revealed

A study has revealed the key to getting your emails answered: give the "thanks in advance"

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It has all happened to us at some point: you write an important email, you send it and the only response you get is absolute silence. You review the text, the subject, the recipient, and everything seems correct. According to science, the problem with that email may be in the last two words that close the body of the email, that space that the majority fills in as a formality with a “regards” or “sincerely”, without devoting a second of reflection to it. how it should be worded an email so that don’t fall into oblivion. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychologyanalyzed hundreds of thousands of email conversations and came to conclusions strong enough to reconsider a habit that almost no one questions, but improves the chances of receiving a response. The experiment that changed everything. In 2017, Boomerang examined over 350,000 email threads extracted from mailing list archives of over twenty different online communities. The goal was to determine whether the way one says goodbye at the end of an email has any real effect on the probability of get responsesomething that until then no one had measured on that scale. The study of these data returned a resounding yes. Closings with expressions of gratitude obtained notably higher response rates than the rest of the usual formalisms, with a difference that can exceed fourteen percentage points compared to the more neutral farewell formulas. The average response rate for all the emails analyzed was 47.5%, a reference figure that allows the real impact of each type of closure to be measured. In Xataka Change Gmail or Outlook for a European alternative: step to follow and what you should take into account The formula that prevails over all others. Among all the closings studied, the farewell with a “thank you in advance” turned out to be the most effective formula, with a response rate of 65.7%. This was followed by a brief “thank you” with 63% and “thank you very much” with 57.9%. At the opposite extreme, closer farewell formulas such as “kind regards” (53.9%), “regards” (53.5%) or “regards” (52.9%) were well below. On the other hand, the “best” formula, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of “the best”, recorded the worst data of all those analyzed, with 51.2%. The logic behind the most successful terms is simple: writing “thank you in advance” thanks the recipient in advance for a response that has not yet occurred, which creates an implicit expectation of commitment that the recipient tends to fulfill. It’s not a fancy psychological trick, but rather a signal of advance politeness that, according to the data, serves as a consistent and measurable hook. In Xataka The key to being more productive is not doing more things: it is identifying where you are wasting your time The science that explains the phenomenon. The results published by Boomerang match the investigations previous studies conducted by behavioral psychologists Adam M. Grant (Wharton School) and Francesca Gino (Harvard Business School). Their study showed that the expressions of gratitude They directly motivate prosocial behavior, that is, people’s willingness to help. University students who participated in that experiment who received a message with an expression of gratitude closing the email were twice as likely to offer their help as those who received the same message without it. The researchers concluded that the key mechanism is not the recipient’s self-esteem or emotional state, but rather the feeling of feeling socially valued. Apparently, those two formulas that seemed like mere courtesy, activate that spring. {“videoId”:”x86bhjh”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”17 TRICKS and FUNCTIONS WITH GMAIL GET THE MOST OF YOUR ACCOUNT”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”593″} The numbers that justify the change. When Boomerang directly compared the emails with these thank-you closings to the rest, the difference was even clearer. Messages with some variant of thanks at the end achieved a response rate of 62%, compared to the 46% average offered by emails that did not include it, which represents a relative increase of 36% in the average response rate. It is worth keeping in mind, however, that the analysis itself warns of its limitations and conditions. The sample comes mainly from communities linked to open source software and academic environments, so it may not reflect all professional or social contexts. Even so, the fact that these closures generated a greater tendency to respond confirms that the choice of the appropriate closure is not a minor detail, but a variable. with proven weight. In Xataka | European alternatives to Gmail and Outlook: the best email providers made in Europe Image | Unsplash (Stephen Phillips) (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news A study has revealed the key to getting your emails answered: saying “thank you in advance” was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

A rural community lived isolated in caves for 500 years in Burgos. Their DNA revealed a dark history of inbreeding and smallpox

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In the year 711, an Umayyad army crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and put an end to the Visigoth kingdom in less than a generation, starting a great upheaval in the Iberian Peninsula with many changes. Kingdoms that were born and died, power struggles and great mobility that began to shape the foundations of modern Europe. However, north of Burgos, a small group of people seemed to know absolutely nothing. Where. The rural site of Las Gobasin northern Spain, offers a vision of life far from those centers of power. One of the most outstanding medieval rock communities on the peninsula, located in the county of Treviño, near the town of Laño. Here the inhabitants dug churches, homes and graves directly into the limestone, where they began to live and die there for five centuries. And now we know that they did it with their backs to the world. How do we know? At the moment we do not have any time machine to see what happened in the past, but a scientific study revealed the secrets of this enigmatic Iberian community. Here the archaeological excavations in the cemetery They discovered the remains of 41 individuals from whom an attempt was made to extract their DNA. In this case they used all the tools available to reconstruct who they were, how they were related and what diseases they carried. What we knew is that the settlement existed from the mid-6th century to the 11th century and Las Gobas had a cemetery that was used continuously from the 7th to the 11th century. But the surprising thing is that it seemed like they were always the same people. Marry each other. The most striking finding of the study does not have to do with any virus or any fractured skull, but rather that approximately 61% of the individuals with sufficient genomic data showed signs of consanguinity, so this population was quite likely to practice inbreeding. And it was not something slight, since in some cases the researchers saw that there were marriages between siblings or even between parents and children. In this way, the only source of genetic variability that could be had in this population was only the women who arrived from abroad to marry. Although the truth is something quite scarce. There was no peace. It may be thought that isolation guarantees absolute peace in the population, but the first centuries of occupation were marked by brutality. The study of the bones in this case has found clear evidence that there was interpersonal violence, including serious bone injuries consistent with direct sword impacts. An invisible enemy. If swords weren’t enough in this case, the 10th century brought with it a lethal, microscopic threat. The metagenomic analyzes carried out have made it possible to detect pathogens and zoonotic diseases, identifying traces of smallpox. Although what is fascinating about this discovery is not only that We are facing the oldest documented evidence of smallpox in southern Europe, but where it came from. Although the south of the peninsula was a commercial hotbed dominated by the Islamic world, smallpox did not reach the south from the Gobas. But the truth is that its genetic signature is similar to the Nordic and European strains of the time. How did it arrive? That a disease from the Vikings or one that was present in Central Europe reached some isolated caves in Burgos is no coincidence. Here the researchers pointed to the nascent European pilgrimage routes, specifically to the first steps of the Camino de Santiago, as the entry route for the pathogen. And although the inhabitants of Las Gobas avoided mixing with their neighbors to the south, the incipient religious and commercial traffic from the north ended up breaking, at least on an epidemiological level, their isolation bubble. Images | Wikipedia Trevino County In Xataka | After 114 years, a scan of the Titanic shows a key fact about its crew: the bravery with which they fought until the end

Satellite images have revealed the location of Russia’s largest warship, and that means Ukraine can see it too

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During the Second World War there was a announcement to sailors of future conflicts: some of the largest ships ever built were destroyed without having barely entered combat, becoming symbols of how vulnerable even the most advanced weaponry can be. Decades later, with the advent of commercial satellites and precision weapons, that exposure is even greater. Few doubts from space. The latest images satellites show a reality that is difficult to ignore: Russia is about to complete his largest warship in the Black Sea. The superstructure is practically complete, the flight deck is now fully identifiable and the work is advancing towards its final phase with key elements almost ready. However, this same monitoring from space also reveals the another side of the projectsince the ship remains motionless in a shipyard located within the reach of the ukrainian attack systemsmaking each advancement a race against time where finishing it is only half the challenge. Global ambition. He Ivan Rogov represents much more than a new ship for the Russian fleet, since it is conceived as a projection platform of force capable of operating far from its coasts and sustaining complex operations. With the capacity to transport hundreds of marines, military vehicles and an air wing of attack and transport helicopters, the ship fits into the category of large amphibious ships used by Western powers. Its size, greater than 200 meters, would make it in the greatest asset of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, which reinforces its not only military, but also symbolic value within Moscow’s strategy. Born from failure. The existence by Ivan Rogov is directly linked to an earlier strategic setback, when Russia attempted to acquire Mistral-class amphibious ships from France and the deal was canceled after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. From then on, Moscow was forced to develop your own designgiving rise to project 23900which combines its own technology with knowledge partially acquired during that failed contract. This context explains why the ship has a special weight within Russian military planning, since it symbolizes both the need for industrial autonomy and the ability to move forward despite sanctions and technological limitations. Protected, but not untouchable. The ship is being built in the Zaliv shipyardin Crimea, a facility that Russia has reinforced with multiple layers of protection to reduce the risk of attacks. Physical barriers, networks against naval drones and security measures have been deployed at the access to the dam, in addition to indirectly benefiting from the air defense that protects nearby strategic infrastructures such as the Kerch bridge. However, these measures do not guarantee invulnerability, since Ukraine has shown repeatedly its ability to attack targets in depth and degrade defensive systems, keeping the shipyard within a risk zone constant. Investment under threat. Russia has maintained the project despite economic difficulties, sanctions and pressure derived from the war, which implies a huge investment of around of 1,200 million of dollars and a sustained commitment of industrial resources. This effort reflects the strategic importance that Moscow attributes to the ship, but also increases the associated risk, since the loss of the Ivan Rogov would mean not only a military setback, but also a economic and reputational blow significant. In other words, the project has become a high-risk bet for Russia where success or failure will have an impact that goes beyond the ship itself. The real change. Beyond of the specific destination of the warship, what the case reveals is a deeper change in the nature of modern warfare, one where the military industry ceases to be a safe space in the rear and becomes on a direct target. In that sense, Ukraine does not need to confront an entire fleet to weaken Russia, but can instead focus at critical points such as shipyards, energy infrastructure or supply chains, affecting production capacity before systems even enter combat. In short, the displacement of the conflict towards the industrial base alters traditional rules and demonstrates that, in the current context, a weapon can be destroyed long before it has the opportunity to be used. Image | x In Xataka | With the arrival of good weather in Ukraine, Russia thought it was a good idea to bring out its hidden tanks. It wasn’t at all In Xataka | An exoskeleton worthy of ‘Alien’ or ‘Death Stranding’: the war in Ukraine is bringing the future sooner than expected

The dramatic retreat of a glacier in the Arctic has just revealed a spectacular “graveyard” of prehistoric whales

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The Arctic is is melting at a dizzying rateas we have repeated on many occasions, and in doing so, it is giving us back time capsules that had been under the ice for millennia. The last of these findings seems to be taken from a fiction novel, since it has revealed an authentic prehistoric cemetery of whales that has come to light after the fracture of a glacier in less than two decades. How it looked. This is where the expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Institute of Russia (AARI) intervenes, which had as its original objective the study of permafrost in the region. However, upon arriving at the area, the researchers found a big surprise. As detailed by the researcher himself Nikita Demidov, satellite images and measurements on site confirmed that a large local glacier had split dramatically in a period of less than 20 years. And this fracture exposed a marine terrace hidden under the ice, revealing an unusual concentration of whale skeletons. And the best thing is that, thanks to being buried under the ice, have been preserved in an exceptional way. What were they doing there? In reality, the presence of this “cemetery” is not a coincidence, but experts point out that these remains are the key to understanding extreme paleographic events. Specifically, they indicate the existence of very rapid changes in sea level that occurred thousands of years ago. And the truth is that behind this there is a large amount of bibliography. A study published in 1995 already analyzed the postglacial emergence in the western area of ​​Franz Josef Land, using radiocarbon dating dating back to 10,400 years ago. The warm-up. The rapid decline observed by Demidov fits perfectly with recent scientific literature, since a study published this same 2025 in it Journal of Glaciology on the balance of glacier masses in the archipelago between 1991 and 2022 empirically confirms the acceleration of melting linked to climate change. You have to wait. Despite the spectacular nature of the images and the dissemination of the news through the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the scientific community calls for caution. Currently, the origin of the data is an institutional statement from AARI itself and if we search scientific databases, there is no academic article that has been reviewed that specifically details this finding. And the next step for Demidov and his team will be to analyze the remains in the laboratory, date the bones precisely and publish their conclusions so that the international scientific community can evaluate them. Until then, the whale cemetery on Wilczek Island remains a monumental and silent witness to the abrupt changes of the Earth; both those that occurred millennia ago, and those that we are causing today. Images | Pascale Amez In Xataka | In the remote Svalbard archipelago there is something that confuses and fascinates scientists in equal measure: a glacier that “beats”

The emptied rural Spain has been revealed as the great energy engine of the State

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Spain is a State full of contrasts. At a demographic level, the population density is concentrated in Madrid and coastal cities, that is, 30% of the territory concentrates 90% of the people. It is “tight Spain.” The rest, approximately five million people, occupy 70% of the territory, in the interior of the peninsula. More people consume more resources, which puts two realities on the table: Madrid consumes more and generates less energy than anyone else and that emptied Spain is the energy engine of the State, as the report summarizes “The energy transition in the Spanish rural environment” prepared by Monitor Deloitte. The most striking fact: 84% of renewable energy generation comes from rural environments. Context. In the collective imagination we associate energy production with large nuclear or fossil fuel installations, but nothing is further from current reality. Spain is carrying out an energy transition collected in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan with the objective of reaching 81% electricity generation from renewables. And it’s on the right track: the report of the Spanish Electrical System of Red Eléctrica for 2023 It showed that it had already exceeded the 50% quota. At specific moments, has reached 100% supply. Listing renewable sources by their importance, we find wind energy prominently, followed by photovoltaic and hydraulic energy. Where. In rural territory, in that sparsely populated place where natural resources and space abound. The report highlights regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Aragón as hubs precisely because of their availability of soil and climatic resources (radiation and wind). Why is it important. Because the State needs that emptied Spain and its resources to successfully carry out its energy transition. Without that territory or its available resources, there is no decarbonization or energy sovereignty. Obviously a paradox occurs: that the most populated places are those that produce the least energy and vice versa, which generates a territorial imbalance. However, this deployment of infrastructure can become an opportunity to promote local employment and thus establish the population. Finally, agrivoltaics is revealed as a way to modernize the agricultural sector, making it possible to make cultivation for food compatible with energy supply, all on the same soil. In figures. In addition to this substantial share of 84% of renewable energy from rural areas, the report reveals other interesting figures: There are 15 provinces with critical population density (

Iran has spent decades excavating its “missile cities.” Satellite images have just revealed that they are a death trap

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For years, Iran has shown the world tunnel videos endless tunnels dug under mountains, with military trucks circulating between missiles lined up as if they were cars in an underground subway. It was understood that many of these facilities extend kilometers underground and are part of one of the military fortification programs. most ambitious in the Middle East. What almost no one knew until now is to what extent this gigantic hidden labyrinth could become a key piece of the current conflict. The cities, but with missiles. Yes, for decades, Iran has excavated an extensive underground base network known as “missile cities”, complexes hidden under mountains and hills intended to protect its enormous ballistic arsenal against air attacks and guarantee the regime’s retaliation capacity even in the event of open war. There are numerous videos Officials released in recent years where we could see long tunnels illuminated by artificial lights, windowless corridors and convoys of trucks loaded with missiles ready to move to the surface, an entire military architecture designed to hide thousands of short and medium range projectiles away from spy satellites and enemy bombers. Some installations even incorporate silos dug into the rock or mechanical systems on rails to move missiles within underground galleries, a perfectly assembled choreography reflecting a strategic project conceived to ensure arsenal survival Iranian in a protracted conflict. The images that reveal the paradox. However, the war has begun to show the unexpected reverse of that strategy. Recent images from space have revealed Smoldering remains of destroyed launchers and missiles near the entrances to several underground complexes, a sign that systems hidden underground are becoming extremely vulnerable at the moment when they must go outside to shoot. It makes sense. American and Israeli surveillance planes, armed drones and fighters They patrol constantly over the areas where these facilities are located, observing the entrances to the tunnels and attacking the launchers as soon as they appear on nearby roads or canyons. In other words, what for years was a system designed to hide mobile weapons It thus becomes a relatively predictable pattern: tunnel entrances, exit roads and deployment areas that can be monitored from the air and destroyed as soon as activity is detected. From strategic refuge to death trap. They remembered in the wall street journal A few hours ago this change has revealed a structural problem in the very concept of missile cities. Underground complexes are very difficult to destroy from the air, but they are also fixed installations whose location is known by Western intelligence services. In practice, this means that much of the arsenal remains stored in specific places while enemy planes continually fly over the airspace, waiting for the moment when the launchers come out to act. Many military analysts summarize the dilemma in a simple way: What was previously a mobile and difficult to locate system is now concentrated in fixed points, which facilitates its surveillance and reduces its capacity for surprise. Commercial satellite images themselves show destroyed launchers As soon as they left the mouths of the tunnels, fires were caused by leaked fuel and access to facilities bombed with heavy ammunition. Missile base north of Tabriz in Iran. The image on the left belongs to February 23, the one on the right from March 1 after the first attacks The air offensive against underground infrastructure. As the first week of war approaches, the military campaign has begun to focus increasingly on these infrastructures. They told Reuters that the first phase of the attacks focused on destroying visible launchers and surface systems capable of firing at Israel or US bases in the region, while the second stage aims straight to the bunkers and buried warehouses where missiles and equipment are stored. Israeli aviation, with American support, has attacked hundreds of positions and has managed to drastically reduce the number of launches, while an almost constant air offensive that hits targets continues. both in Iran and Lebanon during the same missions. The stated objective is to progressively degrade Iran’s ability to launch ballistic missiles and drones until it is completely neutralized. Missile base north of Kermanshah in Iran. The image on the left belongs to February 28, on the right it belongs to March 3 A gigantic arsenal underground. The actual scope of these facilities remains difficult to determine. There are military estimates that place the Iranian arsenal before the war between about 2,500 and up to 6,000 missilesstored in different facilities throughout the country, many of them excavated under mountains or in remote areas of the territory. Despite the attacks, Iran has managed to launch more than 500 missiles against Israel, US bases and targets in the Gulf since the start of the conflict, although many have been intercepted and the pace of salvos has decreased rapidly. That drop suggests that attacks on launchers and storage centers are beginning to erode the country’s ability to respond. The strategic dilemma. The result is a strategic paradox that is just beginning to become visible. Missile cities were designed to protect the core of Iranian military power and ensure its ability to retaliate, but in a scenario where the enemy dominate the air and watch constantly the entrances to these complexes can become choke points for the arsenal itself. Iran has spent decades excavating these underground bases with the intention of making its missiles invisible. But satellite images of the war are showing something very different: that this labyrinth of tunnels, designed as a shelter, can become one of its greatest vulnerabilities when the launchers are forced to surface under the look constant flow of planes, drones and satellites. Image | X, Planet Labs In Xataka | We had seen everything in Ukraine, but this is new: neither drones nor missiles, bulldozers have reached the front In Xataka | You’ve probably never heard of urea. The missiles in Iran are destroying their production, and that will affect your food

“We didn’t expect this.” A Ukrainian drone has revealed a Russian arsenal in a warehouse, and the surprise has been huge: the missiles are animals

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From the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when tanks were advancing while logistics columns were bogged down and fuel was scarce, the war began to reveal an uncomfortable paradox: the more modern it became in the skies, more “medieval” It was done on the ground. In fact, in that space where drones, satellites and trenches coexist, the return of solutions from the past apparently overcome was an early sign that the conflict was going to be, above all, a test of resistance. The latest Ukrainian discovery has confirmed that the wear and tear is tremendous. The return of the war of attrition. The irony is that the war in Ukraine has been shedding any illusion of modernity to return, as the days go by, to brutal logic of wear, one in which the quantity and capacity to take losses They weigh more than any technological “game changer”, and where the Russian army, pressured by the massive consumption of material and men, is beginning to show obvious signs of logistical exhaustion. On the southern and eastern front, the shortage of armored vehicles and modern systems is no longer hidden with silence, but is manifest in improvised solutions reminiscent of conflicts from another era and centuries, while Moscow insists on maintaining constant pressure on Ukrainian defenses at any cost. Cavalry in the 21st century. This wear and tear became visible at the beginning of 2026 when Ukrainian units detected and neutralized Russian assaults carried out on horseback, a tactic that seemed banished from modern warfare but that reappeared in sectors such as Oleskiivka in response to lack of means conventional. We are talking about small assault groups that advanced mounted, supported by prior reconnaissance, in infiltration attempts that ended up being aborted by drones and fire defensive, leaving such an absurd image (and repeated) as revealing: many horses survived, but the soldiers did not, and the Russian army confirmed that it was willing to resort to any available resources to sustain its offensive. The drone and the impossible arsenal. Now, the scene What finally condensed this drift came several weeks later, when a Ukrainian drone sneaked through the destroyed roof of a hidden warehouse, several kilometers from the line of contact, with the usual expectation of finding ammunition, fuel or military vehicles. What happened gives an idea of ​​these four years of slow war that has worn down both sides. Instead of artillery and technology to advance, the camera showed something that looked like something out of a rural garage: aging civilian cars, motorcycles from another era, and saddled horses, an “arsenal” as unexpected as it is eloquent of the state of the war in many areas. The message. “We didn’t expect to see this. It was really unusual,” said the drone pilot. to the Insider mediumspeaking on condition that he only be identified by his callsign “Cosmos.” “We were hoping to find some armored vehicles,” he added. He video It went viral because it summarized in seconds the real state of Russian logistics, but also because it demonstrated that those animals were not an isolated anecdote, but part of a system that already uses cheap and expendable media to move and attack under the constant threat of drones. Russia and the logic of sacrifice. For the Ukrainian commanders, this discovery is neither trivial nor a simple curiosity, but rather proof of a way of waging war based on accepting massive losses of material and personnel, replacing armored by civilian cars and horses because they are easier to replace. This logic, which prioritizes the attrition of the enemy, even if the cost is enormous, explains why Moscow continues to advance slowly, launching assaults with many times obsolete or improvised in regions such as Donbas, even when the monthly casualty figures, according to NATOreach levels that are difficult to sustain. If you will, the drone that expected to find missiles and found animals ended up portraying, better than any report, a war that moves backwards while consuming everything at hand. Image | 82nd Air Assault Brigade, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine In Xataka | It is evident that Russia can absorb thousands and thousands of casualties. So Ukraine is already designing a much riskier plan In Xataka | An unprecedented experiment is happening in Ukraine: bombs have turned dogs into other animals

The Zapotecs have been fascinating archaeologists for years. A 1,400-year-old tomb in Mexico has revealed how they viewed death

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“It is the most relevant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico.” Who is speaking It is Claudia Sheinbaum, president of the country, and although it is not unusual for authorities to resort to superlatives when presenting historical findings, in this case the enthusiasm of the Mexican leader seems more than justified. After all, it is not every day that we find jewels like the one that the INAH just located in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca: a tomb from 1,400 years ago that promises to reveal new secrets about one of the most fascinating pre-Hispanic cultures of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Who is it? The Zapotecs. What has happened? That Mexico has shown (one more time) that still hides first-class archaeological treasures. Your Government has just announced the discovery of a 14-century-old tomb decorated with exceptional paintings and sculptures in the south of the country, in San Pablo HuitzoOaxaca. There the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) has documented a Zapotec tomb dated around the year 600 AD, a large and ornate mausoleum that stands out for its good level of conservation. Its structure and sculptures are so well preserved, in fact, that experts hope they will shed new light on the civilization that erected it. Is it so relevant? Yes. Perhaps the best proof is that the Mexican authorities have not spared congratulations and flattery when referring to the discovery, which the president herself has been in charge of presenting. “We are very proud of the most relevant archaeological discovery of the last decade in our country,” he said. claim Sheinbaum on social networks. Similar words have been used by the Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curielthat has emphasized that same idea: it is not just that the Oaxaca tomb is spacious or rich in decoration, it is that a good part of its structure has managed to remain intact for 1,400 years, so today it offers a valuable ‘historical window’ to historians dedicated to the study of the Zapotec civilization. “This is an exceptional discovery due to its level of conservation and what it shows about the Zapotec culture: its social organization, its funerary rituals and its worldview, preserved in architecture and painting.” What does the tomb show? A combination of murals and sculptures surprising. At the entrance to the antechamber we find a sculpted owl, an image that in the worldview of its pre-Hispanic creators symbolized night and death. The figure is fascinating because its beak hides another surprise: the stuccoed and painted face of a Zapotec lord. Because of this position it stands out, right at the entrance to the mausoleum, archaeologists suspect that it could be a portrait of the ancestor to whom the tomb was dedicated and to whom his descendants turned as an intercessor before the gods. Is there more? Yes. As we move forward we find a decorated lintel with a frieze made up of stone tombstones engraved with “calendrical names”. If we look towards the jambs, another surprise: the figures of a man and a woman dressed in headdresses. Once again, their position has led archaeologists to speculate on their possible role, which in this case would be that of guardians. Already inside the funerary chamber, the walls preserve parts of “an extraordinary mural painting” with ocher, white, green, red and blue colors. In them, their authors portrayed a procession of characters with bags of copal. What do we know about the tomb? Researchers will have to continue studying it to understand it better, but they already have some clues. For example, the dating: they believe that the tomb dates from the late Classic period, around the year 600. They have also come to the conclusion that its sculptures and mural evoke “symbolic representations associated with power and death.” Now it is their turn to continue deciphering its iconography and (just as important) to advance conservation efforts. INAH himself explains that its experts are working to stabilize the mural, which is in a “delicate” state after 14 long centuries exposed to changes in time and the advance of roots and insects. Who were the Zapotecs? If the tomb has generated so much expectation, it is not only because of its good general state of conservation. The tomb is also valuable because it opens a new window to the Zapotecsa pre-Hispanic civilization from Mesoamerica that called themselves Binniza (“people who come from the clouds.” As remember the Mexican Archeology platform, constitute the oldest group in the Oaxacan region and since at least 1400 BC they mainly inhabited the Central Valleys and their surroundings. Its peak was reached between the 4th and 10th centuries AD, with its settlement of Monte Albán standing out above all, one of the most relevant cities in Mesoamerica at its time. It is estimated that it hosted some 35,000 people. The region has such relevant historical and heritage value that in 1987 UNESCO declared the historic center of Oaxaca and Monte Albán as a world heritage site. In recent decades, archaeologists they had already found Zapotec tombs. Images | INAH In Xataka | If Spain believes it has a problem with droughts, it is because it does not know what led the Mayans to collapse: 150 extreme years

North Korea believed the threat was miles from its border. A video has revealed that it is a few meters away with a huge warhead

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For years, North Korea has built your security on the idea that the most dangerous thing came from afar and could be seen coming in time. But on the peninsula, threats do not always come from the other side of the world: sometimes they develop much closer than anyone imagined. A “monster” missile. a video has revealed that South Korea has begun to operationally deploy the Hyunmoo-5its largest ballistic missile to date and one of the most peculiar in the world due to the combination of size and mission. Although it remains shrouded in secrecy and there are no publicly confirmed test launches, its input in units indicates that Seoul already considers it a real instrument of deterrence. A weapon designed for an extreme scenario on the peninsula, where the problem is not just attacking, but hitting what is buried, protected and designed to survive. The key: the head. What it places to Hyunmoo-5 In a category of its own is its warhead gigantic penetrationmuch heavier than that of usual conventional missiles. Where it is normal to carry loads of less than a ton, here we are talking about a block that can be around several tons, with an important part dedicated to dense metal and structure to pierce before detonating. The logic is simple and we have seen it before in the United States MOP: enter the ground at enormous speed, break through like a kinetic hammer and then explode once inside, attacking bunkers, command centers, warehouses and shelters designed to withstand traditional attacks. Ballistic bunker-buster. In terms of effect, it is reminiscent of bunker buster bombs launched from a planebut with a decisive difference: here it is not falling from a bomber at subsonic speed, but rather hits like a ballistic projectile at speeds close to hypersonic or directly hypersonic. This multiplies the penetration capacity by pure impact energyeven before counting the explosion. It does not make the weapon “nuclear,” because the type of destruction is different, but it does create a conventional tool with the power of entry and demolition that seeks to get closer to what a regime fears most: losing its underground shelters. Ceremony celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Korea The mystery of scope. The huge warhead penalizes the range, and that is why many estimates They place their radius of action around about 600 kilometersmore typical of a short-range missile despite the size of the set. For South Korea that is not a problem, because the priority objective is close and it’s concrete: Hardened facilities in North Korea. Still, if the load were lightened, it could reach much greater distances, even entering intermediate-range missile parameters, opening the door to broader regional readouts. Total design freedom. For decades, Seoul developed missiles under agreed limits with Washington, first very strict and then increasingly relaxeduntil those guidelines disappeared completely in 2021. That change was not symbolic: it came at the pace of North Korea’s advance in missiles and nuclear weapons, and left South Korea with room to create heavier, more capable systems with greater range options. Hyunmoo-4 had already raised the bar with a powerful charge, but Hyunmoo-5 represents the definitive jump to the idea of ​​“demolition power” as a main feature. The three-way strategy. Plus: the Hyunmoo-5 is integrated into the South Korean scheme designed to avoid or respond to a North Korean nuclear attack, with three pillars that complement each other: a preemptive strike plan on nuclear and missile capabilities if deemed inevitable, an air and missile defense to intercept launches, and massive conventional retaliation against leadership and strategic infrastructure if the North strikes first. On that board, the missile serves both to punish and to decapitate capabilities, because its specialty is attacking what the adversary hides underground to guarantee its continuity. Deterrence and escalation. They counted the TWZ analysts that the South Korean bet aims to maintain a “balance of terror” with increasingly forceful conventional means, but it also fuels an uncomfortable debate about the future. If Seoul one day decided to pursue a nuclear arsenal of its own, a missile from this family would be a natural candidateand a nuclear charge would also be much lighter than the current conventional one, which would expand range and flexibility. Meanwhile, the mere existence of Hyunmoo-5 already serves as an unmistakable message: even without crossing the nuclear threshold, South Korea wants the ability to open any relevant bunker and force Pyongyang to assume that his depth no longer guarantees security. Beyond Pyongyang. In public, South Korea frames these weapons as an answer to North Korea, but the regional background weighs more and more. Have a missile potentially adaptable in range and with a devastating payload add margin facing scenarios where the threat is not only from North Korea, but also from nearby powers such as China or Russia. The idea of ​​​​increasing their survival and employment options with future naval platforms is even contemplated, following the trend global from “arsenal ships”because in deterrence it is not enough to have the weapon: we must also guarantee that it will remain alive when the time comes to use it. Image | Lightrocket, 촬영 – 이헌구 기자 In Xataka | “It’s a level 10 Godzilla, but they only see a tiger”: South Korea’s surprising response to North Korea’s rearmament In Xataka | If the question is what has North Korea achieved in the last four years, the answer is simple: an unimaginable arsenal

The mission in Caracas revealed that the best kept secret in the US is not a drone: it is called DAP and you will not see it in the movies

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The capture of Nicolás Maduroby US forces has not only meant a political earthquakebut rather he explained with almost surgical clarity the media type that the United States reserves for maximum risk direct action operations. In fact, the famous Night Stalkers of Washington’s Army made it clear that the drone is still in second place. Designed to enter where no one else can.Qbecause the first place is reserved to DAPthe MH-60M Direct Action Penetrator, the most aggressive and specialized variant of the black hawk operated by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers. Venezuela was, in every sense, the ideal setting for this device: a hostile urban environment, potential air defenses, the need for rapid insertion, armed escort, precise fire and absolute coordination with assault teams. Although armed versions of the H-60 ​​exist in several countriesthe DAP of the 160th SOAR represents the maximum degree of maturity of the concept, far above even those already sophisticated MH-60 transportation of the regiment itself. It is not a helicopter adapted after the fact, but a platform conceived decades ago, operational at least since 1990to accompany special forces where error is not an option. In Xataka Neither drones nor fighters nor elite soldiers: the US entered Venezuela disguising a 20th-century tactic as technology. XIX Modular firepower. The heart of the DAP is its ability to combine the punch of an attack helicopter with the flexibility of a special operations device. The current configuration of the MH-60M incorporates modular short wings with one or two heavy points per side, capable of carrying a mix of 70mm missiles,AGM-114 Hellfireair-to-air missiles Stinger ATASheavy machine guns GAU-19/B .50 caliber and M230 cannons 30 mm, the same model used by the AH-64 Apache. Added to this are two 7.62mm miniguns which can be fixed in a frontal position to maximize the volume of fire during low-altitude passes. The introduction of APKWS II guided rockets laser has added surgical precision that allows beat specific objectives in dense environments without resorting to more destructive ammunition. All this arsenal is integrated into a platform that maintains a key advantage: its dual character. In a matter of hours, the DAP can return to a transport configuration, a critical quality for unpredictable operations where the same helicopter may need to escort, attack and evacuate in a single mission. Penetrate at night and fly low. Beyond weapons, what defines the MH-60M DAP is its ability to reach the target without being detected and survive once inside. The aircraft shares with the rest of the 160th SOAR fleet an avionics suite designed for extreme night flight and nap-of-the-earth profilesliterally skimming the terrain even in adverse weather conditions. They counted the TWZ analysts that the terrain tracking and avoidance radar, in its most modern version AN/APQ-187 Silent Knightallows the crew to fly blind to any other conventional helicopter, while the electro-optical and infrared system AN/ZSQ-2 provides identification, laser designation and video in real time. Systems like the Degraded Visual Environment Pilotage Systemwhich combines cameras, LIDAR and terrain databases, allow operating in dust, smoke, heavy rain or fog, common conditions in a night urban assault. And more. This set of sensors not only facilitates navigation, but also allows the DAP to fight at very close range, executing the classic combination of strafing and rockets that has been seen in videos of the Venezuelan operation, erroneously attributed in some cases to AH-1Z helicopters of the Marines. {“videoId”:”x9cqyyg”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”A KEY of 8 ZEROS PROTECTED the WORLD from an unauthorized NUCLEAR ATTACK”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”457″} Invisible shielding. Plus: If there is something that distinguishes the 160th SOAR helicopters, it is their obsession with survival. The MH-60M DAP is covered by a genuine self protection bubble which integrates infrared, radar and laser missile warnings, active electronic warfare systems, chaff and flare dispensers, and directional laser countermeasures such as the CIRCM systemcapable of blinding infrared guided missile seekers in mid-flight. This entire ecosystem is interconnected– Detection of a threat can automatically trigger jamming, countermeasures and evasive maneuvers without direct crew intervention. Added to this is a complete electronic intelligence system and data links that allow us to know the location of emerging threats and receive information from other platforms in real time. The result is one of the most difficult helicopters in the world to shoot down, especially in night and low-altitude missions. In Espinof Hugh Jackman presents the extraordinary trailer for his new film, where he becomes one of the most legendary characters of all time The coming war. The operation in Venezuela also has hinted the immediate future of this type of platforms. The US Army has been experimenting for years with the so-called lpunched effectsdrones launchable from helicopters capable of attacking, interfering or deceiving defenses tens or hundreds of kilometers away. Although its operational use has not been officially confirmed, there are indications that the MH-60M DAP could use them for the first time in combat during this mission, expanding its effective range and reducing direct exposure to enemy fire. Added to all this is the ability to refuel in flight using a telescopic probe, normally from MC-130J aircraftwhich extends the helicopter’s radius of action to limits imposed more by human resistance than by fuel. In short, the MH-60M DAP is consolidated as the version more armed and protected of the Black Hawk ever built, a tool tailor-made for operations like the one in Venezuela, where perfect coordination between helicopters, special forces and air support decides success or failure. Far from being a simple armed escort, the DAP is the closest thing to an integral force multiplier, difficult to replace by conventional means and a central piece of the way in which the United States today executes its most delicate missions. Image | MATTHEW WILLIAMS In Xataka | The attack on Venezuela has recovered an uncomfortable truth: that it would not have happened to North Korea for a very simple reason In Xataka | Satellite images of Venezuela before and after the attack have cleared up any doubt: … Read more

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