proof

In London someone has paid 310 million for the most expensive house in history. It is proof that the luxury market has no ceiling

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In the world there are expensive houses (increasingly), very expensive houses and then houses within reach only of the greatest fortunes on the planet, like the one that has just been sold in London for a whopping 270 million poundsabout 310 million euros at the exchange rate. The figure is shocking in itself (it is the same that has been paid in other parts of Europe to build a stadium), but it becomes even more interesting when another detail is known: everything indicates that it is the most expensive home sold to date in an operation of that type, focused on a single residence. To get the keys, its new owner, an influential British businessman, had to beat three royal families from the Middle East. What has happened? that the real estate market premium has just reached one of those milestones that sound almost like science fiction, at least among ordinary mortals. The British press has revealed that a wealthy businessman in the country has closed the purchase of the most expensive home sold to date. And “more expensive” can be understood in a literal sense. Although it is not easy to talk about world records in a sector in which properties do not always go on the market nor are operations advertised, the Bloomberg agency slide which is probably the largest sale in history centered on a property of its type: a single single-family home. It is not crazy if you take into account that the transaction was signed for 270 million pounds, about 310 million euros. Some sources raise the figure to more than 315 million. What is the housing like? The property is called Providence House (formerly Gordon House) and is a huge 19th century mansion located in the Chelsea neighborhood of west London. The plot once housed the residence of the British Prime Minister Robert Walpolebut for years it has belonged to Nick Candya London businessman linked to the brick sector and the Reform UK party. Beyond its privileged location, in the heart of one of the most expensive cities on the planet, the house surprises with its figures: the house stands on a plot of two acres (just over 8,000 m2) with a lake and swimming pool and Georgian style decoration. Media like Financial Times they need which has a private cinema with IMAX screen, greenhouse and the second largest garden from the center of London. It is only surpassed by the one surrounding Buckingham Palace. Who bought it? The buyer is Sunel Setiya, co-founder of Quadrature Capitala trading firm that according to Bloomberg data obtained a profit of 411 million pounds in the financial year ending January 2025. Although with Providence House he has broken all the molds, this is not the first time that Setiya has made headlines for his taste for luxury homes… and his enormous generosity in paying for them. In his day he already paid 110 million pounds for a penthouse in One Hyde Park. And that the property, of around 1,300 m2lacked interior divisions and required works. The Times details which on this occasion has had to pay more than 31 million pounds for property tax alone. The operation certainly marks a before and after in the British real estate market. The most expensive house sold in the United Kingdom before Setiya took out his checkbook was the mansion known as 2-8A Rutland Gate, awarded in 2020 for £210 million to Hui Kan Yan, founder of the Chinese developer Evergrande Group. Click on the image to go to the tweet. And who sold it? Nick Candy, another British tycoon who shares Setiya’s taste for exclusive homes. In fact, he has a penthouse in the same complex that is also for sale for around £175 million. Nick and his brother Christian are known in the sector for the development of the complex One Hyde Parkmade up of 86 apartments and duplexes in the heart of Knightsbridge. Beyond their taste for luxury homes, Setiya and Candy are at opposite poles on an ideological level. The first (Setiya) is a important donor of the Labor Party and dedicates large sums of money through his company to fighting climate change. Nick Candy however is a prominent figure of Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s far-right party. Have there been more interested parties? Ideological differences do not seem to have been an obstacle to closing the operation. In fact, to become the new owner of Providence House Setiya had to prevail over three Middle Eastern royal families also interested in the luxurious London mansion. Given its characteristics (and amounts), the operation was carried out outside the market. The operation represents a lifeline for the luxury residential market in London, which, as remember Five Daysis not going through its best moment. According to LonRes, 2025 was the second time since 2011 that no sales of more than £50 million were closed and in February transactions worth five million (or more) suffered a year-on-year drop of 55%. The puncture coincides with a tax change that directly affects properties. Image | Jaanus Jagomagi (Unsplash) In Xataka | If the question is whether house prices will rise forever, London has the answer. And it is a warning for Madrid

There’s a reason Warren Buffett is known as the “Oracle of Omaha” and this chart is the best proof

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There are numbers that don’t need much explanation. Just take a quick look at them to understand why Warren Buffett has been considered the best investor in history. The difference between the cumulative performance that have generated the investments that Buffett has made throughout his career as an investor through Berkshire Hathaway, and what it would have meant to invest it in any security in the S&P 500 index during the same time is not a small advantage: it is an abyss. In its traditional letter to its shareholders The company collects on a single page the history of returns obtained since 1965. That page is, possibly, the most eloquent summary of what it means to invest well over a lifetime. The data portal VisualCapitalist.com has prepared a very illuminating graph with this data and a simple glance is enough to realize the enormous difference between the returns obtained by Buffett and those of the S&P 500. So much difference, that they even had to zoom in on the image so that the evolution of the S&P500 can appear. Six decades of financial returns He annual report of Berkshire Hathaway 2025 reflects the evolution of the company’s value per share compared to the performance of the S&P 500 since 1965. The accumulated result during that period is no less than 6,099,294% for Berkshire, compared to 46,061% for the most followed stock market index in the world. Translated into money, those figures indicate that if you had invested $100 in Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, Buffett would have turned it into more than $6 million today, while that same amount put into the S&P 500 would have grown to just over $46,000. The compound annual gain that Berkshire has delivered between 1965 and 2025 was 19.7%, almost double the 10.5% achieved by the S&P 500 in that same period. It is not a difference of a few percentage points that accumulate; when we talk about decades, that gap becomes an abyss. He compound interest It has that multiplier effect, and Buffett understood it better than anyone. Good years and bad years (which are not so bad) Despite the good historical data for the entire period, not all years ended with green numbers. The table provided by the company each year also reveals that Berkshire Hathaway did not outperform the S&P 500 every year. In 2025, for example, Berkshire’s value per share rose 10.9% while the S&P 500 it did so by 17.9%. There were other exercises with similar results: in 1967, the S&P 500 index rose 30.9% compared to 13.3% for Berkshire; In 1999, Buffett’s company lost 19.9%, while the S&P gained 21.0%. In 2019, the S&P 500 soared to 31.5%, while Berkshire Hathaway only managed to post a not inconsiderable 11.0% return. Buffett wasn’t playing to win every battle, he was playing to win the war. But where the veteran investor’s strategy especially shined was when the bad times came. The S&P 500 closed negative 13 times between 1965 and 2025. However, Berkshire weathered the storm better than the S&P 500 in 11 of those 13 years. That is, it lost less during the worst years and even ended positively when everyone lost. The only two exceptions are found in the results of 1974, in which Berkshire closed the year with a fall of 48.7% compared to 26.4% for the S&P 500, and in 1990, when Buffett’s company fell 23.1% compared to 3.1% for the stock index. The secret of compound interest The key to this success in profitability is not in the individual years but in the consistency of the results over time. When an investment grows at a compound annual rate of 19.7% for 60 years, the cumulative effect is exponential: Each year’s profits are added to the previous capital and generate new profits on that growing total. It’s the difference between adding and multiplying, and Buffett made that principle the centerpiece of his entire investment philosophy. He new CEO of BerkshireGregory Abel, described in his last letter to investors This way of operating compares Buffett with the legendary baseball player Ted Williams, who divided the hitting zone into 77 segments and tried only in a much smaller area, achieving a historical average. “A similar discipline, patience and judgment define Warren’s approach to investing: determine preferred pitches, wait for them, and then strike decisively,” Abel said in the letter to shareholders included in the 2025 annual report. The Oracle’s investing nose Abel outlined in the 2025 shareholder letter the philosophy that has guided Berkshire’s investments over the decades, based on moat theory in which capital is concentrated in a small number of companies that understand their business, and defend lasting advantages. Along these lines, the report highlights Buffett’s historical investments in Apple, American Express or Coca-Cola as the best example of that approach. Businesses that, in Abel’s own words, Berkshire considers to be “companies that we understand well, have great respect for their leaders and have waited for them to grow for decades.” That investing nose, built with patience and without getting carried away by market fashionsis precisely what has made Buffett a investment legend. Coca-Cola has been in Berkshire’s portfolio since 1988 and American Express since 1991, investments that over time have generated returns that more than multiply the original purchase price. The Oracle of Omaha did not predict the future: he chose well, waited decades and let time do the rest. The same time that has proven him right. In Xataka | Seven of the ten largest fortunes in the world in 2026 are due to AI: this illustrative graph makes it very clear Image | VisualCapitalist

the appearance of two new species of toxic puffer fish is the best proof

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The cold Atlantic waters of the Rias Baixas in Galicia they are changing. Until now we were accustomed to a rich marine biodiversity dominated by native species from temperate and cold waters, but now researchers have found visitors as exotic as they are unwanted: puffer fish. Something is happening. Although this discovery may remain a biological anecdote to add to encyclopedias, the truth is that we are facing an indicator that the “tropicalization” of our seas is knocking at the door. This has been demonstrated by the research staff of the Oceanographic Center of Vigowhich set off alarm bells by documenting the presence of these exotic fish. We didn’t expect them. The published study in Fisher is a pioneer by analyzing for the first time globally the diversity of fish in the order of Tetraodontiformes, which is where puffer fish, sunfish and triggerfish are found in Spanish waters. In total, they have cataloged 26 different species, paying special attention to their distribution areas between the Peninsula and the Canary Islands. But the big surprise has come in Galicia with two unprecedented sightings that have been rigorously confirmed through morphological analysis, photographs and also with DNA itself. The two species. The first species that attracted attention was a green drum, captured for the first time in Galician waters off the Costa da Vela in 2021. The second specimen is a land drum, located in 2025 in the middle of the Pontevedra estuary. Tropicalization. Here the almost obligatory question is: What is a puffer fish doing swimming calmly through the Pontevedra estuary? The short answer is climate change. The long and scientific answer is the tropicalization of the sea. Just like the researcher points out Rafael Bañón, the progressive warming of ocean waters is blurring marine thermal boundaries and this allows species that originate from tropical and subtropical waters to now find temperatures in the Galician Atlantic comfortable enough not only to survive, but to expand their territory. They are a problem. In addition to the ecological challenge it poses and the movement of local species, we must also remember the risk to public health that it entails. And one of the best-known characteristics of puffer fish, especially due to Japanese gastronomy and its famous fuguis that they harbor tetrodotoxin inside. And it is nothing more than a powerful neurotoxin for which there is no known antidote and which can be lethal if ingested. Although in Spain there is no culture of consumption of these fish, the risk of amateur or commercial fishermen catching them by accident and ending up on someone’s plate without the necessary care may exist. In this way, monitoring is needed for these new species and others that may arrive due to the temperature changes that are recorded. Images | Brian Yurasits WINDENRIC In Xataka | Although it may seem impossible, there is a 12-millimeter fish that makes as much noise as an airplane turbine

The US was convinced that China was testing nuclear weapons, and now it has proof

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Washington and Moscow maintained an unwritten rule which has now been broken: if a test was carried out, the world had to find out. For decades, the global strategic balance was sustained by fragile agreements, mutual distrust and red lines that no one wanted to openly cross. When those limits have started to fadeeven the slightest hint can alter the stability that seemed guaranteed. This is how the accusations begin nuclear. A tremor reopens the ghost. The story we tell it last week, but now, a priori, there is more data to support Washington’s rhetoric. The United States has toughened its accusation that China conducted an underground nuclear test low-yield on June 22, 2020 near Lop Nur, Xinjiang, supporting in detected seismic data by a station in Kazakhstan that recorded an event of approximate magnitude 2.75. Washington maintains something that for them is evidence: that the signal cannot fit with an earthquake or mining explosions, and that Beijing would have used “decoupling” techniques to dampen the seismic signal and make detection more difficult, although it admits that it cannot precisely determine the performance of the supposed detonation. The treaty that does not bind. The background of everything is the Treaty of the Complete Ban on Nuclear Tests of 1996, the same one that prohibits nuclear explosions but has never fully come into force due to lack of ratifications, despite the fact that the great powers claim to respect its initial spirit. For its part, the international supervisory body detected two small seismic events separated by 12 seconds on the indicated date, but also recognized that They were too weak to attribute them with complete certainty to a nuclear explosion, which leaves the dispute in a technical field where the public evidence is, to say the least, ambiguous. Strategic pressure without New START. The accusation comes after expiration of the last treaty that limited the strategic arsenals of the United States and Russia, and at a time when the Trump administration seeks to promote a new agreement that also include China. From that perspective, publicly detailing the alleged test can function as diplomatic leverage to force Beijing to sit down to negotiate. At the same time, it serves to Washington to open another perhaps more disturbing scenario: to warn that it will not accept to sit idly by what it has called an “intolerable disadvantage” if others carry out low-yield tests while the United States maintains its moratorium in force since 1992. In other words, whether it was a real nuclear test or not, the powers seem be taking positions now that there are no pacts involved. The debate about pressing the button. In fact, Trump has hinted that the United States could resume tests “on equal terms” if China and Russia are also carrying them out, a possibility that worries arms control experts who fear breaking the post-Cold War taboo and trigger a new test race. The discussion, therefore, is not only technical, but political: if Washington responds with its own detonations, it could legitimize other powers to do the same, eroding decades of informal containment. Nuclear balance in transformation. Although the Chinese arsenal (estimated around 600 warheads) is still lower than that of Russia and the United States, its rapid expansion It worries Washington, which interprets any low-yield tests as part of a strategy to modernize and perfect its nuclear force. Beijing denies having crossed the line and defends that it respects its moratorium. And, meanwhile, the debate over clandestine testing reveals an increasingly fragile international system, one where distrust and opacity technology weigh almost as much as the weapons themselves. Image | Planet Labs, Google Earth In Xataka | Satellite images leave no room for doubt: China’s nuclear renaissance is already visible from space In Xataka | The United States is convinced that China is conducting nuclear tests. The problem is that you can’t prove it.

It is proof that “buying to rent” in Spain is today very profitable

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For years, renting in Spain represented more than just a quick, flexible and (relatively) commitment-free way to find housing. It was also the springboard for those who wanted to take the leap and become owners of their own home, the ‘anteroom’ through which one passed while gathering the stability and sufficient level of savings to buy an apartment. Not anymore. In the crazy market of 2026 rent has become a kind of limbo from which many families are unable to leavetrapped in an apparent contradiction: renting is much more expensive than getting a mortgage, but also more ‘accessible’. And that makes buying to rent increasingly attractive. What has happened? That the roles that until not so long ago seemed established in the Spanish real estate market are becoming blurred. We mentioned it before. For a long time, renting was more than just a quick and flexible way to find housing. It also served as a springboard for those who wanted to become owners. You rented, you saved and (after visiting the bank) you bought. The problem is that after price escalation of recent years and the deep imbalance between supply and demand, right now renting is much more expensive than mortgage. And there are signs that suggest that gap it is becoming entrenchedmaking it increasingly difficult for those who now live as tenants to take the leap, sign a loan and become owners of their own homes. CCAA Mortgage installment (4th Q 2025) Vari. Quarterly % Salary fee/cost Andalusia €709.5 -1.2% 34.6% Aragon €603.4 -7.6% 27% Asturias €632.3 +10.7% 27.9% Balearics €1,298.3 -7.8% 55% Canary Islands €740.8 +8.1% 38.6% Cantabria €660.3 +5.4% 31.5% Castile-La Mancha €554.8 +0.8% 26.9% Castile and León €540.9 +1.3% 25.7% Catalonia €866.5 +1.4% 34.1% Valencian C. €647.2 +4.3% 30.6% Estremadura €452.5 +2.2% 23.4% Galicia €635.7 +5% 30.6% Madrid €1,250.3 +2.7% 43.7% Murcia Region €504.4 -2.2% 24.8% Navarre €701.8 -0.4% 28% the Basque Country €838.4 +3% 31.8% Rioja €523.1 +1.8% 24.2% SPAIN €796.6 +1.3% 33.8% What does the data say? It is not easy to take a general ‘photograph’ of what is happening in Spain because the real estate market varies greatly from one region to another. Even between nearby cities. All in all, there are some interesting clues. In 2018 it was already possible to find ‘top’ areas in which rents exceeded mortgage payments. Today that is the general trend in most of the country. In 2022 an iAhorro study estimated that the monthly cost of a mortgage loan was 394 euros less than that of renting a home. In the middle of last year the same entity published another report which already placed this gap at €430, the difference between the average of rents (1,153) and loans (722). Those responsible for the study they warned at that time that the burdens of those who live on rent and those who do so with mortgages were following opposite directions. Tenants suffered the consequences of a broken market in which prices do not stop growing. In the second case (that of bank loans), iAhorro detected a decrease in payments, favored by the rate drop. Are there more current indicators? Yes. The SER has just published a new comparison which shows that, with ups and downs, that gap remains unchanged. According to the data it manages, the average cost of a mortgage was €796 per month at the end of 2025, while that of rent is around €1,184. That is, the gap between the two is around 400 euros. If we take as a reference the average for all of 2025 for mortgages (€769), the difference is even greater, €415. What does that mean? That on average people who live in a home they own and pay a mortgage to the bank spend about €4,800 less per year (12 monthly payments) than those who live in rented homes. The difference is even greater in highly stressed markets, such as the Balearic Islands or Catalonia. CCAA Average Rental Price 2025 Balearic Islands €1,643 Madrid €1,584 Catalonia €1,439 the Basque Country €1.1331 Canary Islands €1,113 Valencian C. €1,033 Navarre €1,028 Andalusia €933 Cantabria €811 Asturias €789 Aragon €778 Murcia €775 Galicia €766 Castile and León €734 Rioja €730 Castile-La Mancha €707 Estremadura €582 Spain €1,184 Where do the figures come from? The credit information is provided by the College of Registrars, which in its latest real estate statistics provides data on mortgage payments for the last quarter of 2025. What do your tables show? That at the end of last year the monthly payment in Spain stood at 796.6 euros, 1.3% more than the previous quarter. That is the average indicator at the state level, but things change when we analyze each region of Spain. The cheapest is Murcia, where the fee barely exceeds 500 euros. The most expensive are, by far, the Balearic Islands (1,298.3 euros) and Madrid (1,250.3). Lease data is based on Insurance rental observatorywhich indicates that in 2025 the average house price stood at €1,184. Once again, this is a state indicator that hides deep differences between autonomous communities. For example, the 1,643 euros paid on average by tenants in the Balearic Islands, 1,584 by those from Madrid or 1,439 by Catalans have little to do with the 707 in Castilla-La Mancha or 582 in Extremadura. Why this gap? Because although statistics show that both mortgages and rentals have become more expensive in the last year, the latter have done so more quickly. According to the College of Registrars, credit fees have increased 4.2%. In the case of income, Rental Insurance estimates an increase of almost 6%although there are other reports (this one from Idealista) which ensure that the interannual variation has been greater and exceeds 8%. The result is that tenants are forced to spend more time each time most of your income to housing, surpassing even 40%far above what is recommended. Why don’t they mortgage themselves? Because although right now it is more convenient to pay a bank than a landlord, not everyone … Read more

CRASH Clock is the proof

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Low Earth orbit is increasingly close to becoming the new space M-30. Every year more satellites are launched and the risk of collisions that end in catastrophe grows exponentially. We can see it in a much more indicative way thanks to a new indicator called CRASH Clock (Collision and Significant Damage Watch). This indicator warns that only 2.8 days would separate the current moment from a serious collision if we were suddenly left without evasion maneuvering systems. The abysmal difference compared to 2018. A team of researchers led by Professor Sam Lawler, from the University of Regina, Canada, has developed this indicator to measure the increasing risk of collision in low Earth orbit (LEO). The CRASH Clock is not a countdown to Kessler syndrome (that theoretical scenario where collisions generate exponential cascades of space debris), but it does reflect how congested orbital space is and how quickly everything could get worse in the event of any failure in the prevention systems. The most worrying fact: in 2018, before the massive deployment of mega satellite constellations, that same clock showed 121 days. In just seven years we have gone from four months of margin to less than three days. Why does it matter now?. The density of objects in LEO has skyrocketed with the arrival of megaconstellations. starlinkthe SpaceX satellite network, is the most visible example. According to a report filed with the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), its second-generation satellites perform an average of 44 evasion maneuvers per year. Researchers have calculated that this is equivalent to one maneuver every 1.8 minutes across the entire constellation. “There’s no magic here, you’re just avoiding collisions by moving a Starlink satellite every two minutes. This is bad,” counted Lawler in a Mastodon thread. Graph showing the probabilities of a catastrophic collision if the avoidance maneuvering systems were to fail In the densest area of ​​LEO, currently occupied by Starlink, approaches of less than a kilometer occur every 15 minutes. It may seem like a safe distance until you remember that these objects travel at seven kilometers per second. We depend on technological perfection. The system works… for now. SpaceX applies an extraordinarily conservative maneuver threshold: its satellites take evasive action when the probability of collision exceeds 3 in 10 million, well below the industry standard of 1 in 10,000. But this efficiency comes at a price: an absolute dependence on automatic systems continuing to operate without failure. The real danger is not in everyday life, but in unexpected events. A major solar storm, a widespread software glitch, or simply a miscalculation could trigger chain collisions. The study’s authors warn that we are currently “well within the Caution Zone,” with a greater than 10% chance of collisions occurring in any 24-hour period if avoidance maneuvers were to cease. What the simulations reveal. The researchers used two methods to verify their calculations: analytical analyzes with data from public catalogs and simulations of bodies in orbit. In one of the simulations, by pure chance, the first collision occurred just three hours after the hypothetical cessation of the maneuvers. Before megaconstellations, the densest part of the orbit experienced a closer approach of less than a kilometer a little more than once a day. Now it happens more than once every 15 minutes. International coordination, key. Beyond Starlink, other megaconstellations are in the launch phase. OneWeb, Chinese projects, future Amazon deployments… they will all share the same orbital space. Therefore, communication between all agencies, governments and institutions is essential. But of course, “will China talk to Starlink?”, “will the secret satellites of the United States Government talk to OneWeb?” are questions that Lawler reveals. Beyond collisions. The risks are not limited to collisions between objects. The study also points out problems already present: astronomy disruption observational, pollution in the atmosphereand increased risks of casualties on land. “From these safety and pollution metrics, it is clear that we have already put LEO under substantial stress, and changes to our approach are required immediately,” the paper’s authors conclude. What’s coming now. The team has created a website where to periodically update the CRASH Clock and keep this alert visible. It is not about catastrophism, they clarify, but about ‘situational awareness’. “In the short term, a major collision would look more like the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster than an immediate end to Hollywood-style orbital operations. Satellite operations could continue, but with different operating parameters and a higher risk of collision damage,” counted Lawler. Cover image | POT In Xataka | Elon Musk has been refusing to take SpaceX public for 20 years. 1.5 billion dollars have changed his mind

Instagram has become a Chinese bazaar. My last purchase is the best proof of this

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Instagram is becoming a Chinese bazaar. And this is not a criticism, it is the truest definition of how companies are taking advantage of the platform to make gold by selling products that come from Chinese suppliers like Alibaba. The showcase cool and aspirational Instagram is transforming into a bazaar where dropshipping reigns with low-cost products made up of exclusive rarities. The fever for analog lenses that They simulate the look of old cameras disposables are the best example. With a faithful ally and a little patience you can discover, one by one, where those striking and apparently exclusive products that they try to sell us come from. 21 INSTAGRAM TRICKS – Tutorial with all the secrets! It all starts with an advertisement (well, with many). Three stories, one ad. We have long normalized that Instagram is full of advertisingsomething that companies know very well. In my particular case, my feed is quite full of content related to photography. And, for months, they were bombarding me with some very specific advertisements. 65,000 followers on one of the accounts and 30,000 on the other. Collaborations with influencers and a product that, to be honest, attracted a lot of attention. A lens shaped like an Oreo cookie that promises to emulate the look of the “disposable cameras“, the disposable cameras that you may have played with if you have a few years under your belt. a good business. One of the companies sells this product for 34.95 euros, the other for 44.95 euros. Taking into account that a good goal It costs more than 1,000 euros and since even the most mediocre kit lenses exceed 100 euros, it seems like a bargain. An economical, fun and different product, outside the catalog of the big camera brands. As a good Spaniard, my first reaction was to wonder if it could be even cheaper. Google Lens, my best ally. I have been obsessed with passing him for some time Google LenIt is any product from which I deduce Chinese origin. From electric motorcycles that sell in Spain for thousands of euros and cost just $600 on Alibaba to… targets shaped like an Oreo cookie and features clonal to those of the brands that advertise them. It didn’t take me even five seconds to find the target on AliExpress. 14 euros. This is how much it costs to buy an Oreo lens on AliExpress. One with a 32mm fixed focal length and f/10 aperture. The lens sold by its rival Instagrammers is also a 32mm, in this case with f/11 as described. It is something impossible to verify, since this lens does not have electronic pins, it does not communicate with the camera (it is literally putting a piece of plastic in front of the sensor) and it does not offer data on focal length or aperture. “Brand” objective | AliExpress target. Everyone draws their own conclusions. I’m not saying they are the same, but they are the same.. E-commerce through platforms like Shopify is a good thing for the user. You buy a product with fast shipping, seller guarantees and packaging that is probably more attractive than the plastic in which AliExpress delivers its products. The important issue is paying double or triple for the same product. The objective delivers what it promises, by the way. On Instagram you don’t sell a product, you sell a narrative. Instagram is, by far, one of the best showcases for selling cheap products with high margins. Profiles dressed in aspirations desired by users, collaborations with influencers. The algorithm is also your best accomplice by surgically adjusting the ads. Photography, motor, cooking, technology. Each and every potential storefront has a huge marketplace of easy-to-wrap products on Alibaba. Instagram is no longer a social network. It is a marketplace with a social network aesthetic. A perfect platform for high-margin dropshipping, disguised as a brand with values ​​aligned with your target. Image | Xataka In Xataka | If you buy on a website, it’s most likely Shopify: how three friends devoured the ecommerce industry

It is proof that China has won the robot vacuum war

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Already it was seen coming for a long time: iRobot is sinking and bankruptcy is knocking on the door. The one that pioneered robot vacuum cleaners has been going through difficulties for years and their current situation is critical: they have admitted that they barely have cash to operate and there are no more ways to earn income. It looks very bad. what has happened. iRobot has published the third quarter results of the year and paint a very gloomy scenario. Revenue was $145.8 million, down 33% in the United States, 13% in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and 9% in Japan compared to the same period last year. The serious thing, according to its CEO, is that due to “market difficulties, production delays and unforeseen interruptions in shipments” the use of cash increased and right now they only have 24.8 million dollars and no additional source of income in sight. Why is it important. iRobot was the one who started the robot vacuum cleaner market in 2002 with the first Roomba model. In 2016 They were market leaders. with a share of 64%, but the emergence of more competitors meant that the pie began to be shared more and more, reducing its portion. iRobot reached its peak valuation in 2021 and from there it was downhill and without brakes. In 2022 Amazon threw her a lifeline and tried to buy herbut regulatory problems in the European Union they caused the agreement to end up being diluted. Its fall is not only important because it was the company that inaugurated the sector, which made us call robot vacuum cleaners ‘Roomba’, it is also confirmation that Chinese companies have conquered the sector. Possible bankruptcy. In a document addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission Last October, the company warned of its critical situation and opened the door to bankruptcy as soon as December 1st. The reason is that it has a credit agreement with The Carlyle Group and has two key requirements: to demonstrate that the company can continue to operate and to maintain a minimum of core assets, something they cannot currently meet. The problem is that they have already received two extensions and the deadline is December 1. They need another extension or sell the company, but they have no buyer. What’s wrong with my Roomba. In statements to The VergeiRobot says the company continues its daily operations, including support for its products. However, if the company closes and the cloud stops working, it will mean that the Roombas will lose their online connectivity. That is, they cannot be controlled from the mobile phone with the app, but they will continue to work using the buttons. It’s already happened. Even if iRobot goes bankrupt, its cloud services may continue for a while, the question is for how long. This is what has happened with Neato vacuum cleaners. The company closed in 2023 and their cloud continued to function, until a couple of weeks ago when they announced that they turned it off permanently. Neato vacuum cleaners only work in manual mode and it is no longer possible to use the app to control the robot or create cleaning routines. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Dyson is late to the robot vacuum party. Your ace in the hole is an AI that identifies and removes difficult stains

A new mathematical proof settles the debate over whether the universe is a simulation

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What if everything we see, feel and experience is not real? It is one of the most fascinating ideas in science fiction and modern philosophy, in which it is proposed that everything around us it’s a real simulation of computer of some higher civilizationas if we were literally sims. And such is its magnitude, that science has had to come out to deny this idea. The problem. The ‘simulation hypothesis’ has gone beyond being a simple movie premise to a serious debate in technology circles and physical. The argument is usually statistical: if a civilization can create one simulation of reality, it will probably create many. These simulations could in turn generate their own and in this infinite ‘stack’ of realities, the odds that our universe be original, they are almost non-existent. And although this has been a very restrained topic among philosophers, science has also wanted to fully enter into research to respond to a problem within fundamental physics and pure mathematics. And the answer is quite clear: we are not in a simulation. The study. An international team of physicists, including Dr. Mir Faizal of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and renowned physicist Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss, has mathematically proven that the universe cannot be a computer simulation. His findings, published in it Journal of Holography Applications in Physicsnot only disprove the idea, but reveal something much deeper about the nature of reality: the universe is based on a type of “understanding” that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm. The reality. To understand this test, we must first understand what ‘reality’ is. Modern physics no longer sees the universe as tangible ‘matter’ moving in empty space, but thanks to Einstein space and time merged to now demonstrate that the microscopic world is probabilistic. The most widely accepted theory today focuses on quantum gravity, which suggests that space and time are fundamental. They are “emergent”: they spring from something deeper, something more like pure information. In this way, physicists assume that a “Theory of Everything“(ToE) that unifies gravity and quantum physics would, in essence, be a large axiomatic system: a set of meaningful rules and algorithmic calculations from which the entire universe, including spacetime itself, could be “computed” and generated. Incompleteness Theorems. In 1931, logician Kurt Gödel demonstrated something that blew up the foundations of mathematics: any formal system (such as a computer program or a set of physical laws) that is complex enough to include basic arithmetic will be incomplete or inconsistent. By ‘incomplete’ we mean that there will be true statements within the systems themselves that will never be able to be demonstrated following their own rules. It’s like the famous paradox that says “this statement is true, but it cannot be proven.” Faizal’s team argues that any purely algorithmic ToE would suffer from this limitation. There would always be “Gödelian truths” about the physics of the universe (perhaps about specific microstates of black holes or the nature of the singularity) that such a computational system could not test. Two layers. If the algorithmic universe is “incomplete”, how does our reality seem to work? Researchers propose that reality is not only the algorithm. This is what allows the universe to “know” that these Gödel truths are true, even though the algorithm alone cannot prove them. It is a fundamental layer of reality that transcends simple computing. The final test. With all the pieces on the table, the refutation of the simulation hypothesis becomes clear and elegant. The first of all is that every simulation is logarithmic, that is, a computer executes a problem following very specific rules that leave no room for doubt. In this way, we come face to face with our theories that are not ‘perfect’ in their demonstrations. But they don’t stop there, since scientists have pointed out that an algorithm can only simulate the algorithmic part, meaning that a computer could only, in the best of cases, emulate the computational and incomplete part of our universe. And the most important thing without a doubt is that our universe is more than an algorithm, since as Gödel’s theorems demonstrate, complete physical reality must include a non-algorithmic layer to be consistent and complete. Images | Compare Fiber In Xataka | Exactly 100 years ago we began to understand how the world works. Quantum physics has radically changed our lives

We have carried the burden of reproductive delay on women. But men also have their part (and the proof is in the sperm)

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Let’s talk about semen because it’s important. We already knew: the quality of sperm, for example, is directly related with the life expectancy of men. However, in recent days the situation has taken an interesting turn. A few days ago, a group of researchers from the Sanger Institute and King’s College London advertisement that “aging” has more consequences than it seems. It is not only that, with age, sperm accumulate mutations; is that the percentage of sperm with mutations does not stop growing. And that changes many of the things we thought we knew. What exactly have they done? The team sequenced semen samples from individuals between 24-75 years old and They discovered that the process accumulation of mutations is not just a matter of wear and tear. There is, interestingly, a combination of chance and positive selection. That is, he has found evidence that there are “winning” variants in the testicles. The study concludes that it “concludes a 2–3× risk of known causal mutations with age and estimates 3–5% of sperm with a pathogenic mutation in middle-aged and older men.” The numbers are low, but the paradigm changes. The paradigm? It is not just that the older you are, the more mutations there are, but that these mutations compete with each other and thrive within the testicle (intratesticular positive selection). This means that the risk window widens beyond the simple annual arithmetic sum. For years, we have carried the burden of delayed parenthood on women. In a simplistic (and now we know hasty) way, the public debate has loaded thethe responsibility of reproductive planning about them. But also the health-scientist: the risk profiles were defined by the gestational age of the mother. And yet, men also have their part. What is hidden in the sperm. Although, as I cannot help but repeat, the risk is low, we cannot ignore that the greater presence of variants linked to neurodevelopmental disorders and developmental syndromes changes the general picture. The reality is that, despite everything we know, we know very little. And that is a problem because, whether we want it or notthe trends are very solid: the age of having children it’s going to be delayed all over the world. Image | Quinn Dombrowski In Xataka | Having many children sounds great as a way to preserve the species. Until you start passing genetic mutations

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