reason

The Japanese Shinkansen was the fastest train in the world until China defeated it. The reason: the “piston effect”

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In a very summary way, the piston in a four stroke engine It is responsible for moving the air inside to compress it and facilitate the burning or explosion of the fuel or to push it out of the combustion chamber. That is, it is dedicated to pushing the air up or down. Now imagine a train arriving in a tunnel at more than 300 km/h. Suddenly, the train goes from being outside to moving the air inside the tunnel. To push it to the bottom. Your movement It would be very similar to that of a piston. The train moves in a straight line and around it the tunnel would behave like a combustion chamber. That doesn’t seem like a problem. It doesn’t seem like it if we think that the air is simply pushed to the outlet where it is released without further problem. It’s also not a problem if your high-speed lines run over a bridge more than 100 kilometers long. But if you are a mountainous country and you have made the railway your star medium to move millions of people hundreds of kilometers an hour. Yes, you have a problem. Because the piston effect is pure physics and solving it to gain speed is not being easy. When they were the best In 1964, while Spain began to open up to the world, Abebe Bikila won his second Olympic Marathon in the streets of Tokyo. He did it wearing Puma Osaka shoes.nothing to do with the famous 42,195 meters that he covered barefoot in Rome to win four years before. We do not know if Bikila took that first Shinkansen that linked the cities Tokyo and, precisely, Osaka. The bullet train had begun to operate in Japan that same year, promoted by the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital. Then, the two cities were linked by a train that reached peaks of 210km/hbecoming the first high-speed line in the world. More than 60 years later, Japan is no longer the country with the highest number of high-speed kilometers of the world. Today it is China. It makes sense, taking into account that the country is huge, so if this means of transportation were promoted, sooner or later they would surpass their neighbors. Spain, by the way, also surpassed Japan in this area years ago. But it is very likely that something else has hurt Japan more. China is making the bullet train its flag. Its latest advances with the maglev, which levitates thanks to very powerful magnets to avoid friction with the track, has reached a combined speed of 896 km/h at the intersection of two CR450 trains. The problem for Japan is that China has a lot of money. And if it is necessary to build eight of the 10 longest bridges in the world to solve geographical accidents, they get to work. Japan has to deal with a lot of mountains and a more traditional system: tunnels. And that when you want to make a train pass at very high speed is quite a problem. When a train fully crosses the threshold of a tunnel, what is known as piston effecta problem that prevents increasing the walking speed further. The consequences are as simple as they are serious: loud explosions, breakage of equipment… and the eardrums of passengers. Upon entering the tunnel, the air is compressed and the movement of the train moves it towards the exit. However, some of that air rebounds and generates pressure changes that can be especially painful for passengers, even affecting their middle ear. When moving outside, a pressure wave is created that moves at the speed of sound and when the train leaves the tunnel, a shock wave and a sound explosion are created that, it is calculated, can be heard 400 meters away. It is known as tunnel boom. Japan is now experiencing a problem carried over from the past. Their trains are wider than the European ones but their tunnels are narrower. This was to reduce infrastructure costs but also to run less risk of landslides in the event of an earthquake. At first this was not a problem but when the speed of the trains increased they realized that they could not continue moving. In China, trains also use wide tracks like their neighbors but since they do not preserve inherited structuresthe new tunnels built are wider. This reduces the void effect produced with the entry of the train into the tunnel and, therefore, mitigates the problems for passengers. Furthermore, as less resistance is generated when the train passes, energy expenditure is also reduced. The solution for the Japanese is not simple. On the Tokaido Shinkansen, the first high-speed line (the one that connects Tokyo with Osaka), 13% of total kilometers They run inside tunnels. But the Sanyo Shinkansen line runs through tunnels half of the time. and he Hokkaido Shinkansen which is under construction (this line is only partially open) contemplates the roofing of 80% of the layout. The most effective solution that has been found to the problem is to produce trains with a very long and sharp nose. The aerodynamics tries to imitate the beak of the Kingfisher that can dive into the water generating minimal splashes. Following the same concept, the longer and sharper the nose of the train, the less resistance the train encounters at the entrance and the more gradually the pressure wave is generated. The other solution has been expand the section of the tunnel at its entrance. The “door” is wider and also has side openings that allow part of the air to escape. air moved by the train. This escape route generates a lower pressure wave, allowing the train not to cause unwanted discomfort to passengers and to travel faster. It has even been thought of hermetic trains with controlled pressure. During its tests, Japan continues to search for trains that can reach a top speed of 400 km/h. However, the structures inherited from … Read more

We have been thinking all our lives that prices end in “.99” out of pure psychology. The reason was much more earthly

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The omnipresence of the price ending in .99 (today perceived as a consumer psychology) actually has a very different origin. Before the bias was studied and exploited, the figure was used by a machine to not only shield accounting, but also to found an entire culture of compliance, auditability and commercial discipline. The origin. In business at the end of the 19th century, the problem was not so much convincing the client, but preventing them from the money would disappear before reaching the owner. The cash passed through the hands of waiters and clerks without a trace, and the temptation to “keep some” was structural. The solution was not more human surveillance, but a luck of prosthesis mechanics: a machine that would require each sale to be recorded and that, when opened to make change, will leave an audible signal and a verifiable trail. The price at .99 made it inevitable to open the box to return the cent, forcing registration and eliminating the gap through which the money was lost. Trader with engineering instinct. The seed was born in Dayton from a tavern owner who already came from a family with a vocation to invent. James Rittyfed up with losses in his businesses, saw how a machine counted the revolutions of a propeller and suddenly understood that the same could be done with sales: if something can be counted mechanically, it can be audited. So, he returned to Dayton, worked with his brother John (an experienced mechanic) and built the first sales recorder: keys that represented amounts, a visible dial to check the figure and, later, a drawer with a bell and a scroll that left a physical mark of each transaction. Reproduction of Ritty Dial, an early example of a practical cash register NCR: from machine to industrial culture. Shortly after, when John H. Patterson buys the invention from the brothers and creates the National Cash Registerthe mechanism ceases to be an Ohio bar oddity and becomes a compliance standard in American commerce. The idea thus mutated in the industry. NCR not only manufactured boxes: manufactured method. It introduced a sales school, scripts, discipline, metrics, incentives and exported that corporate DNA via its graduates to other companies such as IBM and General Motors. The cash register It was not just a device: it was a way of governing the organization through material evidence rather than blind trust. National cash register from the late 19th century The .99 changes purpose. Decades later, when the reason anti-corruption was already solved by design, behavioral economics discovers that the .99 deforms the perception of value: anchors in the left figure, suggests a bargain, reduces psychological friction and stimulates impulsive buying. The same accounting gesture was now used for a very different war: it was no longer against theft, but against mental resistance of the buyer. The convention is stabilized because it generates economic margin even when the risk of theft has fallen due to digital processes. The .99 mutates from an anti-fraud technique to persuasion toolmaintaining its validity for a reason radically different from the one for which it was born. The device survives not because of tradition, but because it continues to generate economic advantage under a different paradigm. It survives because it works. The truth is that the .99 has lasted a century and a half because solved two problems different at two different times: first it prevented the seller rob the ownerand then helped the owner persuade the buyer. This double utility explains its persistence. If you will, it is proof of how in commerce what begins as compliance engineering ends as behavioral engineering. And every time today we see 4.99 or 9.99 in sales, we are actually reading (without knowing it) the fingerprint fossil of an invention originally created to close a hole economic before consumer psychologists existed. Codifying discipline. Thus, the box that was invented to catch petty theft It altered the physics of commerce: it introduced traceability, professionalized sales, and bequeathed a pricing convention that still programs how we read money in modern societies. A prosaic problem (a waiter who keeps some coins) inaugurated a causal chain that ended up shaping an entire century of business practice. And in reality, the bell that rang to warn the owner more than a century ago, now also rings, silently, in the consumer’s head every time he sees that .99 and decides that “it is less”…than it really is. Image | Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez, National Cash Register Company, Wmpearl, Biser Todorov In Xataka | The psychology of pricing: a gigantic list of strategies 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

Nestlé has announced the dismissal of 16,000 employees and its CEO has revealed the reason: “we will automate our processes”

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Nestlé has announced the layoff of 16,000 employees worldwide, and it will fall especially on so-called “white collar” jobs. Among the reasons that the company argues through of a statement one stands out: “We are evolving and will simplify our organization and automate our processes.” The decision has generated uncertainty both globally and in Spain, where its Spanish subsidiary has more than 4,000 employees and several factories. However, the most surprising thing is that, for the first time, it is a food company and not technological who makes a decision of this nature: cut jobs to flatten the organization and automate office roles. Change to a more aggressive dome. Nestlé has taken a drastic turn in its internal policy by announcing the elimination of 16,000 positions of work. That represents about 6% of its total global workforce. This decision has surprised the markets, since it occurs just after having presented results that show growth in its income and sales throughout 2025. Shortly after, its new CEO Philipp Navratil explained on your LinkedIn profile the company’s determined commitment to automate and digitize its processes under a cost reduction plan driven by the new direction of the company. In fact, the previous board already had an adjustment plan in place in which 541.4 million euros were going to be saved. With the new management leadership, the savings objective has doubled to 1,082.8 million euros by 2027. The layoffs are no longer due to economic problems. When a company announced layoffs, they were usually associated with a bad economic situation. However, as we have seen in different technology companies such as Amazon, Google or Microsoft, layoffs and finances are already They are not necessarily related. In the case of Nestlé, the company recorded organic sales growth of 3.3% in the first nine months of 2025, consolidating its figures in different global markets. As Navratil explained, the main argument for the layoffs is the company optimization to prepare it for a future competitive scenario and, to this end, it was going to focus on simplifying the organization and automating processes (with AI?) when appropriate. The same argument that big technology They have been using it for months in the context of the race for AI. Distribution of layoffs and their impact. As confirmed by Nestlé, the layoffs will mainly affect “white collar” workers and around 12,000 employees will be in the office and administrative functions, while around 4,000 more layoffs will be distributed between production and supply chain departments. The company has not detailed the exact geographical distribution of the layoffs, which maintains uncertainty in key markets such as Spain, where staff and unions have shown concern about the possibility of factories closing or production being reduced in certain cities. Nestlé employs around 4,000 employees in Spain in 10 production centers in five autonomous communities: Cantabria, Asturias, Extremadura, Galicia and Catalonia. In Xataka | Big Tech doesn’t stop firing its engineers. At the same time, they have stepped on the accelerator in hiring Image | Nestle

Half a year after the blackout, Red Eléctrica still has problems stabilizing the voltage. And there is a geographical reason

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Just six months ago, Spain was left in the dark. The “electric zero” of April 28, 2025 was the most serious warning of a system that he believed himself invulnerable. Since then, Red Eléctrica (REE) operates in “reinforced mode”with dozens of gas plants turned on every day to prevent tension from skyrocketing. But, half a year later, the problem is still there: the Spanish grid is faltering not because of a lack of energy, but because the gas is in the north and the sun is in the south. How are the measurements now? At the beginning of October, the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) approved, at the request of REE, an emergency resolution to introduce exceptional measures “in the event of sudden voltage variations” detected in the system. The document details changes to several operating procedures that affect the way the electrical grid is programmed and regulated. In practice, the rules of the game were tightened for everyone: from solar producers to gas plants. Among the most significant measures is the obligation for renewable plants to carry out their power transitions in a minimum of 15 minutes, when before they did so in two. The intention, have explained from REEis to avoid sudden changes that could destabilize the system and give the thermal power plants time to react. As explained in Cinco Díasthis instruction allows gas plants to “absorb” excess renewable energy without causing power surges. But for many expertsthe underlying diagnosis is different: the problem is not speed, but geography. Two electric Spains. The country is experiencing a geographic imbalance that we already saw it coming. On the one hand, the north and the Mediterranean coast concentrate the majority of thermal power plants and combined cycle plants – the only ones capable of providing the so-called “rotating mass”, that is, inertia and reactive power that stabilize the network. On the other hand, the south of the peninsula—Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha—has been filled with solar plants and domestic self-consumption, technologies based on power electronics that do not generate natural inertia. “During peak radiation hours, the south produces more electricity than it consumes, the lines are discharged and the grid becomes extremely sensitive,” explains in his column Joaquín Coronado, president of Build to Zero. Under these conditions, starting a thermal power plant in Asturias to stabilize a voltage problem in Seville is as useless as trying to put out a fire in Andalusia with water pumped from Galicia. The tension starts from the local. The error of approach is in confusing frequency with tension. The electrical frequency is a global magnitude: it is the same throughout the synchronous network. But the voltage is a local variable, which depends on the reactive power flows in each area. Coronado sums it up clearly: reactive power “does not travel well.” On 400 kV lines, its radius of action is 30 to 80 km. In 220 kV networks, from 15 to 40 km. And at 132 kV or lower, just 5 to 20 km. This means that a turbine in the north cannot stabilize the voltage in the south, no matter how much power it has. The CNMC, in its resolutionrecognizes precisely that “rapid voltage variations” appear in periods of low demand and high solar production, aggravated by the growth of self-consumption that “reduces the observability of the system” and leaves the operator without control over thousands of small installations. In summary and how we have explained in Xataka: we have more sun than cables. This shows in the pocket. REE’s response has been to maintain lit every day between 20 and 30 combined cycles to ensure stability. This “reinforced operation” has cost more than 1 billion additional euros since April and could add 3 billion more with the new measures. Adjustment services – energy that is paid outside the daily market to keep the network stable – have gone from 240 million in 2019 to 4 billion in 2025, according to Cinco Días. The result is paradoxical: Spain has one of the lowest wholesale prices in Europe, but one of the highest electricity bills. Ember’s report explains why: the market price only covers half of the bill; The other half are fixed network costs, tolls, taxes and system stability, which do not go down even if energy is cheap. Slowing down is not stabilizing. The decisions adopted by REE and temporarily endorsed by the CNMC are “a defensive strategy” for Coronado. Furthermore, he points out that instead of providing the system with rapid response capacity, it is chosen to slow it down to give time to the thermals. The result is maintaining “a 21st century system operated with a 20th century mentality.” Slowing down the renewable ramps does not provide voltage control where it is needed, because the problem occurs in seconds and in specific places, not in the 15 minutes that these ramps last. The measures, therefore, gain time, but they do not gain effectiveness: they mitigate the frequency, not the tension. Is there any future perspective? The solution is to bring the control capacity closer to where the energy is produced. In fact, we have already discussed in Xataka some of those possible solutions that agree with what Joaquín Coronado says. Grid-forming inverters in solar and wind plants, able to behave as synchronous generators and stabilize the network in milliseconds. Batteries strategically distributed in the southern nodes, which provide instantaneous active and reactive power. Devices FACTS and synchronous compensators in critical substations (Guillena, Mérida, Puertollano…) to dampen local voltage changes. Flexible demand from large industries to modulate consumption in real time. And predictive algorithms based on artificial intelligence that anticipate local instabilities. Some of these solutions are already underway. Spain prepare the installation of eight synchronous compensators and 2,600 MW of batteries, with 340 MW already approved. These devices could save 200 million euros annually by reducing the use of gas for network services. A model that is exhausted. Beyond the technique, there is a structural dilemma: how … Read more

The price of silver is exploding to levels not seen since 1980. The reason: we need too much

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The silver has just reached 51 dollars per ouncea level not seen since 1980. The metal is up 75% so far this year, even surpassing the spectacular gold rise. This increase corresponds to the growing industrial demand for said metal, especially in a context in which mining production stagnates and forms an imbalance that puts a price on the shortage. Structural deficit for the fifth consecutive year. The silver market has been in supply deficit for years. Mining production is not growing at the rate that the industry needs, and this gap is reaching historic levels. Metals Focus projects that the 2025 deficit will be 187.6 million ounces, one of the highest figures ever recorded. Therefore, less and less silver is extracted than the world consumes. The technology that devours silver. industrial demand It already represents 59% of total consumption of silver, according to the Silver Institute. Solar panels are behind much of that pressure. And it is that are expected to absorb 195.7 million ounces this year. But it is not the only thing: the semiconductors that shape artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and consumer electronics also pull strongly on this metal. A refuge at a lower cost than gold. Silver also benefits from the drag effect of gold, which just surpassed $4,000 per ounce for the first time in its history. Many investors who see the gold market as too saturated they are looking towards the silver as a more accessible alternative to protect against economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and the weakening of the dollar. Flows into silver-backed exchange-traded funds have already reached 2025 the highest levels since 2020. The psychological barrier of $50. The silver has never been able to maintain sustainably above $50. Each time it has approached that level (in 1980 and in 2011) it has been followed by deep corrections that have scared away investors. “Psychologically, silver has never gone above $50 and has really stayed there,” explained David Morgan, editor of the Morgan Report, to the specialized media Investing News Network. Morgan calls it “crossing the Rubicon,” a defining moment that could open up uncharted territory for the metal’s price. India strongly joins the demand. Since its regulator approved silver exchange-traded funds in 2021, India has become a key source of new demand. Silver-backed products accounted for 40% of the country’s total retail investment in 2024, and Indian imports are at all-time highs. China, for its part, industrial consumption is increasing for technological installations and solar panels. Two Asian giants pushing demand at the same time. And now what. Morgan don’t wait Silver will shoot up to $70 in the short term, but it will consolidate above $50 if it manages to cross that barrier solidly. HSBC projects that the price could reach $55 in 2026 before retreating in the second half of the year. What seems clear is that, as long as the technology industry continues to need more silver than it can be mined, the pressure on the price is not going to disappear. Cover image | Scottsdale Mint In Xataka | OpenAI is the King Midas of the stock market: everything it touches skyrockets

The BOE confirms that in 2026 workers’ payrolls will be cut by up to 95 euros for a good reason: pensions

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As of January 1, 2026, millions of workers in Spain you will see how your payroll It drops a little compared to December 2025. The reason, an increase in one of the withholdings that are applied to the payrolls of all workers aimed at guaranteeing the viability of the benefits of future pensioners. This adjustment, provided for in the Royal Decree-Law 2/2023 It can reach up to 95 euros per year for those with high salaries, although for the majority of workers it will barely exceed 43 euros per year. What is the MEI? Just like explain from BBVA, the MEI, or Intergenerational Equity Mechanism, is a withholding that is applied to working people on their payrolls and that serves to reinforce the Social Security Reserve Fund (popularly known as the “pension piggy bank”). As with other withholdings and contributions, part of the MEI falls on the company and another part on the worker. The objective of this retention is to compensate for the effects of demographic aging of the workforce and ensure that today’s younger generations, with a smaller population than Baby Boomers and Generation the full weight of pensions of the next 25 years. How is it calculated? This withholding is calculated as a percentage of the total salary base for which each person contributes and it is expected that this percentage will increase annually until 2029 and then stabilize. In 2026, this percentage will go from 0.80% of the salary base to 0.9%. Of this amount, the worker will assume 0.15% in 2026, and the company will pay 0.75% (to complete the total 0.90% planned for this year). Year Company Worker Total 2023 0.50% 0.10% 0.60% 2024 0.58% 0.12% 0.70% 2025 0.67% 0.13% 0.80% 2026 0.75% 0.15% 0.90% 2027 0.83% 0.17% 1.00% 2028 0.92% 0.18% 1.10% 2029 to 2050 1.00% 0.20% 1.20% And how much money does that mean? As the final amount depends on the contribution base of each worker, the MEI does not retain a fixed amount for everyone. By 2026, the maximum contribution base will be 63,180 euros per year. Therefore, for those who have a gross salary of 5,265 euros per month (in 12 payments), about 94.77 euros per year will be deducted from that maximum base. That is, about 7.89 euros per month. According to consolidated data from the ‘Salary Structure Survey’ of 2023, the most common gross salary in Spain is around 15,574 euros per year. This means that for workers with a gross monthly salary of 1,297 euros (in 12 payments), the 0.15% that is withheld from each employee as MEI would mean 1.94 euros on each payroll, adding up to a total of 23.34 euros per year. How much will it increase each year? The change in the MEI withholding will be applied automatically and has been increasing since its implementation in 2023, the year in which a withholding of 0.10% for workers and 0.50% for companies began to be applied, with a total of 0.60% on the contribution base. The objective is to reach 1.20% in 2029, divided into 1% retention for the company and 0.20% for workers. Once this objective is reached, withholdings will be frozen at that percentage until 2050. Pay more without receiving more. Unlike other withholdings that are applied to payrolls, the MEI percentage does not generate additional rights on the amount of the retirement pension, as would happen if the contribution base is increasedFor example. That is to say, this withholding does not have a direct effect on the pension, but rather is intended to make the pension system more solvent and viable for a longer time even if there is more retirees than active contributors. According to data of the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security, in 2023 the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism contributed 3,437 million euros to the Social Security Reserve Fund, while in 2024 it was 3,799 million. The record increase in the number of Social Security contributors registered in 2025 means that the forecasts for contributions to the pension fund for this concept will increase to 4,623 million euros, leaving a total balance in this fund close to 14,000 million euros. In Xataka | Working beyond 67 years: Germany has broken its pension system and it is an advance for Europe Image | Unsplash (wjpzlvr), Pexels (Dany Kurniawan)

In Brazil people are changing caipiriñas and cocktails for beer. And they have a good reason: methanol

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São Paulo is famous for many reasons, but probably none as universal as The caipiriñasthe drink made with Cachaza, Lima, Sugar and Ice that has exported to virtually all bars on the planet. For days, however, in the Paulista capital they are served much less caipiriñas. Also It has come down the consumption of whiskey, Geneva and in general any distillate. The reason: fear of Methanol poisoning. São Paulo, without caipiriñas. Something has changed on the nights of Brazil. Especially in those of São Paulocapital of the homonymous state and the most populous city in the country. Instead of asking Caipirinhasthe famous drink based on Cachaza, Lima, Sugar and Ice that is a native of the Paulista state, the young people They ask for beers or wine. Anything but to take a glass with distilled liquor to the lips. “Customers are worried,” Recognize to Associated Press (AP) Edilson Trindade, manager of an establishment of São Paulo. Last week he did not dispatched a caipiriña, when it is usual to serve dozens and tens. And it is not the only one. In A report Posted yesterday, the Paulista magazine Exam He shares testimonies from other bars that have seen how their activity collapsed 80% or young people who choose to stay at home or change cocktails for cans. A percentage: 50%. The Bloomberg agency points That, in general, the bars and restaurants of the state of São Paulo fear that its sales collapse up to 30%, a percentage that falls short if the data already handled by the federation of hotels, restaurants and state bars are taken into account. According to their calculations, last week some establishments saw how the consumption of vodka, whiskey, gin and other distillates collapsed about 50%. “Even beer demand has dropped because there are almost no customers, so general sales have been affected,” regrets The owner of a bar. But … why? That people are consuming less spirits in Brazil (and especially in São Paulo) have little to do with a sudden abstemious zeal. The reason is another: fear. The drop in demand comes after what seems like a OLA of poisoning by methanol caused in turn by the intake of adulterated alcohol. On Sunday, Brazil’s Ministry of Health talked about 255 cases16 confirmed and another 209 suspects. Of them the vast majority were recorded in São Paulo, where the authorities handled 14 confirmed episodes and studied 178. Is it so serious? Yes. Methanol can cause vomiting, blindness and even death. The government already speaks of 15 possible deathsalthough for now there are only two confirmed. “Until there is total clarity about the magnitude of these crimes, the population must refrain from consuming distilled drinks,” I recognized On Friday in an interview with the CNN Brazil chain, the country’s health minister, Alexandre Padilha. “Our recommendation is that people avoid distillates, especially if they are not sure of the origin of the drink.” “Adulterated drinks”. The authorities have not limited themselves to controlling the number of poisonings or giving advice. Also They have increased Their provisions to treat methanol poisoning and above all try to locate their origin. The Government It relates them With alcohol consumption and has inspected bars and distributors to clarify what happened. “We determine that methanol contaminated adulterated alcoholic beverages. So we need to understand how,” Point out Artur Dian, police chief of São Paulo, in statements to AP. Only in São Paulo the state authorities have confiscated since the end of September more than 7,000 bottles To investigate them. They have also closed a dozen establishments provisionally to take samples. Another percentage: 28%. The unknown of whether the drink was contaminated on an accidental way, although the police recognize that there are those who adulterate the liquor with substances such as methanol to improve their benefit margins. “Although we know that small quantities do not contaminate and are not able to cause damage, we do not know the exact amount that could remain in a bottle,” Share Dian. The National Association of Distilled Manufacturers handles studies that show that adulterated drinks are already monitored more than a quarter of the Brazilian market (28%), a high percentage that achieves thanks to prices that reduce by 35% to legal beverages. Images | Nathalia Segato (UNSPLASH), Mark Broadhead (UNSPLASH) and Ian Talmacs (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | The youth of the Elite Tech of Silicon Valley have left alcohol: their new “party” is to work 92 hours

The Spanish rail giant escapes millionaire contracts, including the Barcelona Metro. The reason: his link with Israel

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Basque Caf’s rail manufacturer is in a committed situation after Its inclusion in the United Nations list which points to companies with operations in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. This circumstance could close the doors of important public contracts, such as The Millionaire Barcelona Metro Contest. In the blacklist. Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) has a tender open to acquire 39 new trains worth 321 million euros. The specifications includes a clause that prohibits the participation of companies that appear in the Registry of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). CAF, current TMB provider, now appears in that list for its participation in The tram of Jerusalem thisa project awarded in 2019 with the Israeli construction company Shapir. The CAF position. The company based in Beasain defends the legality of your contract and denies any violation of human rights. As communicated to the National Securities Market Commission, it has reports from independent experts that support its position and ensures that the project “generates positive impacts on the population” by also providing service to the Arab community with a “inclusive and non -discriminatory” hiring policy. The Alstom turn. The French multinational Alstom, which has a factory in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, appealed in August before the Catalan Court of Public Sector Contracts against this restrictive clause. However, the recent update of the UN list has retired to Alstom from the registrationwhich now allows you to present to the contest. This exit makes CAF the main affected, since the resolution of the resource will determine whether or not to participate in the tender, whose term remains open until December. More Spanish companies indicated. CAF It is not the only company Spanish in the Black List of the UN, which includes about 160 signatures. Florentino Pérez’s construction company, its SEMI subsidiary and the Ineco public company, under the Ministry of Transportation, also include. CAF is charged with equipment and materials that “facilitate” Israeli settlements, in addition to providing support services and using natural resources, which makes it the Spanish with the greatest reproach by the international organism. A political and social debate. Inclusion in this list does not imply direct sanctions, but yes it has practical consequences. The United Nations urges States to adopt “appropriate measures” to prevent human rights abuse, and administrations such as the Barcelona City Council have incorporated this exclusion in their responsible hiring policies. The debate has also reached the Basque political terrain, where part of the CAF staff starred in concentrations demanding the cessation of the contract with Israel, while the lehendakari Imanol Pradales He has asked that you have “care with the accusations” and has urged the company to make “an ethical reflection”. Implications. Beyond the Barcelona contest, appearing in this registry can affect the reputation of companies, rating rating agencies and access to other public tenders if similar clauses appear in the tender. Public hiring represented 11.55% of Spanish GDP in 2023which turns these vetoes into a relevant economic issue for the companies indicated. Cover image | TMB In Xataka | The longest bus in the world is called Daf Super Citytrain: more than 30 meters long and capacity for 350 people

‘Dungoons & Dragons’ lives an unprecedented success stage. And the reason is far from the origins of the game

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Many years ago that ‘Dungoons & Dragons’the legendary role of paper, pencil and dice (among other things) is not a marginal entertainment for rare people with little social life. Recall that in the eighties, the franchise already had an animation series, video games and supervantant books based on your Lore. But for a few years he has made a new leap of implantation in the mainstream. And it has been thanks to content creators and their overwhelming dissemination work of a hobby with millions of followers. A triumph that does not cease. ‘D & d’ has today More than 50 million players registered worldwide. Only in 202o, the sales of official products of ‘d & d’ grew 33% compared to the previous yearconsolidating seven consecutive years of double digit growth. In 2021, Wizards of the Coast entered more than one billion dollars, even when Hasbro, owner of the company, had spectacular losses that year. And that impact has set in a presence in more massive media than ever: one of Netflix’s greatest successes, ‘Stranger Things’, starts its mythology in the games, and its last season bases its argument around the game and “satanic panic“That in the eighties, it was partly linked to the role. One of the best -selling games of 2023 was’ Baldur’s Gate III ‘. And also in 2023, the first adaptation of the game in a long time to the big screen,’Honor between thieves‘, He resulted in a respectable box office of 208 million dollars. The usual success. To understand us, ‘D&D’ has always been a successful game: I remember how in the eighties there were already stores dedicated to role -playing games in Murcia. And believe me: If someone in Murcia considered in the eighties that it was worth dedicating a trade to the subject, there was a considerable potential audience. But the truth is that a unique rebirth has lived in recent times, and is not a product of a traditional marketing campaign: it is the result of a unique convergence between the natural evolution of the game, the massification of digital platforms and the appearance of content creators who have transformed private games into shared experiences. The turning point. Just at the same time that the first content of ‘D&D’ content appeared, in the edition of the game itself another revolution took place: the launch of the fifth edition in 2014 represented much more than a simple rules update. It was a strategic restart that laid the foundations for the digital phenomenon that was to come: an unprecedented redesign process that would last two years and that was revolutionary for its collaborative approach. An open “Playtest” process not only democratized development, but also established a crucial precedent: extending the idea of ​​the community as co-creator, which again settled the foundations for this new way of living the game that shaped the programs. In addition, the mechanics were drastically simplified: where the previous editions required to consult multiple complex tables and modifiers, the fifth edition adopted a unified system based on the 20 -sides dice that was consistently applied to everything that happened in the game. The fifth edition prioritized the narrative on the simulation: field paid for content creators where the basics is to tell a story, and the simplified rules thus expedite the videos. In addition, Wizard of the Coast launched the “Basic Rules” completely free: A free access PDF containing complete rules to start immediately to play. The first wave. The first of these content programs linked to real items (current play in the codes that classify these videos) was Critical role: In 2012, a group of American dubbing actors played ‘D&D’ on Twitch to have fun at home, and over time it has become a media empire with an animated series in Prime Video that already has three seasons, official books published by the same Wizards of the Coast that edit the role game, and a global audience of more than 10 million subscribers. But Critical Role is just the tip of the iceberg of a much broader and more diverse ecosystem. Soon others followed as The Adventure Zone (in podcast format) or Candela darkthat revealed how fun it is to invent stories with friends. A very studied timing. The launch of the fifth edition coincided with a point of effervescence of the streaming platforms: Twitch was acquired by Amazon just a month after the launch of the rules, YouTube improved its tools for creators and Discord would arrive very soon, in 2015. In addition, an open license was implemented and, later, a reference system of Dungeons & Dragons. These tools explicitly allowed content creators, application developers and media producers create derived content without fear of legal problems. The scene grows. Since then, they have not stopped being born channels that spread role games. There are those that have exceeded Critical Role, such as Dimension 20that already do live shows in the Madison Square Garden and that stand out for their absence of prejudices by introducing elements of genres and franchises that go beyond the classic ‘D&D’. And also in Spanish this type of content has grown a lot: Streamers such as Orslokx, Elrubius or Alexby11 introduced in their usual programs of D%D, those who have followed channels as Lynx’s such, The dragon mansion, Within says either Churros & Dragons among many others. It is ironic and significant that a completely analog game system has found its main fame springboard today through technology. If it demonstrates something, it is that ‘Dungoons & Dragons’ is one of the most universal and versatile games that exist. And that, without a doubt, we will continue to see it evolve. Header | Timothy Dykes in Unspash In Xataka | ‘Magic’ is reborn in popularity and there is a reason: franchises and multiverse have flooded the game

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