solution

Many people believe that politics “doesn’t work.” For some the solution is to elect public officials by lottery

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Beyond the fact that it can solve your life with a few million euros, the lottery – in lower case, as a general concept – offers some interesting characteristics. One of them, and not the least, is that, in its own way, it is incorruptible. If applied well, there is no human way to circumvent it. Chance plays its role and smiles at some or others in a totally random way, regardless of whether they have spent a fortune on your organization. Another is that, precisely for that reason, it is totally democratic. In the bass drum there is no ball with a greater chance of coming out than another. With such a cover letter, the question we could ask ourselves is: Would a democracy work based on draws, on randomness? Would it work a “lotocracy”? Neither the question nor the term are new. Not at all. What’s more, the Athenians – pioneers par excellence in democratic governments – considered something similar a couple of centuries before our era, when they used lots to elect some public positions. The same mechanism continued to work in certain cases and with conditions throughout history. A formula with history… and supporters We find it in cities of what is now Italy during the Middle Ages and also in the Renaissance; but it declined in the 17th century, with the representative systems. From a formula similar to the one we continue to use today to choose the presidents of the neighborhood communities, we moved to another that, at least on paper, aspires to choose the best for public positions. In a 21st century with the system riddled by corruption and clientelist networks, there are, however, those who advocate recovering the philosophy of “lotocracy.” In the academic sphere we find respected voices, such as that of the philosopher Alex Guerrero, the political scientist Helene Landemore or the historian David Van Reybrouck that invite, at least, to dwell on its virtues. Beyond the tribunes and atriums of the universities there are also movements, such as Sortition Foundationwho advocate a formula that wants to place the citizen in the center of political decision making. “By selecting representative groups of ordinary people by lottery and bringing them together in citizens’ assemblies we can break the stranglehold of career politicians on decisions and circumvent powerful vested interests,” Sortition advocatewith headquarters in the United Kingdom, Austria and the United States, before putting the finger on one of the great problems of modern democracies: the “disillusionment” and “distrust” that the political class arouses. You don’t have to go to the English-speaking world to find it. In Spain, the CIS places corruption, fraud and the behavior of public officials among the main concerns of citizens, even ahead of education or housing. 19th-century painting by Philipp Foltz depicting the Athenian politician Pericles before the Assembly. According to the Sortition registry, there are a good handful of initiatives verified by the OECD throughout the world that, in the style of open assembliesshare or have shared their philosophy of empowering neighbors. In Spain, several are identified, such as the participatory platform Madrid decideswhich was created with the aim of presenting proposals, achieving participatory accounts and voting in citizen consultations; G1000also located in the capital; either Besaya Citizen Jurywhich proposes ways to use European funds in the Besaya basin. Beyond the isolated initiatives that seek to reinforce the political weight of citizens, can a system recover, the lotocracythat –as collected by Leandro Omar El Eter— was conceived as “a form of government that promotes access to public office through lottery”? Pablo Simonpolitical scientist and editor of Politikonremembers that the formula of democracy by lottery has little new, but points out the advantages that could be brought by “exploring” a hybrid model, which combines its strengths with those of the current system, as in the irish constitutional conventionformed in 2012 to discuss proposals for amendments to the nation’s charter and which included, among other members, randomly selected people. There, in Ireland, the citizens’ assembly served, for example, to address complex problems, such as the legalization of abortion. The United Kingdom also verified its usefulness, with a forum of 108 people which, after weeks of debate, prepared a report with a battery of proposals to fight climate change. “I find it interesting to explore this system in combination. For example, the experience of the irish constitutional convention. In those cases the draw was hybridized with the representatives. If we created more forums or spaces with citizen raffles and they were allowed a part of the management, it wouldn’t seem bad to me. Just as we have participatory budgets or the ILPsthat a part of the budget could be managed by a committee chosen by citizens at random, but with technical support. I think we should explore these types of things because it would help people feel more connected to the institutions,” reflects Simón. The key, there is plenty, would be to find “a good design”: “Knowing how it would be done, with whom and what powers or powers would be given to that body chosen by lot. Always looking for combinations that allow correction, returning to a model in which this mechanism of direct citizen participation has a greater perception of accountability, of closeness.” Weaknesses and strengths The system in its purest form, of course, has its strengths and weaknesses. Among the first, the political scientist insists on its fully democratic character. “There is no electoral rule more radically democratic than the lottery and this is because basically it is assuming that everyone is competent to perform the functions of government,” he explains. What does it mean for that to be so? From the outset, it greatly complicates one of the great evils of the current system: clientelism, the networks of supporters that end up forming around those who hold political power. How to do it when someone who holds a position does so by chance and without guarantees that they will retain it? “It is a … Read more

Unclogging Madrid is not an easy task, but the residents of Colmenar Viejo and Tres Cantos believe they have the solution: close the M-50

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Unclogging Madrid seems like an impossible taskand perhaps it is, since it is one of the densest European capitals in terms of kilometers of highways and motorways. However, that does not prevent its residents from asking for better connections and ways to avoid the gigantic traffic jams that occur every day in the capital. One of the problems has to do with the M-50, and is that the residents of Colmenar Viejo and Tres Cantos have returned to demand the closure of this highway as an urgent measure to end the traffic jams that clog the main access roads to the north of Madrid every day. What happens with the M-50. The neighborhood platforms of both municipalities insist that “closing the M-50 is a definitive solution,” according to has collected Telemadrid. The situation is especially critical, since in some sections of the M-607, especially on the Colmenar highway, traffic density skyrockets every day, causing significant delays both at the entrances and exits to the capital. Neighbors claim that closing this road would relieve pressure on the A-1 and other vital axes in the northern part. What exactly do they propose? What is requested is not to physically close the highway, but to apply a model similar to that of the M-30 or M-40: restrict access to the most polluting vehicles to significantly reduce the volume of cars that circulate daily. This formula, they argue from Tres Cantos and Colmenar Viejo, would decongest the roads and provide a respite for thousands of drivers who use their vehicle as the only way to get to their jobs. Why the measure is rejected. The administrations have been rejecting the proposal for years for one main reason: if the M-50 is closed or restricted, it would further complicate mobility in Madrid. Many drivers currently use this route precisely to avoid the Low Emission Zones of the M-30 or the M-40. Hence there is fear of diverting traffic to other routes and that the alternatives end up becoming saturated. Other important implications are environmental in nature. And this closure would directly affect the Regional Park of the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares and Monte de El Pardo, key protected spaces in the Natura 2000 Network. The main impact would not be to “destroy” the park in its entirety, but rather high-value ecosystems would be fragmented, interrupting ecological corridors, affecting the habitats of protected species and altering natural processes such as aquifer recharge and the dynamics of the Manzanares River. Even the alternatives with tunnels carry significant risks (very invasive works, ventilation, impact on the subsoil and hydrology). Added to this is the indirect effect of adding more traffic and urbanization on an already sensitive stretch. What is being done in the meantime. To try to alleviate the problem, they are already underway the works of a third lane on the M-607specifically in the section between Tres Cantos and Colmenar Viejo. This measure seeks to reduce congestion in one of the busiest accesses, although residents maintain that it is a partial solution that does not address the underlying problem. Who should decide. According to neighborhood organizations, the competition to execute the closure corresponds to the central government. From the ‘Platform for the Completion of the M-50’ they denounce that the project has been delayed legislature after legislature due to lack of budget and political will, while their requests remain unaddressed. Cover image | Wikipedia (Zarateman) In Xataka | Extremadura is experiencing the same situation that it already experienced in the Roman Empire: an unfinished highway that isolates half the region

A global trucker crisis is on the horizon. China’s solution: autonomous truck caravans

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The global freight transport market is facing a labor crisis. This is what the data says, pointing to a shortage of goods in Europe, North America and China. But also in Australia or Argentina. In search of solutions, Chinese companies are already proposing a way out: autonomous truck caravans. Shortage. 75% of the goods They are transported by road. 85% of the transport of perishable products opt for the same type of route. Although the transport of goods by train increases, the truck continues to be the alternative that best combines flexibility with contained costs and high efficiency for most companies. But these contained costs aim to disappear. According to the International Road Transport Organization (IRU) there is a global shortage of 3.6 million truck drivers. It is more or less 7% of the total places that are active right now. And the prospects are even worse. Road to retirement. The sector has a problem: retirement. A significant number of truck drivers are very close to slamming the door on their cabins. In Europe alone it is estimated that, in this year 2026, there will be a gap between supply and demand of one million truck drivers. And the problem is that the increase in online commerce will only aggravate this situation. By 2030, they believe that there will be a lack of 11% of the places necessary to cover the volume of work that would be necessary to effectively transport all the goods that will be put on the road. This situation is, according to IRUespecially serious in China where they estimate that before the end of the decade 19% of the truck drivers who are currently working will have retired. Let them go alone. With these perspectives on the table, Pony AIa company specialized in artificial intelligence that has your own autonomous car service in China and that has reached a agreement with Stellantis to advance joint developments for Europe, has announced that it has an autonomous truck solution to advance in a caravan. The idea is that the trucks in advance in a 1+4 convoy. Thus, the first of the vehicles is driven by a human and the four remaining autonomous trucks travel completely autonomously, guided by the first but applying level 4 autonomy. That is, trucks can circulate without anyone at the wheel. 2026. The project has a date: this year. Pony AI announced a few weeks ago a collaboration agreement with Sany, a vehicle production company for industrial work or the transportation of goods that will provide the hardware. The digital brain is provided by Pony AI. Together they believe they can have these self-driving truck caravans ready this year. If they are mass produced, they would be the first in the world to manufacture 5G, completely autonomous and electric trucks, They boast from Sany. According to their accounts, it is a business that will reduce the cost per kilometer by 29% and that can boost the operating margin of companies by 195%. First tests. In BBC They report that China was already experimenting with autonomous trucks last year. “Of course, I was a little scared the first time I drove an autonomous truck. But, after spending a lot of time observing and testing these vehicles, I think they are actually quite good and safe,” said one of the truck drivers who have gotten behind the wheel in these tests to take control if necessary. In the video You can see how the trucks circulated alone between Beijing and Tianjin, a route of more than 100 kilometers. It explains that the driver takes control in the first stages of the journey and must be seated to take the wheel at specific times. However, most of the trip is made without making any decisions and with four trucks behind him. Experience. Sany is not inexperienced in this sector either. The company, in addition to electric trucks for Pony AI, has also worked with industrial use vehicles such as trucks to transport minerals. In this videoFor example, a mine is shown in which an operator controls an excavator remotely. With it, it fills trucks with the extracted materials and these, once full, move completely autonomously to transport these minerals and make room for a new vehicle that has already made the same journey previously. A way of working that is also being studied Huawei. Photo | Pony AI In Xataka | Spain and Europe have a problem: they move 85% of their products in trucks and they are missing 3 million truck drivers

In this city in Ukraine, going outside is not an option because of the drones. So they have found a solution: live underground

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For decades war was thought of as a recognizable front line, with more or less secure soldiers, trenches and rearguards. The massive emergence of drones has dynamited that scheme: the sky has become a permanent hunting ground, the distinction between combatant and civilian has been blurred and entire cities now live under the constant threat of cheap and lethal machines that can attack at any moment. In Ukraine they have forced everyday life to hide underground to continue existing. Kherson and the threat behind the windows. The key Ukrainian city has become the most extreme example of how drones have transformed war and civil lifeto the point that going outside has become the closest thing to a “death sport”, with Russian quadcopters operating from the other bank of the Dnieper that they hunt random people in what the Ukrainians themselves describe as a “human safari.” In a city of wide avenues and tsarist architecture, today the sky is the true enemy, responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries in a single year, in what the United Nations and human rights organizations describe as war crimes and the world’s most intensive use of drones against a civilian population. Live underground. Faced with the impossibility of completely protecting the surface, life in Kherson has declined literally underground. There is no rhetoric, since they literally live underground with hospitals, maternity wards, public offices, theaters and cultural spaces moved to basements and former Soviet shelters, while playgrounds have been replaced. through underground game rooms and all schools in the city operate only online. This forced displacement has created a strange and oppressive routine in which day-to-day life passes between corridors, bunkers and improvised roomsbecause any exposure to the open sky can end in seconds with a guided explosion from a remote camera. It is the real version of any scenario that science fiction cinema or literature ever staged. Improvised defenses. Faced with this omnipresent threat, the authorities have deployed a combination of solutions that illustrate the extent to which the city lives in an almost post-apocalyptic future, with kilometers of anti-drone networks covering entire streets, mesh tunnels over the main access roads, electronic interference walls next to the river and hundreds of concrete capsules spread along the sidewalks to offer immediate shelter. Even so, those responsible themselves admit that nothing is completely effectivebecause drones evolve, dodge defenses, throw grenades or mines and turn any daily journey into a desperate race in which you cannot run faster than the machine you are chasing from the air. Live, not just survive. In this extreme context, the effort is not limited to keeping the population alive, but rather to preserving a minimum feeling of normalityespecially for the little ones, children, who grow up under constant stress and fear of going outside. In fact, there is a whole network of psychologists, educators and volunteers who organize dance, art or biology classes in basements, install sandboxes so that the little ones can touch the ground and even create spaces where choosing, playing and learning is a form of emotional resistance in the face of a war that invades everything. The idea is clear in Kherson: it is not enough to hide, you have to keep livingeven under layers of cement. The laboratory of a disturbing future. If you like, Kherson is not just a devastated city, but an advance which many fear will become the norm in many other conflicts of the future, one where cheap and precise drones democratize the ability to attack civilians with an ease that was unthinkable just a few years ago. Thus, after a Russian occupation, a liberation celebrated and an immediate return of horror from a distance, the city has been trapped a kilometer from the front, with a population reduced to a fraction of the original that, despite everything, refuses to leave. Underground, between networks, shelters and constant alarms, Kherson survives like a brutal warning of how the war of the future can empty the streets and push human life to simply hide to exist. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | A drone takes aim and blows up a Russian penguin in front. It is the result of an increasingly absurd war In Xataka | Three Russians surrender on camera: what was previously a “normal” scene in the war in Ukraine is science fiction

The perovskite had been failing inside for years. The solution was in the octopuses

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For more than a decade, perovskite cells have been the great promise—and great frustration—of clean energy. In the laboratory they already compete with silicon, but they always failed in the same way: they degraded too quickly. Now, a discovery breaks with what is established. The solution has not come from a complex industrial machine, but from a molecule that octopuses and squid have been using for millions of years to protect themselves from chemical damage. The sabotage that comes from within. According to the study published in Advanced Energy Materialsthe problem is not just air or humidity, but a chemical reaction that is activated within the device itself. When sunlight hits the perovskite, highly energetic electrons are generated. These electrons can react with residual oxygen trapped during manufacturing—a process typically performed in air—to form superoxide radicals (O₂·⁻), extremely reactive chemical species. These radicals attack the organic cations that keep the perovskite crystalline structure stable, initiating its decomposition. The entry point. The damage does not begin on the visible surface of the panel, but in a key region known as the buried interface, the point of contact between the perovskite and the tin dioxide (SnO₂) layer, responsible for extracting the electrons generated by light. As emphasized Nanowerknot even the best external encapsulation can stop this process: oxygen is already present inside the device from the first moment. To further complicate the problem, tin dioxide itself contains oxygen-rich defects that, under illumination and heat, migrate into the perovskite and accelerate its degradation from within. Taurine to the rescue. Faced with this scenario, the team of researchers from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology opted for an unusual route in photovoltaic development: seeking inspiration in biology. The answer came in the form of an ultrathin layer of taurine, a sulfur amino acid present in octopuses, squid and other marine organisms. According to Interesting Engineeringin nature taurine protects cells from oxidative damage, just the same type of threat that was degrading perovskites. Located at the interface between tin dioxide and perovskite, the molecule functions as a smart chemical shield. A defense cycle that does not end. The study details, based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations and laboratory experiments, a two-step protection mechanism that is especially relevant. First, taurine intercepts superoxide radicals as they form. Its chemical structure, called zwitterionic—with positive and negative charges in different parts of the molecule—allows it to electrostatically attract these radicals and convert them into hydrogen peroxide, a much less aggressive species for perovskite. Secondly, the process addresses an additional problem: the molecular iodine generated during the degradation of the material. This iodine tends to form compounds that further accelerate the collapse of the structure. Taurine reduces that iodine back to iodide ions, chemically stable and much less harmful. Most notable, as Nanowerk points outis that after completing these reactions, taurine is regenerated. It is not consumed or degraded in the process, but rather returns to its original state, creating a closed radical neutralization cycle that can be repeated throughout the operational life of the device. From theory to real power. The benefits are not limited to durability. The presence of taurine also improves the electrical functioning of the cell. By chemically binding to both tin dioxide and perovskite, it acts as a molecular bridge that reduces defects at the interface, those small sinks where electrons are lost as heat. In practice, this translates into fewer electronic defects, nearly doubled electron mobility in the tin dioxide layer, and charges that survive longer. The best device achieved efficiency 24.8%, with 1.18 volts in open circuit and a high fill factor. Figures very close to current records, but with an important difference: it lasts much longer. In stability tests, taurine-treated cells retained 97% of their efficiency after 450 hours of continuous operation at 65°C. Under real ambient conditions, they maintained 80% of their performance for more than 130 hours, more than five times longer than conventional cells subjected to the same tests. The story has some scientific irony. While industry refined increasingly complex solutions, biology had already been solving the same problem for millions of years. If this strategy can be scaled and adapted to industrial manufacturing, the future of solar energy could depend as much on engineering as it does on biology. Sometimes, to move towards the Sun, it is enough to look at the bottom of the sea. Image | Unsplash and freepik Xataka | The dark side of solar energy: we are creating a 250 million ton mountain of garbage

Your solution is Maia 200

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Microsoft has presented the Maia 200, its second self-designed AI accelerator aimed at model inference, that is, executing them once trained. The chip, manufactured in TSMC’s 3 nanometer process, seeks to improve efficiency and reduce data center operating costs and the rest of the company’s AI-dependent services. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What makes this chip special. According to the company, the Maia 200 integrates more than 140,000 million transistors and is optimized to work with large language models. Microsoft promises 30% more performance per dollar than the previous generation, the Maia 100. The company also claims that it outperforms FP4 Trainium3 from Amazon and TPU Google’s seventh generation in FP8 precision. Image: Microsoft Why inference matters. Inference is the process of running an already trained model to generate answers, and it is becoming an increasingly important expense for AI companies. Unlike model training, which requires raw computing power over concentrated periods, inference is a process that must operate continuously and efficiently so as not to compromise the experience of millions of users. Highlighted technical features. The chip incorporates 216 GB of HBM3e memory with a bandwidth of 7 TB/s and 272 MB of integrated SRAM. According to the company, the chip can achieve more than 10 petaflops in 4-bit precision (FP4) and approximately 5 petaflops in 8-bit precision (FP8), all with a consumption of 750W. Just like has shared Microsoft has also designed a hierarchical memory system that promises to distribute workloads more intelligently between SRAM and HBM to keep models fed with data at all times. Where and what it will be used for. Microsoft has already begun deploying the Maia 200 in its Azure US Central data center near Des Moines, Iowa, with the US West 3 region in Phoenix as the next destination. The chip will be used to run models like GPT-5.2 of OpenAI in services such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Foundry. Microsoft’s Superintelligence team will also use it to generate synthetic data and reinforcement learning tasks. Less dependency. With the Maia 200, Microsoft joins a growing trend among large technology companies: designing its own accelerators to reduce dependence on NVIDIAwhose chips dominate the market and have a high cost. Google has its TPUs, Amazon has Trainium, and now Microsoft reinforces its hardware with this second chip after the Maia 100 launched in 2023. According to the specifications, the Maia 200 works at almost half the energy consumption of the NVIDIA Blackwell B300 Ultra (750W vs. 1400W), although the two chips are designed for different use cases (inference vs. training + inference). Between the lines. The launch of the Maia 200 is really late. According to they point from Tom’s Hardware, the chip known internally as Braga, was scheduled for 2025 and could have come out before NVIDIA’s B300. Microsoft’s messaging repeatedly emphasizes efficiency and performance per dollar, so it aligns with the company’s strategy to keep AI operating costs in check as much as possible. It also coincides with Satya Nadella’s recent statementsCEO of Microsoft, on the need for the industry to maintain “social permission” to continue expanding its data centers. And now what. Microsoft is already working on future generations of the Maia and, according to share According to Tom’s Hardware, the next chip could be manufactured with Intel Foundry’s 18A process. Meanwhile, the deployment of the Maia 200 will allow the company to test its ability to compete with Amazon and Google on its own infrastructure, while containing the operational costs of running its AI services at scale. Cover image | Microsoft In Xataka | The number of new apps coming to the App Store has skyrocketed. We have a culprit: “vibe coding”

China has a solution that only takes 0.1 seconds

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In the age of electricity, time is no longer measured in minutes, but in milliseconds. As Fatih Birol explainsexecutive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world has fully entered a new era where electricity consumption grows twice as fast as general energy demand. However, this advance has an “Achilles heel”: network stability. Renewable energy, although necessary, is inherently unstable. The great fear of operators is that a small failure in a network saturated with solar and wind energy will cause a domino effect that ends in a total collapse. Faced with this scenario, China has deployed technology capable of detecting, isolating and recovering the network from a failure in just 0.1 seconds. From hours of darkness to the blink of an eye. Historically, managing power grid failures was a slow and manual process. As a South China Morning Post report recallsrestoring power after a community blackout typically required between 6 and 10 hours of work. That year, China already marked a milestone by testing an artificial intelligence system that reduced that time to 3 seconds. However, that is no longer enough. The recent achievement of 100 milliseconds (0.1 seconds) It is the result of a collaboration of more than a decade between elite universities (Tianjin and Shandong), the state corporation State Grid and automation specialists such as Beijing Sifang Automation. This technology is not only faster, but is capable of identifying “micro-currents” of just 100 milliamps, almost invisible faults that previously went unnoticed until it was too late. “Self-healing” versus intermittency. The fundamental problem, detailed in the study published in Energy Informaticsis that modern networks are much more complex. The massive incorporation of renewables and extreme weather conditions make traditional diagnostic methods based on static rules fail due to lack of precision and adaptability. This advancement means that the Chinese power grid —the largest in the worldwith projected consumption in 2025 of more than 10 billion kWh—is moving from a reactive system to a “self-healing” one (self-healing). This capability is so strategic that China already has exported the technology to 12 nationsconsolidating its influence not only as a panel manufacturer, but as the architect of global electrical safety. The algorithms behind the miracle. To understand how this speed is achieved, we must look at academic study by Qi Guo and his team. The system is supported by a dual structure of intelligent algorithms: Fault Location Algorithm (FLA): Uses a fault classifier Support Vector Machine (SVM) with a radial basis function (RBF) kernel. This “brain” analyzes variables such as voltage, line impedance and weather conditions to predict with 92% accuracy where exactly the problem has occurred. Fault Isolation Algorithm (FIA): Once the critical point is located, a decision tree logic comes into play that evaluates the severity. According to the research, if the fault is critical (such as a short circuit near a substation), the system orders the immediate isolation of that section and redirects the energy along alternative routes almost instantly. This hybrid approach allows the system to learn from historical data and adapt to dynamic conditions, something that conventional distance protection systems simply cannot do as effectively. The new geopolitical battlefield. The energy transition not only redefines how energy is produced, but also who controls the rules of the new industrial system. While the West focuses its response on ensuring the supply of critical minerals through initiatives such as ReSourceEU, China advances in less visible terrain but more decisive: the standardization, digitalization and integration of the infrastructures that will sustain the low-carbon economy. Rather than competing for resources, the dispute revolves around who designs the technological architecture on which global growth will function. The ability to recover a network in 0.1 seconds is not just a technical record; It is the life insurance of a highly electrified economy. The greatest current risk is that this clash of strategies between powers ends slowing decarbonization. However, in the race for stability, China has shown that while the rest of the world continues to search for the switch in the dark, they have already designed a system that never lets the light go out. Image | Unsplash Xataka | China dominates the world of renewable energy, but it has an Achilles heel: it depends on the West more than it admits

The most famous bridge in the US recorded more than 2,000 suicides. Until in 2024 they found an “invisible” solution

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When the golden gate Opened almost a century ago, it was celebrated as an architectural triumph of engineering and modernity. It happens that the history of many of the great works has had a second reading. Sometimes they have failed due to technical problemsand others have ended up marked by uses that no one foresaw. Over time, a bridge can become something very different from what its plans imagined. The bridge and its dark history. The Golden Gate Bridge, inaugurated in 1937 between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific, has been for decades one of the places most associated to suicide in the United Stateswith a rate of more than 2,000 jumps confirmed and a real figure surely higher because not all cases are seen nor all bodies are recovered. In 2006 there was one of the worst years, with at least 34 deathsand that was also the turning point in which relatives of victims, as Paul Mullerdecided that it was unacceptable to continue living with that routine of tragedies without a physical and effective response on the bridge itself. The barrier that changed destiny. The solution ended up being a deterrent system “invisible” installed along both sides of the bridge, one based on stainless steel cables of marine grade placed about six meters below the pedestrian walkways. It is not something that can be seen from afar or from normal traffic, but it is evident to those who look over the edge. The idea is simple and tremendous at the same time: if someone tries to jump, they fall on that structure, are injured or shocked, and the possibility of completing the fatal fall into the water is cut off. The barrier created to prevent suicides The effectiveness of the new impact. For many years the Golden Gate recorded an average of about 30 deaths annuallya figure that seemed entrenched and almost impossible to break. However, in 2024, with the facility entering its final phase and with adjustments still underway, the deaths they went down to eight. Last year, in 2025 and with the system already operating for twelve months, there were only four and there were no falls between June and December, a stretch that could be one of the longest without suicides on the bridge, although old records are not always complete. By the way, from the beginning of 2026 there is already a casewhich reminds us that there is no such thing as zero risk. That said, the general decline is so evident that even its promoters see it as clear proof of effectiveness and a mirror for the rest of the hanging architectures. Surveillance and intervention. The barrier does not act alone, because the bridge maintains an electronic surveillance system and a team of agents whose task is to detect and stop attempts before they occur. In the last year, 94 successful interventions were achieved, about half of what was normal before full installation, suggesting that the problem does not disappear suddenly. In fact, there are still people who come with the idea of ​​jumping, but now the margin of action is greater and death is no longer as immediate or as certain as it was for decades. Installation of anti-suicide barriers, February 2020 Against inertia and cost. The truth is that the installation of the barrier came after a very long road full of political blocks, doubts about aesthetics, discussions about price and debates about if it would really work. Already in 1939 it was recommended to raise the railings, but for decades measures were avoided while the death count rose from 500 to 1,000 and it continued to grow with chilling regularity. The organized pressure from family and professionals ended up crystallizing at the Bridge Rail Foundationand after years of paperwork the work started in 2018. The project also became very expensive, going from an estimate of 76 million dollars to a final cost of 224 million dollarsand even took longer to install than the bridge itself to build. The “invisible” barrier Why it saves lives. One of the central ideas is that reducing easy access to a lethal method works, even if it sounds too simple. A 1978 study by Richard Seiden, at the University of California at Berkeley, followed 515 people who had gone to the Golden Gate with the intention of jumping and were deterred, and concluded that 94% were still alive or had died of natural causes. This reinforces the idea that many suicidal crises are acute and not permanent, and that placing a specific obstacle at the exact moment can make the difference between dying and surviving. Bridges and the same problem. There is no doubt, the Golden Gate incident was not an isolated case, and there are other iconic bridges that have ended up with a similar reputation by becoming recurring scenes of suicides. In the United States, the royal gorge bridge next to Hoover Dam, or the Chesapeake Bay Bridgethey have had known histories and episodes that have fueled debates about surveillance and barriers. In Canada, the Bloor Viaduct in Toronto was for years one of the most problematic points until it was installed a great prevention structureand something similar happened in the United Kingdom with the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, where the combination of height, accessibility and symbolism forced action and reinforce early intervention. Also in Australia, the Sydney Harbor Bridge has been targeted of concern and initiatives preventive, and in Europe there are numerous cases on urban bridges and high-rise viaducts that share the same pattern: very busy and at the same time very exposed. The same idea is repeated in all of them, when a bridge becomes a known point, it is not just a problem of physical security, it is a social phenomenon that feeds on itself, and the more famous it is, the more important it becomes to cut that inertia before it becomes part of your identity. The legacy. The Golden Gate had been in operation for decades … Read more

ChatGPT urgently needs its users to start paying money. Solution: put ads on them

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It was inevitable. OpenAI has confirmed that is going to start testing ads on ChatGPT. The test will begin in the United States with users of free plans, those who have ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Enterprise are exempt for the moment. It is a movement that marks the beginning of a reality that was seen coming: The user experience of free AIs is about to get worse. All for the AGI. Through your X profileOpenAI has shared what those ads will look like and is striking in the heading of its “advertising principles.” Here they say their mission is “to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of publicity always supports that mission and makes AI more accessible.” how he jokes Pedro Domingos in Xit seems that the AGI was actually “Ad-Generated Income”, that is, “Income generated by advertising.” Where I said I say…. The AGI is becoming the excuse for everything. To find the true reasons behind this decision, it is enough to look at OpenAI numbers. Or also we can go back to 2024when Sam Altman said that ads on ChatGPT are “the last resort for our business model.” Saying that everything is part of a plan for the benefit of humanity is better than admitting that the AI ​​race is very expensive and OpenAI desperately needs to monetize its AI. This sounds familiar to us. The situation is quite reminiscent of the case of Netflix, which In 2020 he flatly refused to advertising, stating that it was a way to “exploit users” to two years later launch your plan with ads. Since then the streaming experience began to deteriorate and everything indicates that we are at the beginning of exactly the same thing happening with AI. Advertising as punishment. Before, ads were a way to generate income. Today they also function as a pressure tool to push users to pay a subscription. This is what we find on YouTube or Spotify, where the bombardment of ads is constant, repetitive and very intrusive. We pay to end the torture. Objective: subscriptions. ChatGPT has 1.8 billion users, but the reality is that only 5% are subscribed to one of their payment plans. How to increase this figure? If we don’t subscribe ourselves, maybe a few ads will convince us. OpenAI has been the first, but there are also rumors that Google will integrate ads into Gemini. The AI ​​party does not pay for itself, it is a matter of time. There is a loophole. If the big chatbots turn their free versions into a minefield of ads, we will always have the option of use local models such as DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama or ChatGPT itself. Here we get rid of token limits, queues and also ads. The bad part is that the performance is usually lower than the cloud and it also has fewer integrations. Time will tell if they end up being a better alternative. Image | OpenAI In Xataka | Generative AI opens its gap between those who focus on it locally and those who focus on the cloud. There is room for both

In 1925, procrastination was already a problem and someone found the definitive solution: the isolation helmet.

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Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution They have turned modern humans into perfect machines in one thing: distracting us. No matter where, when or how you are, if you are accompanied or alone, if you are waiting in line at the butcher shop or have a book in front of you, chances are that your attention ends up dispersing for any nonsense. Maybe the flight of a fly. Maybe that sound you just heard in the next room or a stain on the wall. It happens today and it happened a century ago, when a science fiction-loving inventor designed the ultimate machine to end distractions. His patent dates back to 1925, but it addresses a hot topic: procrastination. The war of wars. Since man has been a man, he has done two things, both wonderfully: he is distracted and he procrastinates. Almost 2,000 years ago Seneca warned us about the risks of wasting our time and we know, for example, that distractions were one of the big concerns of the monks of the Middle Ages. Some even thought that if our minds disperse it is due to the influence of devils. In 2026 things are not very different. A quick Google search comes up to find a wide (very wide) list of guides and videos with tips on how to focus and stop putting off tasks. And it is understandable. After all, cell phones, social networks and other inventions of modern technology make our lives easier, but they have been filing our ability to focus. Even science has confirmed that we are losing the ability to focus among so many stimuli. And how do we solve it? We humans have not only been distracted for centuries and centuries. We have also spent some time looking for ways to avoid that annoying wandering of thoughts. Of all the solutions that have been given to the problem, perhaps the most astonishing (and bizarre) is the one proposed just a century ago by Hugo Gernsbachan imaginative Luxembourgish-American inventor. His name may sound familiar to you because, in addition to register patents of inventions and working in the electronics industry, Gernsback excelled in another field: publishing. Throughout his life he promoted several magazines focused on technology (RadioNews), but he also shone in science fiction. We owe him Amazon Storiesa milestone of the genre. His contribution in the field was so important that he is considered one of the parents of science fiction (with permission from Verne and HG Wells) and every year he is honored through the Hugo Awards. Adding facets. A century ago Gernsback combined this double facet, his technical ingenuity and overflowing imagination, to launch a proposal through the pages of Science and Inventiona magazine specialized in technology. In its July 1925 issue, the inventor, editor and novelist presented a creation which he named ‘The Isolator’. The name is striking in itself, but it pales in comparison to the photographs that illustrate the report. They show Gernsback working in his office with his head in a gigantic diving suit, an elongated helmet with two small openings for the eyes and a tube that connects it to an oxygen cylinder. Its purpose: to immerse the wearer in absolute isolation, an ideal state for centering. When silence does not come. Gernsback came to a conclusion very simple: sometimes it is not enough to lock yourself in a room without noise to concentrate. Even so, we risk our mind getting carried away by the flight of a fly or starting to wander after seeing a stain on the table. The way to avoid it, he concluded, was to eliminate all those influences “in one fell swoop.” As? With a helmet prepared to suppress unnecessary noises and visual stimuli. For the first thing, the noises, Gernsback decided to go for a robust multi-layer helmet. Its first prototype was made of solid wood with an internal and external layer of cork and a felt trim. For the second (view) he added three small pieces of glass. The design was completed with a device at mouth height that allowed the user to breathe without noise creeping in. The result, says the inventorit was a helm with an efficiency of “about 75%”. It isolated from external noises, but not completely. There was room for improvement. And how did you improve it? Perfecting the design. Gernsback rethought the material and added an air chamber so that the efficiency of ‘The Isolator’ rose to 90 or 95%, “eliminating practically all noise.” So that vision was not a problem either, the helmet’s glass peepholes located in front of the eyes were painted black, leaving only a narrow transparent strip. “When the two white lines on the glass open, the field through which the view can move is relatively small,” points out the inventor. “It is almost impossible to see anything but a sheet of paper in front of the user. There is no distraction.” Concentrating… and breathing. It is one thing that ‘Isolator’ lived up to its name by isolating the user in a bubble of responsible concentration and another, very different, that it was comfortable or even bearable. The author explains that after 15 minutes with it on the user “experienced some drowsiness”, so he decided to improve the breathing system, connecting it to a small oxygen tank. This improved breathing and “revitalized the subject.” In his article Gernsback added detailed plans of ‘The Isolator’ and even a sketch of an office with a complete distraction-proof installation, which included a ‘noise-proof’ door and an adequate ventilation system. “With this provision you can contemplate an important task in a short time,” boasted. “Building ‘The Isolator’ will be a huge investment.” The power of paper. If humanity has also learned something (including Gernsback) it is that paper supports ideas that are not supported in reality. His helmet may have been eye-catching, it may have even worked, but it didn’t work. We don’t know to what extent its inventor really expected it … Read more

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