shows

NASA shows the real appearance of the Earth according to gravity… and it is deformed

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This July, NASA has made public on its website an interactive and updated image in the way that gravity would give our planet and the result has not left anyone indifferent. The simulation not only moves away from the idealized myth of the perfect, blue sphere, but also goes far beyond what we learned in school about the sphere flattened by the poles. According to this three-dimensional representation from the US space agency, the Earth’s shape has giant lumps and dips and is not uniform at all. And we owe it all to gravity. The geoid. What this NASA simulation shows is an irregular structure with enormous elevations and depressions, similar to a “potato”which is called geoid. This concept is a 3D mathematical model which serves as a reference surface to measure the elevations of the surface of our planet and the intensity of the forces of gravity according to the variations in the Earth’s mass. NASA defines it as an equipotential surface of the Earth’s gravitational field and, therefore, the reference of zero lift. The secret is in the water… To better understand this geoid, we must imagine the effect that gravity would have on the oceans and the enormous masses of earth water if the wind, waves, tides and currents did not exist. That is, if water, which covers 71% of our surfacewas completely still – something only possible in a simulation like this. …and also in gravity. Our planet is a very rugged celestial body whose mass is unevenly distributed. Those variations in density in the Earth’s mantle, such as mountain ranges on one side or valleys and places like the anomaly of the Indian Ocean “hole” in the other, they affect natural forces. They do it by producing changes in the gravitational field attracting water with greater or lesser intensity and causing those prominences and basins that NASA now shows us. Iceland and India, the two extremes. In order to show these differences on the surface, the scientists who designed this image of the geoid have exaggerated its vertical scale. between 7,000 and 10,000 times relative to zero elevationas explained by Heraldo USA. They do it this way because the variations are not appreciated in reality, since they only reach a few tens of meters on a planet whose radius exceeds 6,300 kilometers. The American media reports that, in this way, they have been able to verify that the point with the highest elevation is in Iceland, where the surface would rise more than 80 meters above the zero level. At the other extreme, southern India would sink about 106 meters below the same reference. More than 15 years of data collected by satellite. The development of this fascinating model has been possible thanks to the observation work that 19 space satellites have carried out over 15 years. Among them, according to the NASA website, are the Grace space mission from NASA or GOCE European satellite. Image | POT In Xataka | The paradox of artificial gravity: Einstein told us how to do it, engineering tells us it is almost impossible

the map that shows who is in charge and who has been left out

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When AI arrived and we saw everything it could do, the first impression of many was that it was going to take away their jobs (and the truth is, some statements didn’t help either), although the reality at the moment is different: we work more and rest less. Knowing how to use AI has become another skill, one that can be essential depending on your job: being a waitress is not the same as being a secretary or being a plumber or journalist. But even if the profession matters and the deployments are more or less global (in fact, Europe often lags behind as a matter of legislation), AI has not reached the same level throughout the world. The Microsoft AI Diffusion Report that monitors the AI ​​economy on a global scale (specifically, 100 countries) for the first quarter of 2026 collect a fact: 17.8% of the world’s working-age population uses it, but there are 10 countries that lead it and many that are behind. Of course: Microsoft’s report uses anonymized telemetry from its products. That is, if someone uses only ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude and never touches anything from Microsoft, they do not appear in the count. Microsoft tries to correct this bias with statistical adjustments, but it does not completely eliminate it. Microsoft’s report looks better with this infographic adaptation by Visual Capitalist what colors countries based on their use of AI: yellow tones for those places with high adoption and purple ones where it is little used. It is, in a nutshell, a quantitative snapshot of the actual use of generative AI tools. It is inevitable to associate the adoption of AI with labor productivity and competitiveness. Without going any further, Microsoft itself does it relating its real effects on employment: dev work in the US broke records in 2025, reaching 2.2 million, 8.5% more than the previous year. Obviously, this gap between the countries that use AI the most and those that use the least has as a background unequal access to this technology. In short: it is a more than perpetual digital divide and widens the inequalities that already exist. Which countries lead the use of AI Adoption of AI in the world by country. First quarter of 2026. Microsoft via Visual Capitalist Among the countries that lead the use of AI, one stands out: the United Arab Emirates, with 70% of its working-age population using artificial intelligence and growth that quadruples the world average rate. They are followed by Singapore (63%) and a group of highly digitalized countries, mostly European: Norway (49%), Ireland and France (48% each), Spain (44%), New Zealand (43%), and the United Kingdom, Netherlands (42%). Closing the top 10, Qatar tied with the Netherlands. The pattern is clear: they are moderately rich economies, with good internet connections and governments that have been investing in digital infrastructure for years. But the vast majority moves well below those figures and what better example than an a priori unexpected United States: it only has a 31% share despite being the cradle of almighty powers such as Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It is one thing to build artificial intelligence and quite another to use it.. Here it depends more on having a homogeneous digital infrastructure, state adoption policies and territorial equality, factors where small states like the UAE or Singapore have structural advantages. In the queue are many countries from Africa, Central Asia and Latin America, with quotas of just one digit or little more: Venezuela 10%, Russia 10%, Morocco 12%, Bolivia 13%, among others. The digital divide between north and south, at its finest: the Global North reached 27.5% usage compared to only 15.4% in the Global South. AI is spreading, but in a heterogeneous way towards those who were already advanced in digitalization. However, it is worth remembering again that since it is based on Microsoft product telemetry, this indicator may underestimate real adoption in markets where other providers predominate: China deserves special mentionwhere the AI ​​ecosystem has powerful local products such as Baidu, Alibaba, Deepseek or Moonshoot and his impressive Kimi K3. In Xataka | Who is really winning the AI ​​race, in a graph that puts Google in trouble In Xataka | If the question is which of the big tech companies is winning the AI ​​race, the answer is: none Cover | Visual Capitalist

This map shows you all the active fires in Spain in real time, and can alert you if there is one near your home

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We are going to tell you what it is and how it works firespain.esa website with which you can see all active fires in Spain. Thus, whether you are planning a trip you will be able to know if there is one at your destination, and if you have it close to home you will be able to receive warnings if it starts to be dangerous for you. We are going to start by explaining to you what exactly this website is, the data it offers and where it obtains its information from. Then we will tell you how to set up a notification to notify you when there is a fire approaching your house. What is IncendiosEspaña.es and where does it get the data from? firesespaña.es is a website that unifies and shows information on all fires on a map that are taking place in Spain. It shows them on a map where you can see the number of fires, active outbreaks, their location and even their severity. You will have them all on a map where you will be able to navigate as you wish, zooming in on the areas that interest you and clicking on the different icons to expand the information. There are icons that indicate confirmed fires, and there are others that indicate outbreaks. When you click on one of these icons you will obtain data such as the type of fires, the place where they are, the municipalities affected, and even start time and assigned resources. It will also give you other information such as its radius, radiative power (FRP), detection confidence level, road closures, wind, and more. And as for sources, the website obtains data from the emergency services of several autonomous communities, as well as heat photos detected by the NASA satellites FIRMS, EUMETSAT and Copernicus/EFFIS. This information is updated in near real time, every 5 minutes for utilities or 15 minutes for satellites. The website also has a left column where you can organize the data by selecting the time period you want to analyze or searching for populations. you also have a list of outbreaks by province with which you can navigate directly to those that interest you. How to configure alerts If you want to set up alerts To be notified if a fire appears near your house, you have to go to the bottom of the screen. When you close the cookies text, a message will appear inviting you to activate the alerts, and in it you must click on the button Activate alerts. This will take you to a web page where you simply have to enter your email, zip code and notification radius. Thus, if a fire appears and the town belonging to the zip code is within the warning radius that you have configured, an email will be sent to you with the alert and also telling you your risk level. In Xataka Basics | How to know where there are fires with Google Maps

a study shows why it is a trap

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A common scene in any summer is seeing how people arrive at the beach, stick their umbrella in the sand, spread their towel or put their chair under the shade and breathe a sigh of relief because they think that this way they won’t get burned. The problem comes when you get home and, after taking a shower, you can clearly see how your skin is burned. The culprit. This situation, which is more common than we think, is not the fault of the material the umbrella is made of or even the protection factor assigned to these products, but rather the problem is in the sand itself and the rebound effect that the Sun’s rays have. The experiment. To understand what is happening here, we have to go to a great study published in 2017where researchers took 81 participants with sun-sensitive skin to a sunny Texas beach. They were left in this environment for 3 and a half hours at midday, but with the difference that one group of them only used a standard beach umbrella as protection and another group only used sunscreen with an SPF 100 factor without seeking shade. The results were devastating, since 78% of the participants who were under the umbrella developed sunburn, compared to 25% in the group that used the cream. Although if we look at the total number of injuries, the difference is even more overwhelming, as 142 incidences of sunburn were recorded under the umbrella, compared to only 17 in the sunscreen group. How is it possible? For many people, it makes no sense to burn their skin if they are constantly in the shade, but the answer to this lies in albedo, which is a metric that defines the percentage of radiation that is reflected by a specific surface. And ultraviolet light not only ‘falls’ from the sky in a straight line hitting us, but it also bounces off the ground and impacts from any direction. For example, we know that beach sand reflects between 15% and 20% of the UV radiation it receives, a figure that is much higher than that reflected by asphalt, which is around 2%. Although all of these remain ‘nothing’ if we compare it with snow, which is undoubtedly almost like a mirror, since it reflects a spectacular 85% of ultraviolet rays. You have to combine it. With all this data we should not fall into the thought that the umbrella is completely useless, but we should be aware of the importance of using sunscreen as soon as we leave home to prevent this radiation from affecting our skin. And logically, also combine it with the umbrella on the beach to achieve these two protection systems. It’s not just the beach. It is increasingly common to see people on the street who are walking with their umbrellabut here you are not exempt from suffering some burns because, as we have seen, even asphalt can reflect ultraviolet radiation. That is why sunscreen is not only an item that should be used when we go to the beach or pool, but in any situation where the UV index is high. Images | Engin Akyurt In Xataka | Italy has been privatizing its beaches for years. Now it has taken another step: prohibiting you from bringing your sandwich from home.

We no longer want to see “artists” but shows

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Sphere sells movies and concerts in a way that neither streaming nor traditional theaters can replicate, a unique experience that risked becoming stale. such a Las Vegas extravagancethe place where the space is housed. However, the revenue data for the first quarter of 2026 not only speaks of healthy accounts, but also of the confirmation that live entertainment is mutating irreversibly. The aforementioned. Sphere Entertainment closed the first quarter of its fiscal 2026 year with $386.4 million in revenue, 38% more than what it earned in the previous twelve months. For the second time, the business of also the owner of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, closes a positive quarter, with an operating profit of 7.2 million dollars compared to the 78.6 million losses (for the company as a whole) a year ago. The segment managed directly by Sphere almost doubled its turnover, up to 266 million dollars (69% more), driven above all by the controversial screening of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Not everything is great news (first and last time we make the joke): the shares have risen 400% in the last year, but They fell by more than 5% on the same day of the announcement, because investors were comparing the quarter with an even better fourth quarter of 2025. The ups and downs of the stock market aside, what this data reflects is that the business is not stable, but depends on the show calendar. That is why he has already announced the residencies of Metallica (24 concerts from October 2026) or Backstreet Boys (56 nights this summer) well in advance. The magician’s bombshell. In 2025, Google and Sphere announced a collaboration to reconstruct ‘The Wizard of Oz’ from 1939 with artificial intelligence, using Gemini, I Spy and Image models to expand the frame and generate characters that were out of shot in the original film, but that did enter the monstrous screen of the venue. The project cost $100 million, as much as a medium-high budget film, and cut the footage to just over an hour. Between that and the radical visual change, which destroyed the original planning, they intensified the criticism. However, the reduction in duration allowed more passes to be scheduled per day. Tickets cost at least $104 and easily exceeded $200, depending on the seating in the stands. Result: more than two million tickets sold and $260 million in revenue since its premiere almost a year ago now, in August 2025. Dolan has clearly said that the numbers “demonstrate that Sphere’s business model works.” It is still striking that what comes from this success is a version of a classic film that does not resemble the hitherto untouchable original. Cinema, down. Meanwhile, the traditional film business continues without raising its head. In Spain, attendance fell by 8% in 2025, to 65 million viewers, the second consecutive year of decline. In the United States tobarely half of the adults set foot in a room throughout the year, with 769 million tickets sold compared to the record of 1.6 billion in 2002. And yet… premium formats are better than ever. IMAX closed 2025 with record revenue of 410 million dollars (+16%) and a global box office of 1,280 million dollars (+40%), with titles such as ‘Sinners’ or ‘F1’ contributing more than 20% of its debut collection in the United States. The concert industry is not far behind: for example, Live Nation closed 2025 with $25.2 billion in revenue (+9%). And in that part of concerts, Sphere is already among the venues with the most tickets sold on the planet, only behind the South Korean K-Arena Yokohama and the Movistar Arena in Madrid in the third quarter of 2025. The conclusions are clear: the public does not go out in search of generic offers, but rather unrepeatable experiences. Clearly, the ball is in the court of the movie theaters. The icing on the cake: the exterior. Sphere doesn’t live on tickets alone. Its exterior façade, the Exosphere, is the largest LED screen on the planet and works as an advertising medium which bills between 450,000 dollars for one day and 650,000 for a week of campaigning. Evian, for example, signed a multi-year sponsorship as the venue’s official water supplier in April, and analysts estimate that advertising could exceed 10% of the company’s total revenue in the coming years. Meanwhile, the spherical business does not stop: while the city of Las Vegas is falling in the number of visits (in 2025 it received 7.5% fewer visitors than the previous yearthe largest annual drop outside of the pandemic and since records exist, since 1970) Sphere Entertainment is already thinking about new venues. The second headquarters is being negotiated in National Harbor, in the state of Maryland but also very close to Washington DC Of course, we will have to wait: its opening is not scheduled until 2030. Header | Even Better

We believed that stress was only psychological. Science shows that it also depends on the amount of water you drink

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We all know that facing a tight deadline, a job interview, or a heated argument trigger our stress levelsand it is nothing more than a basic evolutionary response. However, science is beginning to see that the intensity with which our body reacts to a stressor depends not only on our psychology, but on something as fundamental as the amount of water we drink throughout the day. It has been investigated. A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology has put on the table the relationship that exists between the general state of hydration and the reactivity of cortisol to acute stress. In other words, a dehydrated body is a body that overreacts to the problems that may arise on a daily basis. Cortisol. To understand this finding, we must first look at the ‘place’ where our stress is regulated, which is the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. This system is activated when we face a psychosocial threat that culminates in the release of cortisol, which is our main stress-related hormone and can be easily measured through saliva. Logically, cortisol at normal levels is necessary for survival, but the problem arises when it remains high for a long time, which begins to generate many problems in our body and also confronts us with anxiety disorders. Hydration. This is where water comes into play, since dehydration, even mild, is not just having a dry mouth but biologically, it is a major stressor. When we do not drink enough water, our blood volume decreases and its concentration increases. The body perceives this as a threat to homeostasis and responds by releasing hormones to try to compensate for this lack of fluid, such as vasopressin, which causes us to urinate much less to avoid ‘wasting’ water. Threats. What science demonstrates here is that when we subject a person who is poorly hydrated to psychological stress, the body experiences a double threat. Here the nervous system is already dealing with the physiological stress of lack of water and, if we add to that an external stressor, such as a work problem, the cortisol response shoots up much more abruptly than in a well-hydrated person. But we are not facing something completely isolated, but rather there are many studies who have found a relationship between state anxiety and hydration. If we go to the purest physiology, it makes sense, since the brain is made up of 73% water and that is why it is extremely sensitive to a drop in the amount of liquid drunk throughout the day. It is not the same for everyone. Human biology is rarely a simple equation, as the salivary cortisol response to psychosocial stress has high variability between people. Age, sex, coffee consumption, smoking or steroid levels act as modulators of this hormone, for example. However, the state of hydration is now emerging as one of the most easily modified variables by ourselves. We can’t change our age or erase a family problem, but we can make sure that our fluid intake doesn’t make things more difficult for our nervous system. Images | engin akyurt In Xataka | The myth of “two liters of water a day” collapses: a mistake from 1945 that science is now trying to correct

We believed that sleeping with our dog or cat was a comforting and healthy idea. Science shows that it destroys your night’s rest

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More than ten years ago it was carried out a survey of 23,000 pet owners. There were curious data: a quarter of them admitted treating their pet as if they were small children and a little less than 75% admitted keeping photos of them. But perhaps the most striking thing is that half admitted sleeping with their pets. There is no memory of a sociological division of this magnitude since the potato omelet. So we’ve been wondering what science said about sleeping with your dog or cat. Do people really sleep with their pets? The truth is that sleep researchers haven’t paid much attention to the topic. We have a lot of pseudo-theories about ‘dominance’ or ‘doggy soul’ that are very successful on reality television, but the research in the ‘human-animal co-sleeping‘was a relatively forgotten area that in recent years has experienced a boom. As we have spoken on other occasions, sleep is a more cultural phenomenon than it seems and changes a lot between regions and times (Blunden, Thompson and Dawson; Worthman and Melby; Munroe, Munroe and Whiting). In the same way that it was relatively recently that Western societies separated resting places by age (children and adults), it was only relatively recently that spaces between humans and animals were completely separated. In fact, there are many cultures in which these coexistence practices are maintained naturally. And the most solid studies (Albert and Bulcroft; Westgarth et al.; Overgaauw) coincide with the survey in that there is a 50% split in co-sleeping with dogs and cats – which are the most common nocturnal companions (Albert and Bulcroft). And it’s curious because Since 2018 we know that dogs are less annoying than cats. In this sense, it cannot be said that the results of the survey are surprising. Research maintains that humans continue to show a strong attachment to their pets and are often considered important members of the family (Archer). As it says Smiththis is not free: animals are a source of support, affection, comfort, security and stability which can have important health benefits. It is true that the size of the pet has a lot to do with it and if we look in more detail (for example, in dogs) we see that 76.85% of Yorkshire Terriers or 62.96% of Chihuahuas sleep with their owners compared to 18.18% of Saint Bernards or 30.27% of Labradors. Even so, the percentage of Saint Bernards is a very high percentage. In addition to what Eckstein already pointed out, other factors that intervene are the number of children in the family (more likely where there are no children – Albert and Bulcroft) or gender (more likely with women). Some problems of sharing a bed with pets Research suggests there are some potential problems with sharing bedding with animals. Health risks. These include some immune responses, allergies, asthma or hypersensitivity pneumonitis; Bites and scratches can also occur through which infectious diseases associated with domestic animals can be contracted (Plaut, Zimmerman and Goldstein). Those most susceptible to these types of problems are young children, pregnant women and immunocompromised patients (Smith). However, the overall health risks are very low; almost insignificant if the animals receive medical care and maintain proper hygiene. Sleep problems. In general, the main problems related to sleep quality involve companions (kicking, snoring, etc.) and children, but pets also play an important role. Without going any further, a study from the Mayo Clinic found that fifty-three percent of pet owners who slept with their pets had problems resulting from it. Nevertheless, it is difficult to know the real impact of these interruptions because they are very short interruptions that by themselves explain little: however, it seems that Yes, there is a difference between sleeping in the bedroom or in the bed.. This is because interruptions can be related to temperature imbalances between humans and pets; as well as differences in sleep and wake cycles (Campbell and Tobler). If they only sleep in the bedroom, everything becomes easier. Behavior problems in animals. Jagoe and Serpell found that dogs that are allowed to sleep with their owners may experience an increase in aggression and separation-related problems. Effect on interpersonal relationships. Finally, animals can be an important source of conflict and stress in relationships. Coming to generate intimacy problems (Jagoe and Serpell) Should we sleep with our pets? Smith and his research team found that sleeping with pets in the bed had a small impact on sleep quality in the time taken to fall asleep or feeling tired when waking up. However, the authors maintain that the continued practice of co-sleeping with pets indicates benefits of social support, social interaction and personal safetydespite the disadvantages. In general, it seems that science agrees with common sense. Sleeping accompanied by animals can have some problems but always related to previous problems at a health and behavioral level. And, on the other hand, if our pet is healthy, has proper hygiene and a ‘good education’, not only are there no problems, but it can have very positive effects. The evidence has been divided in recent yearsbut remains unanimous in this regard Images | Faith Goble, John Liu, Tony Alter, Jon-Eric Melsæter. Xataka | We have been looking at Noah’s syndrome as a minority and controlled problem for years. we were wrong *An earlier version of this article was published in January 2016

China is responsible for 3 of the 4 worst space debris episodes of the 21st century and a latest event shows that it is not getting better

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On June 9, the Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket released two satellites into low Earth orbit without any incident. With this, the upper stage of the rocket had already completed its mission. China does not reuse rockets, how SpaceX doesFor example. However, like any other space company, whether private or public, it has the obligation to try to ensure that its discarded rockets do not pose a risk to its space neighborhood or to the Earth itself. Unfortunately, the Asian country is not very efficient at preventing this from happening. Therefore, it is not entirely surprising that the upper stage of Zhuque-2E ended up exploding, violently ejecting more than 100 pieces at a dangerous distance from the International Space Station and much of Starlink satellites. By the hair. A United States Space Force dedicated to inspecting space for possible dangerous activities was the one that raised the alarm about this event. Not many details were given, other than that the person responsible for the explosion had been the Zhuque-2E rocket, with an upper stage 8 meters long and 3.35 meters in diameter. However, Darren McKnight, senior technical researcher at the orbital intelligence company LeoLabs, did venture to calculate in statements to Ars Technica that the explosion would have possibly released between 100 and 150 debris into low Earth orbit. The highest part of the orbit in which everything happened intersects the orbit of the International Space Station. However, the residual atmospheric resistance would be pushing the debris beneath it, so it would not pose a danger to it. The same cannot be said for the Starlink satellites, many of which are still quite close to some of the fragments from the explosion. Fortunately, also because of the residual atmospheric resistance, this debris will continue to fall, so that in a few months it should re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up into much smaller fragments that would no longer pose a risk. Many fear China. The experts They have been warning for years on China’s role in generating space debris. Currently, Russia and the former Soviet Union lead the list of launch-related debris into long-duration orbits. They are followed by China and the United States. However, while Russia and the United States are decreasing these numbers more and more, the number of this type of fragments associated with the Chinese space race has increased by 150% in the last 5 years. 3 of 4 dangerous events. A good example of the risk China poses in this regard is that it is responsible for 3 of the 4 largest explosive debris release events in low Earth orbit during the 21st century. The first of them took place in 2007, with Fengyun-1C. This was an anti-satellite test, so a kinetic destruction vehicle was used to deliberately hit a Chinese weather observation satellite. 3,500 pieces of debris were released. On the other hand, in 2022 and 2024 there were explosions in the upper stage of a Long March 6A rocket. It was something similar to what has happened now, although more fragments were formed. 500 in 2022 and between 700 and 900 in 2024. The only case that is not Chinese. The fourth of these dangerous events was another anti-satellite test, but this time carried out by Russia. This is how the Cosmos 1408 satellite was destroyedwith the subsequent release of 1,800 fragments. Space debris is an increasingly serious problem The solutions. All companies releasing inactive vehicles into low-Earth orbit or geostationary orbit should do everything possible to prevent them from becoming dangerous fragments. On the one hand, you can try to make a controlled deorbitation so that the objects return to Earth, without losing control over them. Passivation can also be carried out, in which the tanks are emptied of fuel to prevent explosions from occurring due to pressurization. Possibly, what has happened in China is due to the fact that some residual fuel has remained. Rockets or satellites can also be sent from geostationary orbit to a graveyard orbit. This is a higher orbit, far from any operational orbit where there are satellites, spacecraft or facilities of any kind that are operational and could be impacted. Finally, if the object in question is in a very low orbit, it can be monitored until it deorbits naturally. China could do all this, but it does not seem to be investing enough in optimizing results. Beware of the domino effect. These types of events could be dangerous if they occur something known as Kessler syndrome. It is a phenomenon that begins when a fragment of space debris collides with another or with an active object, such as a satellite, breaking it and generating more fragments that in turn continue to collide. It would be a kind of domino effect that could cause serious damage to the entire space infrastructure that we have been deploying little by little. For all this, what happened with this latest Chinese rocket is a wake-up call to what could happen in the future. It is not a serious case, compared to others, but it still happens. If this country does not take action, the consequences will be increasingly dangerous. Image | 中国新闻社 | POT In Xataka | Orbital cleanup is no longer science fiction: the first regular space debris collection service will arrive in 2027

The C919 was born to stand up to Boeing and Airbus. Data shows how close (or far) you are from achieving it

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If you have made a medium-haul flight in recent years, it is most likely that you have traveled on an Airbus A320 family or Boeing 737 family aircraft. It is the unwritten rule of many of these journeys: two industrial giants and a market that for decades has seemed almost closed to any applicant. China has been trying for years to gain a foothold in that segment with the C919, its single-aisle aircraft developed by COMAC. And the latest data suggests that the project is beginning to leave behind the phase in which it could only be read as a promise. This jump can be seen in the operational data collected by Flight Master and citated by China Dailand. In April, the C919 completed 3,190 flights, 117.9% more than in the same month of the previous year, and some aircraft recorded up to 10.7 flight hours per day. The accumulated figure also helps measure progress: as of April 30, 2026, the aircraft had exceeded 42,000 commercial flights since its entry into service. While the data does not make the C919 an immediate global rival to Airbus and Boeing, it does show that the program is moving forward. Let’s look back for a moment. The C919 made its first flight test on May 5, 2017, was delivered for the first time in December 2022 and officially entered commercial service in May 2023, with a route between Shanghai and Beijing. Since then, its network has gradually expanded until connecting 29 airports: 28 in mainland China and one in Hong Kong. As we can see, this is a domestic expansion, but it clearly no longer plays the experimental role. C919 flies more and more, but still depends on key parts Okay, but how many airplanes really sustain that growth? According to China Daily, at the end of April China Eastern Airlines operated 15 units of the C919, Air China had 11 and China Southern Airlines had 10. The distribution between the three large Chinese airlines reinforces the presence of the model in the local market. However, the figure forces us to put the progress in perspective: the fleet is still small compared to the usual volumes of Western competitors. That is why the key is not only in how many C919s there are, but in what performance they are giving in operation. According to Flight Master, since the beginning of 2026, 88.5% of C919 activity has corresponded to operations with at least four daily sectors. Zhu Keli maintains that the use of the plane is already close to that of comparable models more common single aisle, which translates into a sign of greater maturity in maintenance, crew scheduling and ground services. The limit appears when you look beyond the daily operation. IBA Group pointed out in August 2025 that international certification continues to advance slowly and keeps the C919 largely focused on the Chinese market. The consulting firm recalled that the European Aviation Safety Agency had confirmed in April 2025 that the validation of the plane would require at least three to six years from the technical familiarization phase. This schedule does not prevent the program from gaining volume within China, but it does help to understand why its international leap is more complicated. LEAP -1C, the Western engine used by the Chinese Comac C919 The most delicate vulnerability is in the engine. The C919 that flies today uses the engine LEAP-1C of CFM International, a joint venture of GE Aerospace and Safran, and that dependence has already proven to be more than a technical issue. Last year, let us remember, the geopolitical and commercial tensions they altered the production of the program, with a temporary suspension of the supply of that engine. IBA Group also identifies the dependence on imported engines and avionics as a relevant limitation. China is trying to close that gap with political support, planned production and more control over critical parts. According to SCMPthe national plan for 2026-2030 places among its priorities the increase in production, the stability of the supply chain and the advancement of the CJ-1000A engine, called to reduce foreign dependence on the C919. IBA Group adds that even if that engine enters service later this decade, matching the performance and reliability of Western engines will be a multi-year process. That’s the real measure of the program: the plane is already flying more regularly, but its industrial maturity is still being built. Images | Comac In Xataka | The Comac C919 symbolizes China’s aerial dream: the trade war threatens to clip its wings in mid-takeoff

If the question is whether the rich are born or made, the answer is condensed in a graph that shows that Spain is different

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Globally, the distribution of wealth is not only measured by how much money the richest have, but also by the economic flow and what it is like. the architecture of success that each country has built. The balance between “own merit” and “cradle” defines the identity of an economy: while in some countries they function as innovation laboratories where fortunes emerge from nothing, in others they function as a kind of safe deposit box where heritage is transmitted from generation to generation like a modern noble title. This chart from the German economic data analysis platform DataPulse and is made from Forbes data for June 2025. At that time, the business magazine counted 2,838 billionaires around the world. Forbes ranks each using its own scoring system (Self-Made score), which ranges from 1 to 10 according to the weight of the inheritance versus one’s own merit. The overall result is clear: two out of every three millionaires are millionaires because they “made themselves.” But this statement hides abysmal differences that reflect how economic power works in each society. By the way, a global fact that the graph itself highlights: between 2024 and 2025 the total wealth of all the billionaires in the world grew by 13.4%. According to the UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report 2025that growth pushed aggregate wealth to an all-time high of $15.8 trillion. Wealth: Self-made vs. inheritances. Data Pulse with data from Forbes Where does the fortune of the world’s richest come from: inheritance or self-made? The upper area of ​​the graph is where those countries are located where it is easier to get rich on your own and is led by Russia and China: both appear with 97% of billionaires self-madethe highest percentage in the world. They may be entrepreneurial countries, but the true differential feature must be found in their history: their respective revolutions of the 20th century They destroyed any inheritable private capital (the Bolshevik in 1917 and the Maoist in 1949). So technically, their fortunes are first generation because they couldn’t be from any other. However, this small print also includes Forbes’ conception of Self-made: In the Russian case, the main oligarchs accumulated their wealth in the 90s by taking advantage of Yeltsin’s savage privatizations. He Harvard’s Wilson Center says it loud and clear: It was one of the largest transfers of public wealth into private hands in modern history. Calling it self-made is at least generous. Although the United States is the country with the most millionaires in number with almost 924 people and according to the UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report 2025 74% of them are self-made, not the one that appears higher in the graph. The United Kingdom, Canada and Israel stand out there. What they all have in common are economies with developed capital markets, active venture capital ecosystems and legal frameworks that facilitate the creation and scaling of companies. In Germany, France or Spain inheritance rules. The Western European bloc is the area where inherited wealth weighs the most, with Germany as an extreme case: only 25% of its rich people are so because they built their own fortune. Family Capital explains it quite well: the ten largest German assets are all linked to family businesses. There are no great new generation technological fortunes. What there are are “old-fashioned” names, such as the Quandts at BMW, the Albrechts behind Aldi or the Würths: post-war industrial dynasties that have passed down their empires from generation to generation. Spain and France embrace a similar logic: they have legal frameworks that strongly protect intergenerational wealth transmission, scarcity and/or weakness of a technological ecosystem comparable to that which exists in the Anglo-Saxon or Asian ecosystem, and a business culture where family control of capital is considered a value in itself. Just above Germany is Spain, which has second place in the world in percentage of inherited wealth, with 74% of its billionaires in that category and only 26% self-made. Although there is the occasional green shoot of a modernized economy, it is residual: Spanish wealth is historically concentrated in a very small number of families with dominant positions in sectors with little competition. In short, generally In Spain wealth comes from dad. As in Germany, the names in the Spanish state are great classics: the Ortega family with Inditex, the Del Pino with Ferrovial, the March, the Entrecanales or the Lara. They are fortunes built for the most part during the Franco regime or the transition, in a context of little competition, privileged access to credit and close relations with political power. The result is what the graph shows: a country where becoming a billionaire from scratch is statistically almost an anomaly. In Xataka | We thought that millionaires had their fortune rain down from the sky without the slightest effort: Spain is different In Xataka | The “Great Transfer of Wealth” is not only a thing for the rich: demographic change will concentrate wealth among the youngest Cover | DataPulse

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