ruins

Buying seafood before Christmas Eve saves up to 40%. A mistake when freezing it ruins your dinner

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Christmas is coming and, with it, the spread of the large tables. In Spain, seafood is the absolute king of the banquet, but its presence this year is once again marked by a “stratospheric” price increase. According to data from the OCUshopping on the eve of Christmas Eve can mean paying 78% more for barnacles or 53% more for clams. Given this scenario, the freezer becomes the best ally of savings, allowing discounts of up to 40%. However, saving can be expensive. Science and gastronomy issue an urgent warning: the problem of Christmas poisoning is usually not the original product, but rather our management of the cold at home. The golden rule: immediacy. The most common mistake begins at the front door. According to CuidatePlusmany consumers make the mistake of leaving seafood in the refrigerator “for a couple of days” before deciding to freeze it. Microbiology explains that the final quality depends directly on the initial state. You have to freeze it “as soon as you get home” to stop the proliferation of microorganisms in its tracks. Furthermore, prior preparation is a step that we cannot skip. As highlighted in the online fishmonger Mariskitoit is essential to wash the pieces well and, above all, dry them with absorbent paper. The outside humidity creates ice crystals that damage the fiber of the animal, ruining its texture. It is not just a question of flavor, but freezing is the only safe barrier to neutralize parasites like Anisakis. Each species has its manual. Not all seafood accepts the same treatment. To avoid errors that ruin the product, we must distinguish the families: Large Crustaceans (Crabs, crabs, crabs): They should always be frozen cooked. The professional trick is to wrap them in a cloth moistened with their own cooking water so that they do not dry out. a detail: they should be stored with their legs up to prevent the internal broth from being lost (“the chub broth“). Small Crustaceans (Prawns, prawns, crayfish): They prefer raw, especially if they are going to be grilled. In the case of crayfish, although crude oil can aesthetically blacken the headits quality is not altered; If you prefer to avoid this, pre-cooking is a valid alternative. Bivalves (clams, mussels): There is a technical debate here. In the sources consulted, some of them suggest steam them beforehand so that the meat does not stick to the shell, others hold which must be raw to keep their marine essence intact. The forbidden: never freeze barnacles or oysters. Their texture is destroyed and, in the case of oysters, it is extremely difficult to know if the animal has died before the process, raising the risk of toxicity. The moment where everything can be ruined. Yes, we are talking about the defrosting process. The gold standard It is non-negotiable: always in the refrigerator, never at room temperature or under hot water. The safest method is to use a rack over a tray. This prevents the shellfish from coming into contact with the water it releases, a place where bacteria “have their fun.” If time is of the essence, from a food safety portal recommends submerging the piece in cold water with salt in an airtight bag, but they prohibit the use of the microwave because it “cooks” the edges of the seafood and ruins its texture. How do they last in our refrigerators? According to the fishmonger Solo Mariscosthe freezer must reach at least -18ºC. In the refrigerator, the optimal temperature ranges between 0ºC and 4ºC. But the cold also has enemies. From Mariscos Carrillo warn that the air in the refrigerator dries out the product; Therefore, they recommend covering the seafood with a damp cloth. Regarding the times, Mariscos Gallego set expiration date to the “trunk of memories”: bivalves should not spend more than 2 months frozen and large crustaceans a maximum of 3 to 4 weeks if we want them to maintain their premium quality. Can I die from poor intake? Food poisoning is not just an upset stomach. bacteria like Salmonella, E.coli wave Vibrio They can cause everything from severe dehydration to sepsis (a fatal immune system response). Additionally, there is the danger of toxins; as Dr. Masarat Jilani explains in a report to The Guardiansome like those of Bacillus cereus (common in reheated seafood rice) they resist even the heat of cooking. Added to this is the problem about heavy metals. Although shellfish (prawns, mussels) usually have low levels of mercury, we should avoid large species such as bluefin tuna or swordfish in pregnant women and children under 10 years of age. The safety test on the plate. As a final piece of advice, there is one piece of advice that is infallible: the “hit test“. Before cooking a clam, if it is open and does not close when you give it a little touch, it is dead and should go directly in the trash. Christmas is a time to enjoy, but as Dr. Jilani concludes“most poisonings disappear within days, but prevention is the only way to avoid extreme cases.” This year, don’t let saving in your shopping cart be a bet against your health. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The great Christmas revolution in Spain is not the millions of LED lights: it is the rise of “Tardebuena” and “Tardevieja”

In 1973 a German dreamed of exploiting Lanzarote. 50 years later no one has been able to move the ruins of his monster

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Of all the ghost architectures and abandoned to their fate in Spain, few like the shadow that rises in a unique place in the Canary Islands. Its history begins in the early seventies, at a time when Lanzarote was opening up to international tourism in the heat of expansive urban planning, laws favorable to foreign investment and a climate of economic optimism that seemed to have no limits. And then a “visionary” arrived. A hyperbolic dream. In that context, the German businessman Erick Becker imagined a gigantic tourist complexmade up of five hotels, an aparthotel, more than twelve hundred bungalows and a capacity for four thousand people. The emblematic piece, the Náutico hotel (renamed over the years as Atlante del Sol), was to be the gateway to an urbanization in German capital that saw Lanzarote as an ideal territory to attract European visitors. The legislation of the time, headed by the Strauss Law of 1968encouraged German investment in developing countries and helped direct a flood of capital towards the Canary Islands that found an apparently perfect opportunity on the island. However, the choice of location would prove to be a major mistake. Tourism against the landscape. The Rubicon coast It had virulent waves, constant winds and rugged geography without a beach or adequate access. In those decades, Lanzarote’s infrastructure was fragile, and the area even lacked a road that connected the place with the inhabited centers. Despite this, the project moved forward in fits and startsraising the main structure of the hotel before the oil crisis of 1973 paralyzed the European economy and brought with it a promotion that would never open its doors. Since then, the unfinished mass was abandonedconverted into an unused concrete skeleton that began to hint at the ghostly silhouette that would mark its future. Abandonment, illegality and law. After the abandonment of the project, the Atlante del Sol was suspended in a legal limbo that the subsequent evolution of Canarian urban planning ended up resolving against it. The Island Management Plan of Lanzarote from 1991a pioneer in the protection of the island territory, reclassified the area as rustic land for natural ecological protection, nullifying the urban character it may have had under the regulations of the 1950s and 1960s. With the passage of time, the area was also incorporated into the Natura 2000 Network as a Special Bird Protection Area, reinforcing its ecological value and further shielding its non-urbanizable nature. In parallel, Spanish and regional legislation chained new land laws in 1976, 1990, 1998 and 2007, which consolidated environmental regulations. much more demanding than existed when the original license was granted in 1972. Final blow. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands made it clear in 2016 that this old license was invalid operational, because an unfinished work loses any right protected by obsolete regulations when subsequent laws come into force. In essence, what may have been legal in the 1970s ceased to be legal decades ago. Added to this was a determining fact: the property it was never finished nor to be used, and its current state (absolute ruin, no services, no access and no technical possibility of becoming operational equipment) prevented it from being considered a heritage work. The court concluded that reviving a license from 1972 was as inappropriate as pretending that the island had not changed in fifty years. That ruling legally sealed the fate of the hotel: either remain abandoned or be demolished. The ghost and watchman hotel. With the passage of time, the Atlantean of the Sun It went from being a frustrated project to becoming a strange element embedded in one of the natural spaces most beautiful and unique of Lanzarote: the natural pools from Los Charcones. There, between the wind, the volcanic rock and the crystalline puddles, the abandoned hotel took on a disturbing, almost sculptural presence. For tourists who discover the area, the semi-ruined structure has become part of the landscapean example of beauty in decay that contrasts with the serenity of natural pools. For others, it is an open wound, a reminder of the speculation of the seventies and the urbanism that was promoted without paying attention to the physical reality of the territory. Chaos tourism. His inaccessibility (the absence of roads continues to be one of the main limitations today) has kept it outside the conventional tourist circuit and has contributed to its degradation. The wind, saltpeter and abandonment have turned the building into a dangerous shell, used occasionally as an improvised shelter by campers since the seventies, especially at Easter, when entire families came to occupy the windowless rooms applying minimum standards of coexistence. The picture is as unusual as it is revealing: a hotel that never opened turned into a sporadic camp for those seeking a unique experience in an isolated place. Between memory, business and protection. Over the decades, different owners tried to recover the building’s destiny, either by giving it tourist use or transforming it into healthcare facilities. Among them, the company Hipercan Don Jersey SL tried to reclassify the land to convert the hotel into a social and health center, claiming that the 1972 license was still valid and that the reform would allow the municipality to be provided with a new public service. But the administrations maintained a firm position: Yaiza already had sufficient equipment, the property was in ruins and the land belonged to a protected natural space whose ecological value should prevail about any intervention. The courts confirmed this position repeatedly. Neither the heritage argument, nor the intention to reconvert the building, nor the appeal to old investments managed to reverse a situation that had been legally closed for decades. Even if there was a will to rebuild, the cost of rehabilitation would be exorbitant. And if demolition were chosen, the operation (valued at more than one million euros) would require facing considerable technical and environmental obstacles. Uncertain future. In recent years, the discussion about the future of the Atlantean Sun has regained … Read more

Some say Mercury retrograde ruins their life, but the planet didn’t even move from its spot.

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Mercury retrograde season returns. From November 9 to 20, 2025, many people around the world – and especially on social networks– They will blame this curious planetary phenomenon for the argument they have had with their partner, the breakage of their refrigerator or the failure in an exam. But the question we must ask ourselves is if there is something behind this phenomenon that seems astronomical. What is ‘Mercury retrograde’. Despite its magical name, “Mercury retrograde” is described according to NASA as an optical effect: from Earth, Mercury (the planet closest to the Sun) appears to move backwards in its orbit for a few weeks. Astronomically, that “recoil” It is an illusion created by the difference in speed and position between Earth and Mercurybut nothing in the cosmos really changes, only our point of view. This is a phenomenon that occurs several times a year and has no physical effect on the Earth, our communications, travel or emotions. This is why astronomical science is clear: it is pure visual effect, not causality. Another interpretation. In the case of astrology the interpretation is very different. For this branch, Mercury is attributed powers over the communication, thought and movement. In this way, when it is ‘retrograde’, astrologers advise avoid signing contracts, taking trips or having difficult conversations. But this is something that has no scientific support behind it. A real meme. The interesting thing, according to experts in digital cultureis how Mercury retrograde has become a lifeline to cast our blame away. It is the perfect meme to explain everyday chaos: when WhatsApp crashes or the AI ​​responds strangely, the fault is not ours, but Mercury’s. In this way, everything stops being our fault, and for psychology it is something that we use as a strategy to attribute the disorder to external factors that reduce anxiety and connect us with the community. In countries like Spain, each Mercury retrograde cycle activates dozens of interactions on TikTok, Instagram and X, full of jokes, astrological advice and memes. This narrative allows us to find order (or at least, poetic meaning) in digital unpredictability. There is no relationship. Whether the computer or the refrigerator stops working or you have had a fight with your boyfriend or girlfriend has nothing to do with the position of Mercury. However, the myth and the joke will live on. Perhaps it is therapeutic to look to the sky for an answer when reality surpasses logic, even if we know that looking at the sky will not change whether our router breaks or not. Images | Wikipedia Afif Ramdhasuma In Xataka Basics | 19 apps and tools to see and have more information about stars and constellations

The ruins of a temple located in the Andes can rewrite the history of a forgotten pre -Hispanic civilization

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It is possible that the name Tiwanaku does not sound too much. It is not among the great most famous pre -Hispanic civilizations such as the Incas, Aztecs or Maya. However, this missing society before Europeans arrived in the South American continent reached unique dominance of their surroundings. The last discovery is proof of this. More than 200 kilometers. A team of researchers has documented A temple built by the civilization of Tiwanaku. This temple was found about 210 kilometers south of the power center of this civilization which allows us to better understand the geographical extension of the domain of this pre -Columbian culture. The state of Tiwanaku. There is little we know today about Tiwanaku. This civilization would have emerged south of Lake Titicaca, in what is now Bolivia. Tiwanaku would have managed to be one of the most powerful civilizations on the continent, but disappeared around the year 1000 of our era,, giving rise to the arrival of the Incas that would dominate the region five centuries later. This civilization would have achieved, Explain the responsible team of the new discovery, an advanced social structure and left behind traces of its architecture in the form of pyramids, staggered temples and monoliths, distributed in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca. However, delimiting the area of ​​influence of Tiwanaku is difficult among those who study this civilization. The last discovery can be helpful. The Palaspata temple. The site was baptized as the Palaspata temple in reference to the name by which the natives call in the area. As described, these ruins show a rectangular complex with 125 meters long and 145 wide. I would have had 15 quadrangular enclosures and an inner courtyard. The temple disposition would not have been random since it is aligned with the equinox. In the enclosure, fragments of Keru glasses were found, which were used for chicha consumption, a corn beer. Corn is not a local crop so The team considers that Palaspata’s environment would have been a commercial node in the Tiwanaku civilization. Combining techniques. To study the diffuse brands left by the old temple the team had to combine different satellite images, images that combined with those taken by drones with those who fly over the site. They also resorted to the photogrammetry technique, that is, three -dimensional reconstruction from multiple photographs. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Antiquity. Recycling the stones. Although we have just discovered the nature of this archaeological site, the environment was well known by local people. In fact, some of the stones and artifacts that constituted this temple had been “recycled” by local farmers in their own constructions. A triple border. Palaspata’s significance lies in its location as we indicated at the beginning, a “strategic” location for those responsible for the finding. This area, they explain, connected three of the main trade routes that communicated three valleys with two ecosystems: the high and fertile lands next to Lake Titicaca; The Andean Altiplano, livestock zone where the flames grew; and the Andean valleys east of Cochabamba, another agrarian region. In Xataka | We have found 21 human remains of 6,000 years ago in Colombia. They do not look like any current living population Image | José Capriles / Penn State

Córdoba has been trying to finish a road for 20 years. Now they have encountered a problem: Ruins Mozárabes

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Doing works in a city like Córdoba is a risk task. From time to time, in Spanish cities we find new vestiges of previous eras. An example is the ruins under the door of the sun or the Otero orchard deposit in Mérida. Córdoba is another level and, during preventive excavations under the layout of a future and important road, they have found new Christian ruins. They are not just a few more archaeological remains: this finding provides unique context to the coexistence between Christians and Muslims in Islamic Cordoba. Short. The northern round of Córdoba will be the road that It will close The city ring. It is a complex project that has been carried out in phases and that has been controversial Due to neighborhood complaints motivated by noise that will generate the increase in traffic. During preventive excavations, and how we read in Cordopolisthey found something that will further delay the project: a set of structures that date back to the seventh century. And the date is relevant because it would contribute new context to the Córdoba of those first decades of Islamic domination. By layers. Córdoba is a large city, but the Islamic Córdoba was even greater. With the passing of the centuries, the city was diminishing due to the new urban projects, which were building on the remains of the past. Mosque itself is an example of that construction in phases and, although in an exaggerated way, of that building on the above. When it is excavated to do works, it is not uncommon to run with remains of Islamic neighborhoods, but the interesting thing about this new finding is the cult difference: the Christian. A cult that, due to the progressive Islamization from the city, he left displacing towards the most peripheral areas. The remains. In Cordopolis, Alberto León, professor of archeology at the University of Córdoba, comments that there was a record of the destruction of Christian temples at the dawn of the seventh century. Subsequently, Abderramán’s “pact” was allowed, allowing the coexistence of the cults. The problem is that no remains of those constructions made by the Mozarabic. That is why the complex discovered under the future North round Be so relevant. Presents Tapial walls (clayey earth compacted with blows) and a pool of about 50 meters. Archaeologists have been inspecting the place since the end of last year, and it is now when they point out that it would be a monastic building, probably divided into areas for men and women, with clarifying columns arranged, as you can see in the photosaround a patio and that the pool could be a baptistery. The lost basilica. Ángel Ventura is a professor at the University of Córdoba and one of those who is inspecting this monastic complex. In Córdoba newspaper He launched the hypothesis that the ruins could belong to a possible basilica in honor of Santa Eulalia de Mérida. It was a martyr that had great importance for the Cult in the city And there were documents that implied the existence of “their” basilica, but without having been found. Clue. In the end, this discovery will allow to have more context about the coexistence between Christians and Muslims, but it is also relevant because, according to Alberto León, “is one of the two examples of existence of a Christian cult complex in Islamic neighborhoods.” The researchers continue to study the place to determine their function, chronology, when it was abandoned and launch hypothesis about the coexistence between the different cultures of the city. What is clear is that there had to be many more like this in the suburbs, so future excavations could even show more context about that peculiar era of religious coexistence in the Islamic Córdoba. And also that it would be necessary delay or even rethink the work of the road to be able to study this important finding. Image | Toni Castillo Quero, Dolores Mª Macías Naranjo In Xataka | The dilemma of Córdoba is that of many other Spanish cities: install plates or conserve its heritage

Mr. Beast has brought his extreme tourism videos inside the Mayan ruins in Mexico. That is a problem for ruins

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Mrbeast It is the most important youtuber and followed in the world, and virtually any idea it has to generate content in its channel becomes a trend. Millionaire contests, spectacular challenges, philanthropic maneuvers … and now, adventure tourism. One of his last adventures has been to pass One hundred hours in an old Mayan temple two thousand years old. It is an idea with a peculiar dark side. One night in the temple. In the video we can see how Mrbeast wanders inside several Mayan pyramids, among other Chichén Itzá. Accompanied by an native guide, which reinforces its promotional character for the powerful tourism business in Mexico, sleeps in the jungle, and can touch funeral masks of the kings buried in the area. A privilege that is not at the scope of any tourist. A superstar. With almost 400 million followers and more than 82,000 million visualizations, no one doubts that Mrbeast is The most important youtuber in the world. The average video display on its channel is about 100 million, although it already has many exceeding 200. The income of your channel They can exceed four million dollars, not counting sponsorships or agreements. An authentic icon of the platform that is largely responsible for the spectacularization of Influencers: Always looking for the most extreme challenge, the most shocking image and the most unexpected trip. The spectacularization of YouTube. This spectacularization of the content is very clear in the titles of its last videos: ‘Would you risk drowning for $ 500,000?‘, I survived 7 days in an abandoned city, I survived the 5 most mortal places on earth… It is a radicalization of the content that is not only in the subject, but in the visual: climbing assemblies, a lot of noise and screams, many careers, a dynamic that stuns and that Keep the spectator dopamine by the clouds. Extreme tourism. Mrbeast exploits a new form of telematic tourism that is hooking millions of viewers by making these trips to remote places, often giving them an adventurous narrative: these trips are often linked to extreme challenges or tests, and have turned tourism into an experience that can be digitally consumed. For example, a few months ago we talked about Fabio Belnome and his trip in a 1998 Fiat to Japan. But there are many more in different social networks: the mountaineer @Nimsdaithe urban explorer @Shieyfreedom or the traveler to high -risk countries @drew_binsky. Thanks to them, the hashtag #tikToktravel, for example, has More than 23,000 million views. The dark side. However, there is a dark side in videos such as Mrbaest Chichén Itzá. In 2024, the Secretariat of Tourist Development of Yucatán reported that he expected the arrival of 6.7 million tourists, more than double those that arrived in the last year pre-pandemic. It is an area to which tourism provides 90% of its income. The controversial Mayan train. To promote and facilitate tourism, projects such as Mayan traina transport that will travel relevant areas of the Mayan zone, with special attention to serve tourism, connecting airports in a space of 1500 kilometers. But the authorities are concerned about Environmental impact of the pharaonic López Obrador project. For example, the works have been arrested in the area of ​​the Riviera Maya, one of the most frequented by tourists. The impact is more than studied in what affects caves, temples and other protected areas, and Even Unesco has intervened. The double track. Mexico is, in this way, before a dilemma: the content of Mrbeast is sponsored, as the video credits affirm, by the Tourism Secretariat of Mexicoin collaboration with institutions such as the National Institute of Anthropology and History. But at the same time, the massification of tourism is eroding archaeological treasures such as these temples, in a dilemma of which perhaps the great travel and adventure youtubers will have to begin to take responsibility in the future. Header | Mrbeast In Xataka | The videos of AI have broken the Instagram and Tiktok algorithms. Welcome to the new “AI landscape”

The happy outcome of the Nero Alpha that almost ruins an island

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Few Stories about yachts They have caused both stir and the one that has as the protagonist the Alfa Nero and his unexpected relationship with the small Caribbean island of Antigua. This luxurious ship, valued at more than 120 million dollarsbecame an authentic nightmare for the government of the island, after its seizure by order of the US government for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What they never imagined that a Symbol of wealth and glamor I could put the local economy in check. The sale of Alfa Nero not only was a financial relief, but also brought with it an unusual reward: the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda for the buyer of the yacht and for his whole family, As published Luxurylaunches. The nightmare of Alfa Nero. The alpha nero is a superyte of 81.3 meters long and 14.2 manga capable of moving at a cruise speed of 15 knots. It has half a dozen suites and capacity for 12 people, in addition to almost thirty crew. Its price reached exceed 67 million dollars In some auctions. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and as part of international sanctions to Russia, the Russian assets abroadincluding mansions, yates and others Properties that Russian millionaires They had all over the world. Destiny wanted the majestic Alfa Nero to be anchored in the port of Antigua, and there he was already waiting to be auctioned. The problem: a yacht is a luxury. The Government of the small Caribbean island took very little to discover why having a yacht is considered a luxury. Superryate maintenance cost an average of $ 28,000 per week and consumed some 2,000 dollars a day in fuel to keep the air conditioning on and prevent the interior wood finishes deteriorating. A ruin! Having seen the cats it generated, the local government pressed the step to find a new owner for the Alfa Nero, before the yacht ate the island’s budget. However, the yacht already had an owner and demanded lifting the blockade Judicial route. This judicial process caused Millionaires like Eric Schmidt, the Exce of Google, to withdraw its purchase offer for the Alfa Nero. However, the Government managed to sell the yacht with an important discount. 40 million for a yacht and a passport. Finally, and despite the judicial process undertaken for its supposed owner, the controversial sale of the yacht It was signed in March 2024 for an amount of 40 million dollars to a Turkish entrepreneur. Of those 40 million, the government had debt of more than four million for maintenance and mooring expenses for the more two years that remained tied on the island. As they revealed Information of the specialized environment The Yatch Reportthe ancient and Barbuda government included a clause in the sales contract in which the Turkish billionaire Ali Riza Yildirim was rewarded, and his whole family with citizens. This clause is not only unusual, but demonstrates the thanks of the island for having removed a problem that threatened to ruin its finances. A round business. After more than two years without furrowing the seas, the Alfa Nero is already undergoing a complete renewal of its machinery, cleaning the air conditioning ducts and adaptation of the materials and interior spaces. However, the new life of Alfa Nero will not be dedicated to the private enjoyment of a single millionaire. Northrop & Johnson’s brokerage firm confirmed to Boat International That the superyte would be rented in the charter market, and will be put for rent during the summer of 2025 with a price of $ 81,500 per week. In Xataka | Ultrararicos change the ground for a superyte during the summer: so are some of these floating mansions Image | Oceanco Yacht

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