promised

The nougat promised them happiness in their search for impossible flavors. Until almonds and eggs skyrocketed in price

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If you like to celebrate Christmas with nougat, bad news: this year it will be your turn scratch your pocket more. Quite a bit more, in fact. It doesn’t matter if you prefer soft or hard bars, you love chocolate, you have a favorite manufacturer or you don’t mind trying the white label of your supermarket. You will almost certainly have to pay more. This is concluded by several studies of Facua and the OCUwhich show that Christmas sweets are not immune to the ups and downs of the market. Although it is not the general trend, in their reports they warn of some specific cases in which prices have skyrocketed. above 50%threatening to sour one of the great pleasures of the holidays. The sweet, less sweet. There is no Christmas without nougat, but this year it will be much more expensive to bring it to the table. It reflects it clearly a recent report of the OCU that warns that, on average, the classic almond nougat has become more expensive by 16%. To be more precise, the organization detected an increase of 15.8% in the price of hard tablets and 16.1% in soft tablets. The variants that dispense with added sugars also increased (although to a lesser extent), in which honey or sugar is replaced by sweeteners: in those cases the price has increased, although somewhat less, by 13.6%. One piece of information: €23/kg. The calculations start from an OCU studywhich has dedicated itself to analyzing the prices of more than a hundred nougats. The study focused specifically on the most classic varieties, the almonds, both Alicante (hard) and Jijona (soft). Then their technicians dedicated themselves to purchasing the prices of each tablet with the records they stored from 2024. With the new prices, the average kilo of nougat is in €23/kgalthough if we talk about “brand nougat” that indicator rises to €33/kg. Same photo, different details. Although the report shows a general increase in price, the rise has not been equally intense in all tablets. It influences (a lot) what brand we talk about. The best ones are white label nougat, those sold under the distributor’s labels. In that case the increase has been close to 9.4%. It is a considerable increase, but it pales when compared to the 24.3% increase in the average price of manufacturer brand nougat. Within this category, notable differences are also seen depending on the company and product. Can it go further? Yeah. According to the OCUthe nougats from El Almendro’s “Own Harvest” line cost 37% more than in 2024. The cake, however, goes to El Lobo, which has products in its catalog that cost 57% more today. The organization recognizes in any case that this percentage has an explanation: in its 2024 analysis it appeared as the cheapest, which explains why it has experienced such a pronounced price update. “These increases have turned the price of traditional branded nougat into a luxury item. Manufacturer’s nougat now costs €33/kg on average, compared to €15/kg for supermarket white label nougat,” they explain from the consumer organization. The average value of almond nougat is around €23/kg. Far beyond nougat. The OCU has not been the only one that has taken out the calculator to study how much more we will have to pay for sweets these holidays. FACUA has carried out a similar exercise, which in November I already warned that Christmas desserts had become 15.4% more expensive in large distribution chains. That was at least the average, and the organization was able to detect specific cases with exorbitant “peaks of rise”, of up to 65.3%. The study It analyzed 185 items, including nougat, but also chocolates, mantecados and Polvorones available in several supermarket chains, such as Mercadona, Dia, Hipercor, Alcampo, Eroski and Carrefour. “Only three have gone down”. “Of the total prices analyzed in the months of October 2024 and 2025, only three have decreased compared to last year and eight remain the same. The rest, 174 out of 185, are more expensive,” FACUA warnswhich warns of increases in Hipercor, Alcampo, Carrefour, Eroski, Dia and Mercadona. The clearest case was detected in a Supreme Quality toasted yolk nougat El Corte Inglés Selection from Hipercor: from 2.39 euros in 2024 it went to 3.95 euros, which represents an increase of just over 65%. In general, the organization detected an average increase in the price of sweets of 22.6% since October 2023. Searching for the causes. That nougat is experiencing such a steep price rise is no coincidence. Although there are several factors that come into play, to the OCU and CaixaBank There is one that stands out: the drift in the price of one of its main raw materials, almonds. In fact, the OCU recalls that in higher category tablets it represents more than 60% of the weight, which explains why fluctuations in its price are felt in the rates. Has it risen that much? “Its price has increased significantly: from 90-95 euros per 100 kg of shelled almonds between January and August 2024 to about 120 euros in 2025, with peaks of 138 euros in June,” argues the organizationwhich ensures that varieties such as Marcona, Largueta and Comuna have seen their prices rise from 15 to 25%. It’s not no surprise if we take into account that the almond has reached values ​​not seen since 2019. CaixaBank remember that frosts and droughts have marked the harvest of recent campaigns, affecting prices. If in the 2024-2025 season farmers received an average of 5.6 euros per kilo of communal almonds (the cheapest), in previous seasons that same value hovered around 4.09 or 2.95 euros per kilo. The change in weather conditions has improved the prospects for the campaign that began in September, but this effect has not yet been noticeable in the 2025/26 Christmas nougat campaign. Almonds… and something else. To be fair, almonds are not the only ingredient that has become more expensive in the last year. He has done it too (and not … Read more

Torrejón de Ardoz promised them happiness as the epicenter of the Madrid festivals. Until he started canceling them

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Torrejón de Ardoz does not seem willing to become the epicenter of the Madrid festivals. Although City Councils usually boast of their ability to attract concerts, fairs and other mass events, a few days ago the Consistory of the Corredor del Henares did exactly the opposite: published a statement to announce the cancellation of “all macrofestivals that were made in the city.” From their extensive list only one will be saved, Elrow Town. The rest will be forced to find a new location next year. What has happened? Que Torrejón de Ardoz has announced the “cancellation” of three music festivals: Brava Madrid, Madrid Salvaje and Torrejón Summer Fest. The reason? The Consistory alleges basically two reasons. The first, that he wants to “minimize the inconvenience to the neighbors.” The second, that in the opinion of the municipal government, the leisure offer for the inhabitants of the town is already well covered with the Magical Christmass and the patron saint and popular festivals. “They offer an excellent offer of free leisure and a sufficient attraction, such as large events, to promote the Torrejón Ciudad de Moda brand,” he says. Is everything cancelled? No. They fall at least Brava Madrid, Wild Madrid and Torrejón Summer Festbut not the Elrow Townwhich will be celebrated on a holiday (May 1) during daylight hours. From the Torrejón City Council they argue that the festival does not cost the municipal coffers money and represents an “important” source of income for the town. In addition, residents will have the right to purchase tickets starting in April with a 50% discount. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What does it mean for Torrejón? A priori and how recognize the City Council itself, the fairgrounds will be left without events for most of the spring-autumn season of 2026. At the moment there is nothing scheduled for March, April, July, August and September. In June and October there will also be no appointments, except for the celebration of Popular and Patron Saint Festivals, respectively. The strong month will be May, with elrow Town, Tributos, Locos X80 and Urban. The City Council assures that an effort will be made to reduce the acoustic impact, which would even include orienting the stage towards the Polígono de Las Monjas, in such a way that the sound is not directed towards the homes. During elrow Town, the installation of acoustic screens is planned to protect the buildings. Why is it important? Because of the context. Madrid Salvaje, Brava Madrid and elrow Town had not been in Torrejón de Ardoz for long. What’s more, the three festivals they relocated there this year after having to leave IFEMA. In the Torrejonero area they found a large, close space, well connected to Madrid and with green areas. Its great potential led to some saw to the town of Corredor del Henares as the potential new “epicenter” of the Madrid festivals, a not unreasonable possibility after the turn from IFEMA. A few months ago the IFEMA consortium confirmed their decision not to hold outdoor festivals at least in 2025 and focus on indoor ones. The measure came at a special time, with those responsible for the fair institute betting on the organization of the Spanish F-1 Prize, which will be held in September 2026. in spring The World public In fact, IFEMA’s step back from the open-air festivals sought to appease the residents’ spirits ahead of the Formula 1 event and the noise that the cars may cause. Perfect, right? It doesn’t seem like it. Although the festival organizers stood out At the time, the advantages of moving to Torrejón de Ardoz had, in practice things seem to have been different. At least for its inhabitants. In the statement in which it confirms the cancellation of “all macro-festivals” (except elrow Town), the City Council insists that the objective is to “minimize inconvenience to neighbors”, a maxim that goes beyond the musical calendar. “The City Council, listening to the feelings of many Torrejoneros, is going to reduce and celebrate fewer events, concerts and parties, and will focus all its efforts on taking better care of and keeping the city cleaner,” the statement continues. Neither Torrejón nor the neighborhoods close to IFEMA are the first to have seen how difficult it can be to combine the residential use of an area and the celebration of mass shows. Probably the most publicized case is that of the complaints of surrounding neighbors of the Bernabéu, which even led to heavy fines. In Torrejón, an extra element was also added that has little or nothing to do with noise: several festivals They were tarnished by their ties to a pro-Israel fund in the midst of the Gaza war. Image | Elrow Town In Xataka | Madrid has turned Manzanares into a new tourist attraction with LEDs. The neighbors have something to say

Iniesta promised them happy retirement. Now they are investigating him in Peru for an alleged $600,000 scam

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Andres Iniesta it’s news. And it is for something that has little to do with football, sports or entertainment. On this occasion the headlines are monopolized in the pages of the judicial chronicle on account of a controversy that arose in Peruwhere the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the former midfielder for his role in an alleged chain of scams against businessmen in the country for a sum of around $600,000. Iniesta’s surroundings already has denied the accusations and talks about “malicious” information to take advantage of his image. It is not the first time that the former soccer player has been in the spotlight for his role as a businessman: years ago he did it for his wineries, both for a dispute with the Treasury as for your losses. What has happened? That the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Iniesta for an alleged “aggravated fraud.” The news has been reported by the country’s media, such as The Republic, Trome either Libero and it has been echoed in Spain by Efe agency, The Country either The Sixthwho has even spoken with one of those affected. Basically, the Public Ministry has opened a tax file on the former soccer player following a complaint related to the company NSN Barcelona, ​​linked to Iniesta. In the Prosecutor’s document (reproduced partially by The Republic) it can be read that the complaint is filed against Iniesta and at least two other people for “the alleged commission of crimes against property in the form of aggravated fraud.” The document also details that the “prestige” of the former Barça player played a key role in raising funds and committing the alleged scam. What is investigated? The facts reported by Gucho Entertainment and other Peruvian businessmen who claim to have invested around $600,000 in a series of events (sports and artistic) that supposedly had the support of NSN Sudamérica, a subsidiary of the company linked to Iniesta. His name would have made it easier for the Peruvian businessmen who have now gone to court to hand over thousands of dollars to organize a series of shows. Specifically, four are mentioned: the Upa Upa Fest, a friendly between the club Scientist of Cusco and the National of Ecuadora K-pop festival and another legends match between Peru and Spain. Of all of them, only one was held, the Upa Upa Fest, and it did not turn out as investors expected. In fact, it left considerable losses. And what happened? The problem is that the firm that was supposed to be in charge of the executive production of the events, NSN Sudamérica, declared bankruptcy in June 2024. The subsidiary entered into the liquidation process and allegedly did not return the money invested by the Peruvian businessmen to finance the rest of the shows. “No notification. We found out that the company was in liquidation. They never took responsibility for anything, although they were supposed to do so” reported on Monday Emilio Lozano, one of the supposedly affected businessmen, in an interview with ‘And now Sonsoles’, a La Sexta program. What does that have to do with Iniesta? That NSN South America is a delegation of NSN Barcelona. The former La Roja footballer himself celebrated the launch in 2023, according to statements collected by The Country: “We are very excited to be present in a country like Peru and a continent like South America to continue growing and promoting our values ​​around the world.” The subsidiary was established at the beginning of that year by a group of Peruvian and Spanish businessmen, the starting signal for attracting investors. The Prosecutor’s Office document not only cites the former soccer player, but it does underline that his name was essential for raising funds. How key was it? The writing is very clear. “The facts that will be detailed below involve Andrés Iniesta, who is a figure of international recognition for his achievements in professional football as a former player of the Club Barcelona of Spain and having been a former world champion with the Spanish team, who using this prestige authorized and supported the foundation of NSN Sudamérica to act as a subsidiary of his company NSN Barcelona throughout South America. However, that prestige was only used to raise capital from Peruvian businessmen under the deception that they were going to be invested in large events that were approved in coordination between NSN Barcelona and NSN South America,” reads the writing of the Prosecutor’s Office cited by The Republic. At the moment the agency has initiated preliminary proceedings for an alleged crime against property, a phase that will last several weeks. What does the company say? Mark distances. Through a blunt statement Iniesta and NSN make several points clear. To begin with, they “outrightly” deny the accusations that have been published in recent days. Second, they claim that the information has been published “maliciously” with the purpose of taking advantage of the image of “a public figure” like Iniesta. “We trust that the Peruvian justice system will clarify this situation very soon and we reserve the right to file appropriate actions in defense of our work and honor, requesting maximum rigor in the information published regarding this case,” concludes the official statement. From the ex-footballer’s entourage they have something beyond and they have explained to La Sexta that the former soccer player and NSN are also affected: they created a subsidiary in Peru “led by people who were not the right ones and harmed them and third parties.” “Those in charge made a mistake when it came to putting the right people in place,” abound. Images | Wikipedia and Carlos Fernández (Unsplash) In Xataka | If the question is how to add more epic to LaLiga, in Russia it is very clear: with AI, many muscles and topics

In 1995 a program came out that promised to double your PC’s RAM. In the best of cases what I did was not spend more

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The 90s were wonderful in the world of software and hardware. Epic trolling like that of the 299 dollars of the first PlayStationthe legendary key of Windows 95 or the PlayStation emulator presented by Steve Jobs himself. In the middle of the decade a program came out that promised the impossible: double the amount of RAM on your PC. Its name was SoftRAM 95 and, although it makes us raise an eyebrow today, in its day it sold hundreds of thousands of copies for $80 each. And spoiler: it was of absolutely no use. SoftRAM 95, the miracle solution for your PC’s RAM The launch of a program like this is a product of its time, one in which users they could have been less ‘smart’ Now for more than logical reasons and in an industry in which everything was learned and developed as we went. There were times when the smartest were the ones who got results, but a company called Suncronys Softcorp learned its lesson the hard way. The year was 1995 and Windows 95 was beginning to revolutionize homes. Although the Microsoft system made control a PC was more accessible than ever (unfortunately for Steve Jobs), the hardware still had a brutal barrier to entry: the price. They were still expensive devices, very expensive, so saving on components saved a few dollars. RAM It was one of those components for which you paid gold per KB, but… what if there was a program that, for a few dollars, doubled the amount of memory on our PC? What if he did all this without having to touch any piece of our equipment? That is where the Californian Syncronys Softcorp saw a vein and – now we can say that in bad faith – launched its program: SoftRAM 95. It went on sale in August 1995 and it is estimated that they sold a whopping 600,000 copies until December of that same year. In those days, it was truly outrageous. And the logical question is how he achieved what he promised. The long answer is that it compressed the memory, so when the operating system needed to save data from RAM to the hard drive, SoftRAM 95 compressed it before writing it, reducing the amount of space needed on the disk and allowing the RAM to have more space available. The concept, roughly speaking, is correct, and the program interface told us that yes, congratulations, you had double the amount of RAM. The long answer is that it didn’t do what it promised. Although technically they were on the right track, this process at the time was tremendously ambitious for one reason: the speed of both the RAM and the primitive hard drives It was so absurdly slow that, effectively, the objective could not be met. They knew this from the top of Syncronys, but they didn’t care: the money was pouring in because each license cost about 30 dollars. Under the magnifying glass of the press… and Microsoft However, things quickly went wrong. A magazine of the time called PC Magazine submitted the software to a analysis How these analyzes should be done: testing whether the program really did what it promised. Using blocks of data to evaluate whether compression was effective, they found that processing times were exactly the same with compressible data and with random data that could not be compressed. They came to the conclusion that the only thing SoftRAM did was show an animated screen which gave the user the perception that they were working when, in reality, they were doing absolutely nothing. But beyond the press, those who got their hands on the software were Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich, two Microsoft engineers who dissected the program at the code level. Basically, confirmed the well-founded suspicion of PC Magazine and pointed out that the program never actually worked. That is, the paging controller device – that compression of the RAM to transfer it to the hard drive – it closed just when loadingso it never did anything at all other than display false numbers while the operating system worked exactly as it should, whether the program was installed or not. When I said before that the management of Syncronys knew it, it was not because we saw history with the eyes of the present. When everything was revealed, they reported that RAM compression was not being carried out and, in addition, it was learned that they sold the software even though its developers had warned that the product was not ready. And it wasn’t aI’ll launch it and I’ll fix itlike many current games”, because in 1995 Internet updates were not the norm. Just when the company thought it was over, the US Federal Trade Commission arrived. Following its investigation, Syncronys finally acknowledged that it had misrepresented the performance of its product and banned it from selling any more copies of both SoftRAM and Windows 3.1 as SoftRAM 95. In total, both versions placed 700,000 copies on the market and Syncronys declared bankruptcy in July 98, owing 4.5 million dollars. The idea did not die with SoftRAM In the end, what SoftRAM did The best case scenario was not to eat up your PC’s resources.and it was one of those attempts to sell whatever in a still somewhat naive market. For PC Worldnext to AOL and RealPlayerSoftRAM is the worst technology product of all time. But of course, with the eyes of 2025, you may be wondering… what happens with solutions like Windows Vista ReadyBoost and the mobile memory expansion? It’s a different matter and, although both promise to improve performance by using “extra memory”, it is something very different from what SoftRAM did. ReadyBoost, for example, allowed you to use the memory of a pen drive as a cache to speed up access to frequent data. It acted as an extension of the system’s virtual memory and the theory is correct, but again we ran into the speed limitation of USBs … Read more

Five years ago, Airbus promised a zero-emission aircraft. Now it’s not so clear

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The transport sector has been fighting for some years against a great enemy: its own CO₂ emissions. According to the European Environment Agency, this sector was the responsible of approximately 30% of emissions. And, of the total of these emissions, civil aviation represented 13.4%. The answer? The electrification in the case of land transportsomething that has been evolving at a good pace. In the case of commercial aviation, electricity was not opted for, but for hydrogen. The European Airbus was one of the companies that first jumped into the pool with a commitment to achieve the decarbonization goals with which the European Union seems to be very committed. Your proposal: hydrogen-powered zero-emission aircraft. That was the proposal in 2020 with a view to being achieved by 2035, and the prototypes of some companies they seemed hopeful. However, hydrogen has not done as well as many expected and the consequences are there: where it said “I say”, it says “Diego”, and now Airbus is not so clear that your zero-emission plane arrives on schedule. Airbus, its “green” plane and the turnaround of the industry Airbus’s proposal was extremely ambitious, since its hydrogen-powered aircraft would mark the greatest aeronautical revolution since the appearance of the jet engine. The idea was have hydrogen planes in the air by 2035for which presented three concepts: A turbofan for 200 passengers and 3,704 kilometers of range. A turbofan mixed wing model also for 200 passengers and 3,704 autonomy. A turboprop for 100 passengers and 1,852 kilometers of range. Its roadmap included the design of gas turbines with fuel injectors for hydrogen combustion to occur, but also models with completely electric systems powered by hydrogen fuel cells. They invested 1.7 billion dollars in the projectbut things began to go wrong both for Airbus and for the hydrogen industry as a vehicle “engine.” Germany is a good example of the difficulties of hydrogen as a fuel, at least for private vehicles. By the end of 2024, the main hydrogen station operator began to close facilities because there was no demand. The German Association of Energy and Water Industries itself revealed in a report that planned storage projects were significantly behind projected demand. For the private car, it seems that electrification has won the game, but in other types of vehicles such as trucks, buses or airplanes themselves, this fuel seemed to continue to be a valid option. At the beginning of this year, however, Reuters reported that Airbus was having problems obtaining green hydrogen. There is many types of hydrogen and their colors indicate how they have been obtained. What the sector needs is the so-called green hydrogen, which is produced thanks to renewable energies such as solar or wind. It is a process that needs a lot of investment and the company’s CEO doubted that enough could be produced to make commercial flights with hydrogen aircraft profitable. They did not shelve the project and, in fact, at the Airbus 2025 Summit reaffirmed their engagement, but soon after it seems they thought better of it. As we read in The Wall Street Journalthe company cut the budget allocated to green hydrogen airplane research by a quarter. Citing “technical challenges,” the company has reassigned staff other departments and the engineers responsible for the project appear to have gone back to the planning table. It is not a “never will arrive”, but it does seem to represent a slowdown in the plans that would imply that they would not arrive with that plane by 2035. In fact, in TWSJ they comment that Airbus defends that the money has not been thrown away and that delaying the project will allow the technology to be perfected. “Our destiny has not changed, but we need to adjust to reality to get there,” commented Bruno Fichefeux, head of future aeronautics programs. But it is not only Airbus that has taken a turn in its green policy. At the beginning of this year we saw that large oil companies began to stop or cut investment in their renewable energy programs to refocus on fossil fuel production. In this case it is not because the technology is green, but because there is an entity that has appeared on the board that requires large amounts of energy immediately: the data centers for AI training. Returning to hydrogen aircraft, although Airbus has put the brakes on its strategy, assuming a delay of five yearsthere are other companies that had a similar roadmap. For example, ZeroAviawhat’s next committed with hydrogen-powered flight and that has several models programmed in its roadmap, with 200-seat aircraft by 2040. Images | ZeroAviaAirbus In Xataka | The plan to clean the air by capturing CO₂ has just received a blow of reality: the Earth does not have as much space as we thought

AI companies promised to be happy with their autonomous agents, until they came across Amazon

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AI agents promise us to perform complex tasks autonomously, such as book trips either make the purchase. Although is improvingagentic AI still it’s quite greenbut it has just come across an obstacle that we had not counted on and that could change everything: that there are companies that do not want AI agents roaming their stores. This is what just happened between Amazon and Perplexity. What has happened? They tell it in Bloomberg. Amazon is suing Perplexity to stop the agent built into its Comet browser from purchasing items from Amazon. According to Amazon, Perplexity has committed computer fraud by allowing its agent to browse and make purchases as if they were a real person, which violates its terms of service on transparency. They also claim that the use of automated agents can negatively affect the shopping experience on their platform. Why is it important. The case could set limits for autonomous AI agents in real-world tasks that require using third-party services, such as in this case Amazon. If stores or travel platforms close the door to AI agents, the promise of autonomy is compromised. On the other hand, leaving all doors open could influence e-commerce. It is something that has already happened before, such as cases of bots buying tickets to shows. Bullies. Perplexity has responded with a post on your blog in which they describe the move as “corporate bullying” and affirm that it is “a threat to all Internet users.” They also highlight that Comet users love the agentic AI features and that Amazon should too because it translates into more purchases and happy customers. For the company, an AI agent should have the same rights and responsibilities as a real human user since the agent is acting on behalf of the user. “It’s not Amazon’s job to oversee that,” Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, said in an interview. Agents on Amazon. Amazon already has its own assistant Rufus and is developing its own agents, so there are more reasons behind this movement against Perplexity. It is not about protecting the experience, or at least not only about that, but that Perplexity is a direct competitor. Perplexity champions choice. “I don’t think it’s customer-centric to force people to only use their assistant, who may not even be the best shopping assistant,” Srinivas said. AI Ecosystems. The dispute between Amazon and Perplexity is the first example that the AI ​​war is also about ecosystems. It presents a scenario in which service providers decide whether an AI agent can enter their stores or travel platforms, or if they prefer to develop their own and force users to use that. The truth is that Amazon had already blocked the Perplexity agent a few months ago, but the company released an update that circumvented the blocking. We’ll see how everything turns out. Image | Pxhere In Xataka | CAPTCHAs had become an excellent tool to fight bots. Until ChatGPT Agent arrived

This humanoid robot promised to do our housework. For now it’s a $20,000 puppet

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Neo is 5’6″, weighs 30kg, is dressed in some kind of beige work overalls and moves slowly and clumsily. It is one of the most advanced humanoid robots in the world—so it seems in the official websiteof course—and it costs $20,000, but despite all this it has a big problem: it is not really autonomous, and is controlled by another human being, as if it were an ultra-modern puppet. There is a long way from saying to doing. We talked about Neo a year ago. The company that develops it, 1X, boasted of beginning to test it in the real world. The version they used then, Neo Beta, had an autonomy of up to four hours and had sensors that allowed it to boost its “embedded learning” system. Already then it was indicated that a teleoperator would connect to the robot to show it how to do something. Robot-puppet. In reality, the teleoperator is the key to everything, because this robot, like its current version, does not work autonomously, but is controlled remotely by a human operator. Said operator puts on mixed reality glasses and uses controls to perform this control. In The Wall Street Journal have had the opportunity to try it and to see how the future that robotics companies paint for us seems to be still very far away. a robot clumsy and slow. In the video that accompanies the article it is clearly seen how the robot’s movements are erratic and slow. It took him forever to open the refrigerator to get a bottle of water and he managed to put two (plastic) glasses in the dishwasher, but it also took him a long time to get it. Folding a sweater took him two minutes. All these operations show that the dexterity of these robots is still very far from equaling that of humans, especially when it comes to emulating our hands. And on top of that, privacy. During the tests it became clear that one of the problems of using this robot is that the user sacrifices part of his privacy, because he must give permission for the teleoperator to see through the robot’s cameras to complete his tasks. And that means “getting into our house.” 1X CEO Bernt Børnich explained in WSJ that Neo “is not for everyone. If you buy this product, it is because you agree with the social agreement. If we don’t have your data, we can’t improve the product.” Even so, those responsible say, “you will always have control” and for example you can establish prohibited areas or blur faces in the transmission. See to learn. They precisely need all that visual data: so that the Neo’s neural network system can learn from trying to complete those household tasks and, from there, solve them more accurately. It is something similar to what happens with Tesla’s fleet of cars, which also “learns” thanks to all those kilometers that the cars travel to perfect their autonomous driving system. “Probably safe”. Another key element of these robots is the security they offer in an environment as private as our home. It’s not particularly heavy, which helps minimize risks, and 1X says Neo is “probably safe.” In 2026 it will be much more autonomous. Børnich’s promise is that Neo will “do many of the household tasks autonomously,” although he admitted that the quality with which those tasks are completed will be somewhat poor initially. He compared the situation with that of the first images and videos generated by AI: now those images and videos are practically indistinguishable from reality, and something similar will happen according to him with Neo. The promise may never be fulfilled. Neo is the latest example of how the robotics segment is the other great seller of expectations (along with AI) for the future. The challenge here is just as enormous, but the fact that Neo is not truly autonomous is disappointing, as was what happened with Tesla’s Optimus or the recent news of the Japanese store robots. Yann LeCun, one of the top AI managers at Meta, indicated at a recent conference at MIT that these robots could end up going nowhere. According to him, the companies that are investing billions of dollars in humanoid robots “have no idea” how to make these machines “smart enough to be generally useful.” In Xataka | Amazon has calculated how much it costs to lay off 600,000 employees: 30 cents per item sold and many robots

Norway promised them happiness with the world’s first megatunnel for ships. Until he saw how much it was going to cost him

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Thousands of kilometers of sinuous coasts, currents, storms and devilish geography. Norway does not make it easy for sailors who ply its coastline every day loaded with goods, fish or passengers. Hence, the country has been talking for some time about undertaking an ambitious work at one of its points more sensitive, the Stad peninsula. The idea is to cross the tongue of land with a tunnel almost two kilometers long, designed specifically for the passage of boats. The problem is that estimates of its cost have not stopped growing in recent years and that has led the Government to take a step back. His idea is to put the project in the drawer. Another thingOf course, Parliament is going to allow it. A boat tunnel? That’s how it is. It sounds strange, and it’s normal. After all the Stad tunnel It is an unusual infrastructure, the first underground road designed for boats. What Norway is proposing to do is open a large navigable canal of 1.7kmalmost 50 m high (the navigable space will be somewhat less) and more than 30 m wide to cross the Stad peninsula, in the province of vestlandwest of the country. Building it would require between four years of works. That they want to open right in Vestland is no coincidence. If the Stad peninsula stands out for something, it is because of its poor conditions for sailors: it is exposed to the inclemencies and gusts of wind of the Stadhavet Sea, with no nearby islands to cushion it, and the currents do not make it easy for sailors either. In the web of the project, it is recalled that the Kråkenes station, south of Stad, is the one that records the most stormy days: some years there are more than a hundred. And does a tunnel solve it? The same website Remember that in Stad there is intense maritime traffic, both Norwegian and foreign ships, dedicated to fishing, commerce, aquaculture, naval and tourism. With the underground canal, Norway wants to offer them several advantages: time savings and more security, with all the advantages that this can bring for anyone who depends on ships. Furthermore, supporters of the project defend that with “a safer and more efficient step” maritime transport will increase, removing trucks from the roads. Whether its promises are more or less convincing, the undeniable thing is that the Stad tunnel is nothing new. TO late 19th century There was already talk of crossing the peninsula with a subway, although the approach has not always been exactly the same. At one time they even opted for a railway pipeline. The idea has remained on the table with twists and turns in recent years until in 2013 It finally managed to sneak into the National Transportation Plan. In 2017 the tunnel seemed a little closer and in 2021 started to talk of the imminent start of the works. In fact, it is estimated that a little more than 30 million dollars in land purchases and feasibility studies to give it shape. Are you on track then? Not at all. If the work sounds ambitious it is because it really is. And that usually entails something more than technical complications: money. Big money. Millions and millions of Swedish crowns. An amount that has also increased with the passage of time, complicating its viability. Maritime Executive remember that at the time there was talk of 325 million dollars and in 2023 the figure had skyrocketed to 690 million. A few days ago NRK, the Norwegian public radio and television channel, I already needed that the estimated bill is around 9.4 billion crowns, about 780 million dollars. There are means, like one’s own Maritime Executivethat they even refer larger figures. Is that a problem? A few days ago NRK echoed some statements by the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Storewhich reveal that the Government wants to put the project in the drawer. At least for now. The reason has little mystery: its exorbitant cost at a time when the country prefers to invest in other areas. “In the budget proposal we will announce that we abandoned the Stad sea tunnel project,” the leader advanced Norwegian. “The cost will be so high that we feel it is not responsible to move forward with the project.” “We must prioritize and take care of every penny to use the money in the most efficient way possible. That is why we reject this project, we consider that it does not justify such a high expense,” insisted Støre, who cited other priorities, such as health, defense or municipal investment. “It will be so expensive that we consider it irresponsible to continue with the project.” With the option of lowering or renegotiating costs ruled out, the news soon spread to the local press and foreignerwith all kinds of reactions. What reactions? Days after the announcement the Norwegian Coastal Administration published a statement confirming that, within the framework of the 2026 national budget, the Government had decided to “suspend” the tunnel works pending Parliament’s ruling. The agency warned that, among other issues, this stoppage will also affect the bidding for works. An important notice considering that you had already received offers from three construction companies and expected to close the contract this year to start the works (five years) in 2026. The defenders of the tunnel have been more emphatic, speaking of “a hard blow” and an “irresponsible decision.” “More than 500 companies from the fishing industry and shipping to industry, tourism and aquaculture have signed the petition for the construction of the tunnel,” remember. “These represent thousands of jobs and billions in revenue.” What will happen now? Good question. Although it is not easy to answer it. Støre’s announcement was framed in the presentation of the 2026 state accounts, which left some questions raised. After all, as NRK herself recalled As the news progresses, the prime minister’s party, the Labor Party, does not have a majority in the Storting (Parliament of Norway), so … Read more

have been the productivity apps that promised to help you

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There is a tendency to think that the main reason for loss of productivity at work is due to poor time organization or for procrastinating tasks. That is, by leaving pending tasks for later. However, a study carried out by the project management platform Lokalise, has revealed a surprising reason why working hours they don’t give as much of themselves as you would like: too many applications and digital tools are used in daily work. This phenomenon has been called “online tool fatigue” or fatigue due to excess of digital tools. According to the results revealed by the Lokalise survey, when too many messaging, email, data management or project management applications are used, instead of help you be more productivejust the opposite happens and productivity plummets. Impossible to concentrate. According to data from the Lokalise study, based on the opinions of more than 1,000 office workers in the US from different professional sectors, these employees experience constant daily interruptions in your concentration when they receive a message through the work messaging app, they must respond to an email, etc. The data indicates that 17% of respondents switch between tabs, applications or platforms more than 100 times in a single workday. 56% of the workers interviewed assured the platform that tool fatiguesuch as switching between them and notifications, negatively affects your concentration and productivity. Two weeks jumping between applications. On average, this constant switching between applications and attention to notifications causes employees to lose an average of 51 minutes, although 22% claim that the time lost amounts to more than two hours per week. This figure may seem like a small thing, but if this time is added up by all the employees of a company and computed over a full working year, it implies an annual loss of between one week and two and a half weeks of work. non-productive time. All this for something as trivial as clicking on a window to change apps. Too many apps. 55% of participants say they use between three and five computer applications in their daily work, while 31% of employees say they use between six and ten applications to do their work. The usage data collected suggests that productivity tools that consume the most time are the email with 47%, followed by professional messaging apps such as Slack, Teams or Discord with 35%. Surprisingly, video calling tools, on which most meetings are supported, are in third place in terms of time consumed, with 22%. Below 17% there are other more specific applications like the calendarcloud storage systems (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) or support and assistance systems such as Asana, Jira, Zendesk or Salesforce. Changing apps is like changing tasks. Although it is part of the resolution of a single task, the constant alternation between applications produces a cognitive effect similar to that occurs with multitasking. By changing the graphical environment, functions and operation of each platform, the brain it takes a certain time to process the change, breaking the inertia of concentration that reaches when performing a certain task in one of the tools. This effect of constant change generates mental fatigue and causes the brain to need several minutes to refocus on the main task after each interruption. In Xataka | Psychology has explained why it is so difficult for you to leave a job even if it is toxic: the sunk cost fallacy Image | Unsplash (Swello)

The Neoclouds promised to democratize the AI. Right now are the most fragile and indebted link in the entire sector

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Coreweave, Lambda Labs, Crusoe and Nebius They represent the most booming and also more fragile link in the AI ​​value chain: Neoclouds. These companies have raised tens of billions in capital and debt to build Data centers full of NVIDIA GPUSbut its business model rests on an increasingly questionable premise: that the demand for computing capacity to continue to grow exponentially. Why is it important. The problem is not just that these companies lose money. Is that its financial structure depends on a vicious circle: They raise debt to buy GPUS. They use those GPUS as a guarantee for more debt. And the money they enter comes mostly from the same companies that sell them the chips and lend them the money. The model. The Neoclouds They came promising GPU infrastructure in months, no years, already prices up to 66% cheaper than AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. The proposal sounded well: companies needed GPUS and Hyperscalers (AWS, Azure and Company) did not supply. The market responded with enthusiasm: Coreweave went from billing 16 million dollars in 2022 to 5,350 million in the last year. Nebius (which has exploded in the stock market and whose germ is Yandex) grew from 5 million quarterly to 105 million. The segment Neocloud As a whole, 82% per year has grown in the last four years. The problem of the single client. Coreweave generated 60% of its 2024 revenues by renting capacity to Microsoft for Openai. Only Microsoft. Nvidia represents another 15%. If you eliminate a The magnificent seven already openai of the accounts of the main Neocloudsthere are hardly 1,000 million dollars of combined income, As calculated by analyst Ed Zitron. Lambda Labs has half of his income at Amazon and Microsoft, plus 1.5 billion in a contract with Nvidia. Almost all Nebius’s growth projection comes from A 19,000 million agreement with Microsoft. There is no diversified market of business clients. There are a handful of technological giants using these suppliers as an exhaust valve or as a vehicle to move money without inflating their own capital expenses Aka Capex. The money trail. Coreweave owes 25,000 million with annual revenues of 5,350 million. Its debt-active ratio reaches 85.4%. It is like two times your annual salary. And unlike the property that supports a mortgage, the GPUS depreciate quickly. Nebius He has just closed a 4,200 million round to build the infrastructure that allows you to fulfill your contract with Microsoft. Lambda Labs and Crusoe have raised hundreds of millions in risk and debt capital. The model is always the same: You get a large contract. You use that contract as a guarantee to raise debt. Purchases Gpus to Nvidia. Rrena more data centers. Repeat. The problem arises when the Ancla client decides that he no longer needs so much capacity, or when you cannot build the infrastructure quick enough. Between the lines. Nvidia has invested directly into several Neoclouds And it is also its largest supplier and, in many cases, its largest client. Coreweave signed a 6,300 million agreement with Nvidia a few days ago For the manufacturer to buy any capacity that cannot be sold to other customers until 2032. In the end we see an elaborate mechanism of Circular financing: Nvidia needs to sell GPUS to maintain its growth. The Neoclouds They need to buy GPUS to fulfill their contracts. The Hyperscalers They need additional capacity but do not want to inflate their capex. And the Private Equity You need to place tens of billions in something that seems the future. In figures. Building a Data Center Capacity Gigavatio costs between 32,500 and 50,000 million dollars. Oracle and Crusoe took 2.5 years to complete a gigavatio for Openai. Nebius has promised to build multiple gigawatts in increasingly unrealistic terms. The alarm signal. Coreweave has reported important operating losses in its last quarter despite explosive growth in income. Nebius plans to reach 1,100 million in annual recurring revenues by the end of 2025, almost exclusively driven by the contract with Microsoft. What happens if Microsoft decides that you can build your own cheaper capacity? Or if Openai, the final customer of much of that capacity, collapses under the weight of their own losses? The decisive moment. The consolidation has already begun. Coreweave has just bought Core Scientific for 9,000 million in shares. Only great will survive, and probably not many. It is a matter of time when the adjustment will arrive. The doubt is how much damage will cause when billions in debt collide against the reality that the real demand for GPU capacity is a fraction of what is assumed. In Xataka | The PC is mutating: the future is filled with AI work stations so you can have your chatgpt at home Outstanding image | Nebius

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