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A VHS tape, an AI and eight seconds of audio. That is all a woman needed to recover her lost voice

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At some point from the 90s to a young Sarah Ezekiel they recorded her with a video camera and kept that recording In a VHS tape. In that little Sarah appearance he only spoke eight seconds, but almost three decades later those eight seconds have ended up being an incredible gift. One that He has returned his voice. Sara Ezekiel lost her voice in 2000, before smartphones became massive and allowed us, among many other things, to capture video easily. A motoneurone disease caused that both capacity and mobility in his hands lost just when he was going to have his second child, a child called Eric. As indicated in a BBC interview“I thought it would be fine, but after Eric was born, I quickly deteriorated.” In a few months he lost control of his hands, and shortly after he was incapable of any type of intelligible conversation. His marriage ended shortly after, and Sarah, in the care of his two children, found himself in a terrible situation. Eric, now 25 years old, just remembers his mother being paralyzed. Aviva, her 28 -year -old daughter, remembers when she realized that her mother was different. “I have that memory of asking him to prepare some strawberries and see that he was not able to cut them. He had to ask someone.” Five years after diagnosis, Sarah found A break Thanks to the Ocular monitoring technology. He could build words and phrases with the movement of the eyes, so that a voice synthesizer offered a synthetic voice similar to what for example I used Stephen Hawking. That was the beginning of a new life that adapted with joy. He became a volunteer of the association to affected by his illness, and painted again thanks to that same technology. And a few years later a small milestone began to take shape. The AI ​​and the “miracle” of the cloning of the voice A company called Smartbox He had announced what was going to provide cloned voices Free for a million people at risk of losing their voice or those who had already lost it for diseases such as cancer or motorcycle. They asked Sarah a voice recording to rebuild her, but the only thing Sarah had was an old VHS tape in which they had recorded her daughter Aviva and in which she spoke just eight seconds. That recording was a disaster. Image quality was bad, but In addition the sound was distortedwith people mixing when speaking and a television sound at full volume. Simon Poole, one of those responsible for Smartbox, thought it would not be possible. However, Poole managed to isolate Sarah’s voice thanks to the Voice Isolator application of Elevenlabs, Specialized company in This type of solutions. The problem is that the result lacked intonation and personality, and also had a strange American accent. To try to solve it, he used another application trained with thousands of voices to fill holes of this type of recordings and that could help recover a voice like Sarah’s. After achieving a result that he believed appropriate, he sent several phrases to Sarah with his cloned voice. He called and heard her how Sarah, hearing those phrases, almost broke out to cry. One of Sarah’s old friends, who met her before losing his voice, was “impressed by how realistic he sounded.” His daughter Aviva said he was also impressed although he admitted that he had to get used to her. “Hearing her now daily still surprises me.” For Eric “it has made an incredible difference”, because that voice can also include an intonation that shows that your mother is cheerful or angry. Sarah misses her authentic voice, but as she said, “I’m happy to be back. It’s better than being a robot“ Image | Gabriel Petry | Ursula Castillo In Xataka | The AI ​​was already able to clone voices and faces. Now also clon our way of writing

Xiaomi has sold 200,000 electric SUVs in 180 seconds. Tesla has reasons to worry

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Present a car, open orders that same night and close 200,000 orders in three minutes. Xiaomi with him Yu7 It is not an anecdote, it is the best proof of the meteoric promotion that it is achieving in an industry in which it has been participating for just a year. He managed to win at Tesla Model 3 In China and the plan is clear: to be even more ambitious with Yu7. Xiaomi destroys your own record. 289,000 units sold in just one hour and 200,000 in the first three minutes. Xiaomi has made it clear that Xiaomi Yu7 is destined to be a success in sales. A key fact is that these sales, in the first seven days they are reimbursable, so they do not have to be a direct translation of the final volume. So that you have more context the Xiaomi Su7, the Yu7 sister electric Berlina, obtained 50,000 orders in the first half hour of its output for sale, and a total of 88,898 In the first 24h. Barbarian figures for the company’s first car, multiplied in this second model. Why is it important. Xiaomi has a clear objective with Yu7, aim at the best -selling electric SUV of China. That SUV is the Tesla Model and. Elon Musk’s company closed 2024 with just over 480,000 units sold throughout the year, and claims to have 200,000 orders from the new Model and Juniper In the country. The war between these two models has just begun, but Xiaomi seems to have everything to achieve its purpose. We have the best track in what he has achieved with his electric Berlina. He already succeeded with the SU7. Xiaomi needed no more than a few months to sell in China more than Model 3 of Tesla. He succeeded in December 2024, with 25,815 units compared to 21,046 of his main rival. The figure catapulted SU7 as the Fourth best -selling electric sedan in the countryand closed the year with more than 135,000 units sold in front of the 75,000 Tesla. With just a model in the market, Xiaomi has managed to sneak into the top 20 of best -selling manufacturers in Chinaabove rivals like Lynk & Co and Zeekr. The global photo is still headed by a byd that seems unbeatable, and Xiaomi needs to climb from the 24th place in the ranking Until the seventh since Tesla had last May. It looks like an almost impossible climb. But it is not. The code of sorpasso. Tesla has had excellent months with Model and in China. In March, it was the best selling electric with 43,370 units. That same month, the Xiaomi Su7 (a car that does not even compete in its category), sold more than 27,000 units. Now, Xiaomi finally has an electric car that competes directly with Model Y. one that is also superior in technology, fast charging, autonomy and performance. The damage that SU7 can make to Tesla’s sales is huge, even more at a time when the country is reinforcing support for national brands. It will not be an easy challenge. Image | Tesla In Xataka | The Xiaomi Su7 self -imposed a challenge: to eat Porsche in his own land. And they just got it

650 km/h in seven seconds

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Next August 17 years of the Beijing Olympic Games will be completed. Games that served the country, as always in this type of events, to sell to the rest of the world. But in the Chinese case it also served to modernize the infrastructure of the country and project the image that we were attending the definitive launch of a new superpower. One of those hallmarks was the launch of the first high -speed line In the country. China opened its first high -speed rail line, then 120 kilometers between Beijin and Taijin. By then, in Spain we had been enjoying high speed 16 years, from the AVE Madrid-Sevilla from 1992. Japan did the same since 1964 when Tokyo’s Olympic Games also promoted The high speed network. 17 years after those first 120 kilometers, China is The country of the world with more kilometers of high -speed roads. They are followed by Spain and Japan. The country has passed through the right to those who were the great referents in the sector. And not only that, promises for the future are still surprising. A MAGLEV at 650 km/h While the country continues to expand its roads, the next great expected milestone is at the very high speed they can get with their trains. And the evidence tells us that they are on the right track. Or, at least, that they begin to have enough technology to position themselves at a little less level than unattainable. Just a few days ago, in the tests with your Maglev more advanced managed to reach 650 km/h in seven seconds In your laboratory. But the very high figure is not the only striking thing. From China they say that to reach this speed They barely needed 600 meters. The acceleration and detention capacity of the train is brutal because the test tunnel barely measures 1,000 meters. A ridiculous distance with the usual tests that are performed in high speed, with roads that extend for tens of kilometers. AND The promise is to reach 800 km/h as maximum speed. To get to this point, China also wants to be the undisputed queen of the Maglev. These trains work by magnetic levitation. The train travels just over the road, taking advantage of a magnet system that keeps it on the railroad but that allows it to move without generating friction on it. This allows Magleb reach such high speeds. For the moment, The fastest maglev in the world It reaches 431 km/Hy is in operation in the railroad that unites Beijing and Shanghai. Yes, the same that has managed to put the airlines in check because Your 1,300 kilometers journey just lasts four hours. For years, China and Japan live their particular space career. Japan has managed to exceed 600 km/h In experienced evidence but China is still ahead. The big challenge now is make useful trains that can move at this speed, to seek commercial viability to them and, above all, provide them with the necessary infrastructure. For example, The tunnels have a problem To travel at such high speeds because within them the train itself creates so high pressures that they can be annoying for passengers and, above all, compromise trains’ safety. Problem that China may be willing to save if it is about showing financial muscle and work capacity. If you don’t believe it, Danyang-Kunshan’s big bridgewhere the high -speed line between Beijing and Shanghai circulates, it is a good example of this with its more than 160 kilometers long. Photo | Chinese State Agency In Xataka | This Chinese train has no driver, but it is not rail: it is autonomous, and it circulates on virtual rails

From 0 to 252 km/h at 6,0542 seconds. It is not magic, it is a motorcycle that works with water

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When one looks for the benefits of a motorcycle or a car, it is usual to meet the term “Mile room”. In Spain we are perhaps more familiar with the figure from 0 to 100 km/ho how long it takes to travel a kilometer from standing. However, the mile room, those 402 meters is the usual measure that is taken as a finish line in the Drag Races. Yes, the Acceleration races So famous in the United States in which we see artifacts of all kinds to launch from standing at impossible speeds and, in some cases, let out a parachute once the finish line has passed. As with cars, in the world of motorcycling it is also competed in these particular races. The most striking use modified motorcycles that, such as You can see in this videothey have a huge distance between wheel and wheel and gigantic tires. The objective: maximum traction and aerodynamics to achieve the highest speed in the shortest possible time. If this does not seem striking enough, you still have to meet Graham Sykes, a pilot who has managed to cover the 402 meters of the mile room in six seconds reaching a tip of 252 km/h. Figures that become difficult to assimilate and impossible to believe for a steam motorcycle. That? At 252 km/h with water as fuel “We did the first 18 meters in 0.73 seconds, 100 meters in 1.99, 201 meters at 3.2 and 402 meters in 6.05” With these words, as the one who describes the figures pointed on an excelll sheet, Graham Sykes had his experience aboard the “Force of Nature”the faster steam motorcycle ever built, they collect in Motorpasion motorcycle. Sykes explained at the end of the test he had achieved beat your own record and had reached 201 meters faster than anyone aboard a steam motorcycle. The eighth mile, those just over 200 meters, is another of the usual distances in this type of racing. Although it is far from the world record on a motorcycle Dragster (less than five seconds and 469 km/h of peak speed) the merit is double because it is built in the house garage only for exhibition purposes. And warns: “We are very close to running the 402 meters in five seconds. We really want to finish the great engine at the end of this year, with 120 liters of water and three seconds of power. “Because the current motorcycle only has a water tank of 88 liters and generates its maximum power for 1.9 seconds. Yes, it’s talking about water. Because that is a steam motorcycle, right? In which it moves with water. How do you do it? They explain in Motorpasion motorcycle that the system is as simple as water, heat and pressure. To heat the water they use hydrogenated vegetable oil to produce pressure. This accumulates until being expelled by a Laval nozzle. At that time, overheated steam is in charge of throwing the motorcycle at more than 250 km/h. In fact, according to Sykes, the motorcycle can reach up to 320 km/h (once the mile room is exceeded) and is trying to increase the capacity up to 130 liters of tank and with two heating pipes Take the water up to 200ºC of temperature and generate 30 pressure bars. Objective: break the barrier of six seconds in 402 meters. Photo | CPE In Xataka | The crazy and crazy story of nuclear cars: the projects that played to be God during the twentieth century

60% of all its energy has vanished in five seconds

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About 22.53 at night, Pedro Sánchez has returned to the Spaniards to communicate news about The great blackout in which Spain has been immersed from 12.32 in the morning. The President of the Government, again without accepting media questions, has begun by pointing out that according to Red Eléctrica data almost 50% of the electricity supply has been restored. At 8:35 p.m., the operator spoke of 35%, so we talked about a good rhythm if we take into account that the The task is titanic According to experts. 60% of the generation suddenly vanished in seconds Just after the blackout, of 25.94 Gigawatts of demanded demand, the real demand was 14.18 gigawatts, reaching 10.55 gigawatts shortly after. Click on the image to go to the Electric Red website. Sanchez still does not explain what the blackout has caused, but he has given figures of something unpublished. As they have communicated from Red Electrica, “at 12.33 this morning, 15 Gigawatts (GW) generation have suddenly lost the system. And have been lost in just 5 seconds. “ As they had already pointed from Red Electrica during the day, as well as other experts, Sánchez has pointed out that “this is something that had never happened.” And has continued: “15 gigawatts equals approximately 60% of the country’s demand at that time“ As explained by the engineer Jorge Morales de Labra in the 24 -hour Channel of RTVE, the wind and photovoltaic electricity generation plants, “they have what is called protection against tension holes.” This means that when there is an incident in the network, the hole causes “that system tension is lost for a few milliseconds.” According to Morales de Labra, some mainly renewable energy -producing facilities, “what they do is that before that disturbance, they disconnect from the network.” If the big question is “What has caused that disappearance?”, The answer is still unknown, according to Sánchez. “It is something that specialists have not yet been able to determine.” As mentioned this morning, remember that they are analyzing all possible causes “without ruling out any hypotheses, no possibility.” Of course, given the possibility of cyber attack, you have to Remember that the EU has ruled out. The Government hopes to recover the light tomorrow throughout the territory Right now we are 50% of the estimated demand, and what Sanchez has communicated is when we will recover normality, or almost. “We work with a clear objective and that tomorrow the light has returned to the entire territory. And in any case, we are already adopting the necessary preventive measures to assist those municipalities to which electricity may take longer to return. ” According to The latest data shared by Red Electricaat 00:00 61.35% of the planned peninsular demand has been recovered, which involves 14,074 GW. We talk about 13.15% in an hour and a half. From 20:35 to 22:30 that percentage was recovered approximately, so right now Recovery is accelerating. A problem he has pointed out during the press conference is that The recovery is very asymmetric: “There are autonomous communities that have already recovered up to 97% of the supply and there are others that, unfortunately they are below 15%.” Therefore, he calls to respond according to the territories. Where the activity has not been recovered, especially, Sanchez asks workers “to prioritize security.” In the face of students, the government recommends following the instructions of regional governments. In Andalusia, Castilla La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Murcia and Community Valencian, level three of Civil Protection has been established, so that there is the Government who controls what is done. And what has been decided is that the centers remain open, without school activity. Image | Thomas Aseyroux in UnspashMoncloa In Xataka | What is the “energy zero” and why the supply can go suddenly but it takes hours to recover

I have no idea how an app is programmed. I just created one in 20 seconds with Google Firebase

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I have tried Learn to program a few times. Each and every one of them I have finished leaving it. Beyond the most basic foundations, I have no idea how to start building an app. My partner Iván Linares, from Xataka Android, has managed to create an application with the new tool from Google, Firebase. And, according to your experience, it is something that is achieved in five minutes. So I wanted to test This tool To check if, the King of Dummies in programming, I could create my own applications in a matter of minutes. It would be an achievement. Google Firebase. Google Firebase It is a cloud platform for the development of applications. It is not a new service, but now it has a new ally that allows you to even create an app: Gemini. Thanks to the implementation of its artificial intelligence, one of the most powerful and covered of the moment, it is possible to create applications in Google Firebase. Best of all, we do not need to have a code idea. We just have to go to Firebase Studio. Point that the process is completely free, and that we have up to three work spaces available. More than enough to to play beautifully with the tool. Gemini’s integration is still in the test phase, so we are warned that there may be errors. Testing Google Firebase: Open Firebase is to open an interface that leaves no margin of error. We have a box to write the prompt, in which some ideas already preferred appear. I have not wanted to complicate or the least: “A CALCULATOR APP”. Gemini has not taken five seconds to generate the keys of “Calcify”. It does suggest the name, and you can change it if you don’t like it. In the summary that has offered me, the following data appeared, information about the app that we are going to create. The UI (the interface). Mathematical Operations Algorithm Dynamic screen to show the results Errors calculation Color palette Wow. In case I did not convince me some part of this return on how to make the app, you only have to describe the changes. Now just play “Prototype This App” and expect magic to happen. It is impressive to see how, in real time, everything is created. I have been especially attracted to checking how errors automatically self -correction, something that takes more than a few seconds. It has not taken a minute, in just 20 seconds the app. Yes, it is nothing more than a calculator app. But it has created it an AI with a prompt of a line in less than 20 seconds. It is quite impressive. So far we have our app, but I don’t hide if I confess that I have released a “jo*er” just after. I wanted to try how long it takes to make changes. With a simple prompt. I want the color of the “ac, c, and +/-” keys to be network, so there’s more distinction. I also want it to have the name “Calcify” Written in the Top Left Corner. He has got to work, changing the necessary aspects to make the modification that I have told him and … It has not taken five seconds to return the app with the relevant modifications. Firefly’s main limitation is in the publication, although it helps us a lot. We cannot directly ask you to generate the APK, and we will have to help ourselves more or technical knowledge to import the necessary files in Android Studio and end up generating the app file to use it outside Firebase. However, it is an impressive tool as much as entertainment and to take our first programming steps. Combined with Chatgpt or Deepseek it has enormous potential. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Jensen Huang is clear: At this point no one should learn to program, AI will do it for us

We knew that the Spaniards did not shut up or under water. Now a study has measured it: 6.9 seconds

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It has happened to us all. You get into An elevator With four other strangers to climb to the ninth floor of a building and when you go for the second you already feel how a leading silence takes over the cabin, of those who seem to be cut with a knife. Uncomfortable. Annoying. Almost, almost pasty. The same when they introduce you to someone and nobody knows what to say or you just reached a first date. The silent silence. But … does everyone bother equally? A study He has just revealed no. A figure: 6.8 seconds. Yeah You feel uncomfortable When you are surrounded by strangers in a closed and small space and suddenly the silence becomes quiet: you are not alone. A study Prepared by the Online Platform for Language Learning PREPY He has confirmed that this sense of irritation before silence is common, very common. It is so common, in fact, that the vast majority of the 26,700 people from 21 different countries that have surveyed PREPLY in Your study They recognize sharing it. And not just that. Its report concludes that this feeling of restlessness does not take long to generate. On average, it occurs when we have 6.8 seconds without pronouncing or listening to a single word. In the case of the Spaniards they are 6.9. A percentage: 77%. That is the percentage of Spaniards who claim to feel uncomfortable when a conversation dies and no one is able to resume it: 77%almost eight out of ten. There are many, but much less than in other societies even more ‘allergic’ to silence. The palm in that aspect is taken by Brazil, where 85% feel uneasiness to mutism. In Italy they are 75%, in Colombia, 80%, in the US 82%and our French and Portuguese neighbors move between a fork of approximately 70 and 75%. A country: Thailand. The survey De Preply shows that discomfort in the face of prolonged and unwanted silences is a universal feeling. Of course, the key is what we understand by “prolonged silence.” Depending on Culturehabits and customs of each country The span of mutism that we are able to tolerate varies considerably. Two data arrives to check it: in Brazil on average they feel uncomfortable after 5.5 seconds of silence, while in Japan that does not happen until past 8.1. It is not easy PREPLY STUDY It is that our relationship with him is complex. For example, Thailand is the country of the list that to tolerates the most seconds and secondly is also an Asian nation, Japan, with 7.8 seconds. But the third and fourth positions are for European countries: Netherlands, where the brand is 7.4; and Germany (7,3). If we cross the data to 6.2. City Second average before feeling uncomfortable Saragossa 5.79 Valladolid 5.95 Murcia 6.05 Barcelona 6.21 Valencia 6.28 Bilbao 6.29 Palma de Mallorca 6.5 A Coruña 6.55 Las Palmas 6.68 Gijón 6.75 Malaga 6.84 Cordova 6.86 Madrid 7.01 Seville 7.17 Alicante 7.32 Grenade 7.51 Vitoria 7.66 Santa Cruz de Tenerife 8.44 Vigo 8.64 San Sebastián 8.67 A city: San Sebastián. The report is not limited to analyzing countries. It also compares cities. And in the case of Spain it reveals some striking contrasts. According to the data collected by PREPLY, the most tolerant Spaniards to involuntary silences are donostiarras. In San Sebastián they do not feel uncomfortable until past 8.67 seconds, more or less like the vigueses (8,64) and Tenerife (8,44). In the opposite pole are the Zaragozanos, who worry at 5.79 seconds, and the Pucelanos (5.95). A place: the elevators. Not everyone reacts to mutism. And not all places awaken the same sensations. 79% of respondents recognized that the site where they have been found more commonly with pasty and heavy silences are closed spaces, such as elevators. Other situations in which that same sensation abounds are the breakups (73%) and when you maintain a first date with someone (72%). In the list there are other scenarios equally predictable, such as casual talks with strangers, funerals or conflict situations. A situation: the presentations. There is something that seems to be especially uncomfortable: the awkward silences during the Public presentations. 36% of respondents by PREPY recognized that this is the situation in which mutism fear the most, even more than in the first appointments, fights, elevator trips, couple discussions or family gatherings. Where we have more assumed are in the talks with co -workers or when we contact someone online. Images | Baruk Granda In Xataka | This is the most silent room in the world. No one is able to endure an hour in it

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