days it will take place in the stories of the official profile of Xataka on Instagram the Xataka Retro Prize Tournament. Through the stories we will show the intersections of the products and you, our xatakeros, will have to choose your favorite products by voting in the polls. NordVPN offers you a fast and stable connection thanks to your more than 6,300 servers in more than 110 countries. Enjoy advanced cybersecurity tools with Threat Protection Pro™, securely access your streaming platforms favorites wherever you are and enjoy the best offers on flights and hotels. Advice offered by the brand We have arranged the products into four categories, each corresponding to a junction. In the video game console category, the Game Boy will compete against the PlayStation 1. In the music category, the Walkman against the iPod. In computers, the legendary ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Finally, in telephony, the Nokia 3310 against the Motorola V8. Here we leave you the crossings and the days on which they will take place. Quarter finals crossing vote results Game Boy vs PlayStation 1 Monday, October 27 Tuesday, October 28 Walkman vs iPod Wednesday, October 29 Thursday, October 30 ZX Spectrum vs Commodore 64 Monday, November 3 Tuesday, November 4 Nokia 3310 vs Motorola V8 Wednesday, November 5 Thursday, November 6 Semifinals crossing vote results Semifinal 1 Friday, November 7 Monday, November 10 Semifinal 2 Monday, November 10 Tuesday, November 11 grand finale crossing vote results Semifinal 1 Tuesday, November 11 Wednesday, November 12, and at the Xataka NordVPN 2025 Awards gala You still have time to get your tickets for the gala Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025 on November 20 in Madrid! Join us and discover the best technological products of the year in a free event full of gadgets, humor and surprises. Advice offered by the brand The winners will be revealed on November 12 and they will also have a space in the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025. The first crossing has already begun, so take a look at the stories from Xataka on Instagram and choose your favorite product. I wish I could have done it on MySpace or Tuenti, but it is what it is. Thank you very much for participating!

Printers have been a terrible product for 30 years. The fault is Nash’s balance

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Let’s go back to 1949. A young mathematician named John Nash Find an original idea for your thesis at Princeton University. Game theory already existed thanks to the previous works (1944) by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, but the von Neumann model focused on zero -sum games (one player wins, the other loses). Nash had a spark of genius in proposing that in any game there should be at least one point where no player could improve his situation by changing his strategy unilaterally. Formalized that idea in a short two -page article (‘Equilibrium Points in N-Person Games‘) In January 1950, and with it revolutionized history. Including printers. Is the printer the worst technological product in history? And is that the printers is an almost manual example to apply the call Nash balance. These types of products have been following – at least, to a large extent – the economic model of the machin and blades: you sell cheap the first, but face the second. Consumers know that when we buy an ink printer, the price will be economical, almost ridiculous. But we also have assumed that ink and cartridges for those printers will be very expensive. And if they are not, what will end up being is Ink subscription… either to the printers themselves. Not only that: in the last 30-40 years we have seen how printers have become-probably- The worst technological product in history. It is no longer only that printers can get stuck or work erratically. The real problem is terrifying form in which manufacturers have protected their business, preventing in all possible ways that users can for example use Compatible cartridges and tonniers of third parties. Nash’s balance explains very well why manufacturers do what they do. Imagine two great manufacturers such as HP and Canon with two options: Expensive and blocked cartridges (current model) Cheap and open cartridges (which allow competition and lower prices) Given this situation, HP and Canon managers know that three types of market situations can be found: If both keep expensive and blocked cartridges: they earn a lot If one “opens” its cartridges and lowers prices and the other remains closed: the one that opens loses income and the one that is still closed earns more … or the opposite. Whatever happens, one will end up winning a lot and the other losing a lot. If both open: there is strong competition again, but both win less Given that scenario, manufacturers make an inevitable business decision: they close their cartridge technology and sell it face Because that’s what gives more benefits to everyone. Nash’s balance is fully fulfilled here: it describes a stable point for each player (company) but does not ensure that the result is the best for the whole. Collectively and from the social point of view, the optimal would be to open the technology and lower prices: companies would earn less, but the market would be larger and fair. Reality, as we know, is very different. But maybe that reality can change. We need a “Tesla printer” The printer user has therefore 30 years constant bleeding which translates into an exaggerated expense in cartridges and also in an erosion of time and productivity. What has happened with printers is something extraordinary: We have normalized that printers are almost more a problem than a solution. The Open Printer, a striking printer project “Open Source” and is based on the use of HP cartridges but accepts compatible third -party cartridges. Source: The Open Printer. And that is why we have a panorama in which there is a great opportunity for a revolution in the printers market. This segment is hungry for an ethical disruptive: the manufacturer who abandons the current Nash balance can change everything here. It is a mature field in which an innovative based on transparency and reliability could not only capture the market, but even redefine it. What the market needs is a kind of “Tesla printer”. And we refer to a printer that causes in this segment what Tesla managed to provoke in the car industry: a machine that has a great design, a reliable operation and that is also designed to last. But above all, that offers an alternative to current printers and their dictatorial philosophy with cartridges. Here are some projects underway. The project The Open Printerfrom the Parisian startup Open Tooks, is intended as A repair ink printer, Open Sourceand that focuses its operation on reparable cartridges. Its creators claim that this printer is created “with standard mechanical components and with modular parts”, which theoretically simplifies its assembly, modification and repair. Source: The Open Printer. In fact, the Open Printer works with a small Raspberry Pi W plate as an operations center. There are no proprietary firmware or cartridges with DRM. It is designed to use HP63 cartridges (HP 302 in Europe) both in black and in color but they serve both those of HP and third parties. And not only can you print on AAR or A4 folios, but even in 27 mm paper rolls. There are no details about its price or availability for the moment, but the idea will not be launched directly, and will first be launched as a collective financing project. We know for previous failures (and frauds) that such financing models It has its risksbut in this case that option seems reasonable and we only have to wait for the best of the project. That may not be the only launch in this regard, and in fact There is an even more interesting rumor. Frameworkthe company that has conquered us with its repairable laptops, seems to be considering the idea of ​​creating its own printer (modular and repairable? We expect that!). This is how at least a recent message indicates in X in which they commented on how “one of you must have sabotaged the office printer and has forced us to manufacture one. It is not possible that HP is selling printers that broken.” … Read more

AI has become the best example that if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product

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They said it in The documentary ‘The dilemma of social networks’: If you are not paying for the product, you are the product. Surely you have heard the phrase more than once in reference to the apps and services that we do not pay with money, but with another type of currency. Social networks, browsers, GPS apps … almost all They collect our information staff and navigation data to do business. Artificial intelligence apps are not different, in fact, there is a career to attract more and more users and forge alliances to get data with which to continue training their chatbots. Improve experience. “When you share your content with us, you help our models more precise since it can better solve your specific problems,” this phrase is taken from the Chatgpt Privacy Policy And in the one of Gemini There are other similar ones. Anthropic was the only one who held the conversations with Claude privately, but Yesterday they announced that they changed their policy. Our personal information, use data and especially conversations serve to continue training and improve. We can disable this option if we want, but we have to be we who do it. By default it is activated. Data shortage. AI needs many data to be trained, many. With the first language models all kinds of content were used, including Content protected by copyright as books or images of works of art. But the data is not infinite. At the end of 2021 there was already a talk of a shortage problem already early this year, Elon Musk said that AI had already consumed all human knowledge. This is a problem for the advance of AI and would be responsible for The rhythm has slowed down. Solutions. IA companies have had to look for life to get new data. OpenAI transcribed a million youtube hours To train GPT-4, Google decided that it would use Any information published on the Internet to improve your AI and Musk believes that the future is in the synthetic data generated by AI itself. But there is something that can also be used to train AI and they are our conversations with it. With the first models they did not have so many users, but currently the volume of data that users generate is much greater. Only Chatgpt has 800 million usersit sounds like a booty too juicy not to use it. Giving away. The conversations we have with ChatgPT can be useful, but it is even more useful when they are data from more specific groups. They count on Rest of World That to achieve this, IA companies are forging alliances with other companies and organizations that allow them to access data that cannot be achieved Web scraping. Openai has been associated with Shopee and offers its Plus plan for VIP users in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Google offers its free Gemini Pro plan for a year to students in India and Perplexity Pro is available free through operators such as Movistar or Airtel in India … These alliances increase their user base and provide real data of consumption of specific groups, which allows them to train their models more precisely. The Chinese case. China is an example of how to access specific data can give advantage when developing effective solutions. Pharmaceutical research companies that use AI have access to the national health system data, which covers more than 600 million people. This gives them a competitive advantage and has made Chinese companies sign Millionaire agreements with large pharmaceuticals. Worry. Experts such as Sameer Patil, director of the observer Research Foundation, calls to establish a clearer regulation, especially in sensitive sectors such as health or finance: “participating companies will have to ensure that data sets are not personalized and anonymous,” he says in statements to Rest of World. Image | Chatgpt In Xataka | Goal goes for all with AI: announces a data center almost as large as Manhattan and up to 65,000 million investment

How the South Korean aesthetic industry turned its beauty model into a global product

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In The era of filters, Collagen capsules and “glass” promisesbeauty has ceased to be local. It is no longer enough to go to the trusted aestheticist or continue A ten steps routine in front of the mirror. Today, to reach the ideal of globalized aesthetic perfection, many take a flight. And the most wanted destiny is not Paris or Beverly Hills, but Seoul. A booming industry. South Korea has become the epicenter of beauty tourism, a global trend that not only transforms faces, but also cultural imaginary and economic figures. In a report for The Timesmore than one million medical tourists traveled to South Korea in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. 68 % did so specifically to undergo aesthetic procedures, whether plastic surgery or dermatological treatments. And the sector does not stop growing. According to Grand View Researchthe South Korean aesthetic industry – valued at 2.4 billion dollars in 2024 – could exceed 6,300 million in 2030, promoted by international demand and advances in aesthetic technology. An experience “everything in one”. As They have detailed in The TimesGangnam district clinics-yes, the same PSY’s global hit-offer these types of experiences with packages that include 3D facial scanners, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, intravenous sera, microwave treatments to sculpt the face and even functional desserts such as pumpkin purés for post-treatment recovery. The British influencer and doctor Ewoma Ukeleghe shared in The Times Your experience: six treatments in one day, among them they rejure (An injection of salmon DNA) and Lifting wave. The promise of perfection. This boom is not accidental. As We already wrote in Xatakathe phenomenon feeds on multiple factors: the global impact of K-Pop and K-Drams, the Tiktok virality of products such as the Sheet Masks or the Korean tonic, and the rise of star ingredients such as collagen. Korean beauty not only offers visible results, but also an aspirational aesthetic wrapped in ritual, pop and science culture. However, there is also a dark side. As Dr. Christine Hall warns In The TimesIn South Korea there is an intense social pressure to maintain an impeccable image. “Presenting the best version of oneself is a sign of respect for others,” he explains. This logic, which may seem positive on the surface, encourages an extreme culture of perfectionism that, over time, can generate significant psychological impacts: from anxiety related to appearance to dependence on aesthetic treatments to sustain self -esteem. Unequal attention. Despite its international success, the system is not fully adapted to the foreign tourist. Although many clinics have personnel who speak English, others still depend on automatic translators such as Google Translate. In the Times report They tell the story of Ukeleghe, who reported how a nurse approached with an injection without explaining what it was; She, being a medical one, understood that it was a corticosteroid. But a patient without knowledge could have panicked. In addition, there is a real lack of attention to ethnic diversity. As experts in Byrdie point outNot all clinics have experience in working with skin tones other than Asia. This can lead to unexpected results, especially in laser or pigmentation treatments. The new Türkiye? The phenomenon reminds the boom of aesthetic surgeries in Türkiye or Colombia. In 2022, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Armegoons reported a 35% increase in complications among British patients who traveled to Türkiye for procedures such as liposuctions or implants, According to The Times. On the other hand, in Colombia, procedures such as the “360 liposculpture” or the increase in buttocks achieved such popularity that they attracted tourism from whole countries, although they were also subject to research for deaths and bad praxis, As The New York Times reported. And South Korea is not exempt from risks. During his visit, Ukeleghe rejected sedation precisely for not being clear about the presence of an anesthetist in case of emergency. In social networks, a viral video circulated – then eliminated – in which an American woman denounced having lost vision in an eye after a complication with Juvenlook, one of the most popular treatments in Korea. Although the case was not officially verified, the event generated concern and debate. In addition, Dr. Hall warns of “factory” clinics that apply treatments with just minutes of previous evaluation, reducing costs at the expense of security. The pressure of not aging. The rise of collagen as a magical solution for youth is no stranger to this ecosystem. As we wrote in Xatakahas become a symbol of self -care, but also of aesthetic anxiety. Although some studies point to mild benefits in elasticity or joint health, many are funded by the brands themselves. Even so, marketing insists: hydrolyzed, vegetable collagen, peptides, exosomes … Everything is sold as the new elixir. But perhaps the problem is not in the ingredients, but in a society that penalizes any trace of the passage of time, especially in women. The female social and professional invisibility when aging is not a myth: it is documented. More, less scalpel. The next border of Korean beauty tourism is marked by artificial intelligence and extreme customization. According to Byrdietreatments created from genetic analysis, facial scans and aging prediction algorithms are expected. Beauty becomes not only attainable, but calculable. A symptom that goes further. In this context, it may be worth asking if the real challenge is not in technology, but in ideal. In other words, perhaps the collagen is not the elixir of youth, but the reflection of a society that seeks to stop the clock at all costs. Dr. Hall emphasizes that the aesthetic innovation in Korea advances at such a speed that some treatments that promise to be revolutionaries end up disappearing before consolidating or even arriving in Europe. What today is a trend, tomorrow can be obsolete. Meanwhile, the clinics are still full, the flights to Seoul are sold as an investment in oneself and the hashtags like #kbeeautytrip do not stop accumulating millions of visualizations. Perhaps the real challenge is not to soften … Read more

The Xiaomi CEO came out in a video showing a new product and sold out in minutes. It was a cat carrier

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To exhaust products in minutes is something that Xiaomi has enough experience. More than a decade ago already They got it with their mobiles And currently your star product are cars; They recently sold 200,000 units of Xiaomi Yu7 in three minutes. The last product that have exhausted just put it on sale has not been technological, but something much simpler: a cat carrier. Exhausted. They tell it in Following The Yuan. After the publication of A video in which we see Lei Jun showing the cat bagThe brand had to hang the exhausted poster in just a few minutes. The bag-transport cost only 199 yuan, which to the current exchange is about 23 euros, and was put on sale as an accessory for the company’s SUV, the company, the Xiaomi Yu7. Designed by cat owners. In the video, Lei Jun tells that the transport has been designed in collaboration with brand employees who have cats. It emphasizes that it has a spacious interior, ventilation grilles on both sides and a transparent window at the top. It also has a pocket on the side. The truth is that, although the design seems very careful, it has nothing super -revolutionary, it is a fairly normal cloth transport. It doesn’t matter, that has not prevented them from running out. For the car. As we said, Xiaomi has promoted this new cat bag as an accessory for Xiaomi Yu7. The car has the possibility of activating a “pet mode” which consists in the installation of a camera in the rearview mirror that allows us to control pets and also has a speaker so that we can talk to them. In addition, by activating this mode the air conditioning continues to work so that they do not pass heat (or cold, it depends). It is not the only brand that offers something like that, others like Tesla either Mercedes They also have it. Pets like target. We have more and more pets and also They occupy a more privileged position in families. China does not get rid. To the current rhythm, it is expected that by the end of the decade Pets exceed children under 4 years. Given this, more and more technological companies that enter the growing segment of pets. Xiaomi launched The connected feeder and source that we already analyzed in Xataka And we have seen other connected products such as this curious Cat quantifying bracelet. Image | Douyin / Amparo Babyloni In Xataka | Communicating with our cats has always been a complex task. A study has discovered the key: flashing

A garbage cube of 2,000 ago in Mallorca exposes the star product of Roman fast food: Zorzal’s skewer

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The concept of “fast food“It is currently strongly associated with that of”junk food”. It usually involves a not very healthy dish due to the presence of processed foods. But fast food really exists For centuries And the Romans, of course, have something to say there. And a recent study puts on the table an important fast food industry in Roman times to northern Mallorca. The star dish? Singing birds. “Popina”Alejandro Valenzuela is a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies in Mallorca and the author of a Published article in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology in which he details how in the Roman city of Pollentiahe Zorzal He was the protagonist of street food. Founded in the 123 AC to the north of Mallorca, Pollentia was an imperial city for the empire due to its location in the Mediterranean and its ports that They favored trade With the island. Today is an archaeological site in which we have a curious and small theater, but in its day it must have been a very busy city, a bustling shopping center in which food played an essential role. Inside the shops, were the ‘Popinae‘. These are small establishments where you could eat something fast and have a wine before following the way. They were focused on the lowest classes of Roman society. Searching in the garbage. This was something common in Roman cities due to their rhythm of life. In Herculano and Pompeii you can see some ruins in good condition of Themopoliumwhich are more like taverns for somewhat more wealthy people, but basically, in both cases there was a bar with amphorae to get some hot food, serve the client and that it followed on their way. An example of Thermopolium Valenzuela, what interested him was to know what was in those mud vessels, but to discover what the inhabitants who were walking for Pollentia had to look in their garbage. Near one of those popinas there was a septic tank of a few meters deep in which everything was thrown. Part of the garbage was ceramic, which has allowed to date the date of use of the well between 10 AC and 30 AD What else was there? A large number of mammalian bones, birds and fish. And the bones of the birds are the ones that caught their attention. Pollentia location in Mallorca in image A. in B, the location of the well. In C, the meters at which a greater concentration of bones were found Fast Food Bird. Although there were several species, such as chicken, the bones were mostly slut. They are small singing birds associated with the diet of the upper classes of the Roman empirebut here we are in a very different context: popular food at street level. The remains highlighted the skulls and sternons of those birds, which indicated one thing: the most juicy parts should be the ones that served in the popina. As with other birds, the extremities and the upper part of the chest are the most juicy, and Valenzuela estimates that removing that juicy meat allowed the food seller to cook those parts quickly to the grill or in oil to serve it quickly. It is a meat that hardly takes a few seconds to cook. The darker, the more presence of parts they found in the black well. Within the red perimeter, the most fleshy parts and their associated bones, little present in the well Seasonal. There is also the possibility that customers sit down and consume the zorzal in dishes, since ceramic remains could indicate that there was a dishes, but due to the size of the bite, Alejandro Comment In Live Science that, within the “context of street food, it is also plausible to serve in skewer to facilitate consumption.” In the end, except exceptions, food in ancient times was linked to seasons and the foal is a seasonal product that would have integrated well into a diet like that of Roman cities with others like domestic chicken either European rabbittwo species whose remains would also have served in this restaurant Fast food of Pollentia. But the most important thing is that this finding makes the belief that the Zorzal was a luxury bite for the Romans staggers because the Popinae They were not precisely the premises that most frequented the High classes. Images | Daniele Florio From Rome, Dion art In Xataka | The world ranking of ultraprocess food: the countries that most and less consume it worldwide

The Spaniards eat less and less fish. So the fishmongers are recycling their product … for pets

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In Spain we eat less fish. Much less. And we have more pets. Many more. Life fishmongers are not alien to one or another trend, so they have decided to do A movement quite logical: to make a place in the lucrative, promising and above all growing business of food for pets. After all, if they have already done the large supermarket chains, why can’t your neighborhood fish do? The logic is simple: that the place where you buy fish for you, for your children, couple and other family is also the place where you buy it for your hairy. What happened? That Fedepescathe Spanish Federation that represents businesses dedicated to the sale of fishing products, has just released an original campaign. Original and expected. Monday, during an act held in MadridThe organization presented a campaign to encourage its clients not to take home food for them or their family. He wants them to do it also for their pets. In fact, slogan cannot be clearer: “In the fish market there is also food for your hairy compi!” Fedepesca campaign poster. “For the whole family”. The strategy is well cooked. If the fishmongers are reliable businesses in which to acquire fresh, seafood and frozen fish, why were they also going to be to buy pet packaged foods that fish has as “protagonist ingredient”? Fedepesca itself remember which is something that supermarkets have been doing and would allow traditional fishmongers to become points of sale for “the whole family.” “The initiative aims emphasize. According to EFEAGROthe Federation has begun to introduce packaging food for pets in Madrid by the hand of a wholesaler and there are associations of Seville and Catalonia interested in following their steps. In total Fedepesca brings together near 6.2000 businesses. Reinvent or die. The movement is curious, but not surprising. Although Spain is a country with thousands of kilometers Of coast and a gastronomy linked to the sea, the fishmongers are finding that we eat less and less fish. The Last data The government shows that between April 2024 and last March the consumption of marine products fell 2.7%, a percentage that rises to 4.3% if we speak only of fish. And it is not a timely drop. In 2003 the annual per capita consumption of products related to fishing touched the 27.8 kilosfact that in 2009 even reached touch the 30 kg. In 2023 that indicator had descended until 18.9 And last year he got off 18a negative trend that has no signs of changing in view of the balance of recent months. Given this scenario, fishmongers have opted for new business roads, such as home shipments and Sale of algae… or pet food. More pets. The panorama is very different if we talk about company animals. In fact there are calculations that show your census overcomes to children. Although The data They must be handled cautiously are demolving: a few months ago The country He made a survey Between veterinary schools and concluded that in Spain there are 9.3 million dogs and 1.6 million censored cats. In total 10.8 registered pets. Leaving aside that there are many other species that are used as company animals, the data far exceeds the number of minors registered by the INE. ANFAC, the association that brings together pet food manufacturers, assures That in Spain there are more than 30 million pets, of which about 9.3 are dogs and 5.8 felines. Differences can be explained because not all animals have chip. And an appetizing business. These figures translate into something else: business. More more pets is the market focused on its food and care. ANFAC calculates that the sales volume went from 561,305 tons in 2023 to 573,210 in 2024. And that reflects only the weight. The rise is greater if we talk about billing. Fortune Business INSGIGHT esteem That the world market for pet care reached 259,370 million dollars in 2024 and its forecasts are of clear growth. Their estimates pass through that this year the 273,420 million are already in the beginning of the next decade, the 428,000 million are rubbed. Images | Anusha Barwa (UNSPLASH), Grupo Eroski S.Coop (Flickr) and Fedepesca In Xataka | In Spain there are less and fewer children, so the ice cream industry has launched for a more buoyant market: dogs

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