solved

There are those who think that the housing crisis can be solved by building. At the Polytechnic University of Catalonia they believe they are wrong

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Spain has a problem with housing. That is an (almost) objective fact. The CIS says so, which places it as the great concern of the Spanish, but a quick review of the newspaper archive arrives to confirm it. During the last months few topics have generated more political debate or have taken out so many people on the street such as difficulties in accessing a home. What is no longer so clear is how to solve this “crisis” residential area recognized by the Government itself. Should we build more houses? Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? Do we need more land to build? Usually the answer to those three questions is a strong ‘yes’. Now a new study signed by two professors of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and published in a magazine linked to the Ministry of Housing points out that perhaps we were wrong. What has happened? That two professors from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), Blanca Arellano-Ramos and Josep Roca-Cladera, have published a study about the problems that Spain is facing in terms of housing. The report in question is titled ‘Five theses about housing policy in Spain’ and is included in a monograph of CyTETa magazine published by the Ministry of Housing. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that the text questions many of the ideas rooted in the real estate sector, such as that our country suffers from a housing deficit or needs more land to build. While the Bank of Spain (BE) estimates 700,000 homes the mismatch between supply and demand, the study questions whether there really is a ‘hole’ in the market or that prices will go down if we build more. Is there a housing deficit? As already indicated in its title, the article is structured around five theses. And the first addresses precisely that point: Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? The question is interesting because it is one of the most deeply rooted ideas in the sector. The Bank of Spain itself has calculated that it would be necessary 700,000 houses to meet residential demand. For Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera the reality is quite different. In his opinion, one cannot talk about a deficit without first taking into account the excess of housing accumulated between 2011 and 2021 and the stock of vacant properties. The researchers remember that between 2011 and 2021 the housing stock exceeded the growth in the number of homes by 959,554 units, generating a considerable pocket. In fact, they assure that in 2021 the “accumulated excess” was close to 8.1 million properties, a “‘cushion’ more than enough to absorb temporary housing deficits such as the one produced during the 2021-2024 period,” recalls the UPC in the statement in which he reports the study. What does that mean? That for researchers it is not so obvious that Spain suffers from a shortage of new housing. In their analysis they also remember that a good part of the excess of houses and apartments corresponds to second homes and empty homes. The INE itself estimates that at least in 2021 there were 3.84 million of uninhabited properties, 14.4% of the real estate stock. That percentage far exceeds what most experts consider “desirable” (5%), but at least in the statement The UPC does not address another fundamental aspect: the distribution of these wasted properties, if they are located in stressed markets, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga, or in centers where demand is minimal or even non-existent, in the case of emptied Spain. What if we build more? That is the second question the researchers address. What if we build more homes? Would prices be reduced? Their response is once again skeptical to say the least: increasing buildings will not lead to greater social equity nor will it serve to soften prices. “On the contrary”, slide the UPC note. “According to the authors of the study, the solution is not to build more new homes so that the laws of the market balance prices. In addition to having serious environmental effects, what favors is the real estate bubble like the one that occurred around 2000.” What happens in other neighboring countries? Among other arguments, Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera recall that the rise in prices is not a problem exclusive to the Spanish market, but rather something widespread on the continent. So the question is obvious: if the increase in prices is due to the imbalance between supply and demand, do the majority of EU countries share that same problem? “Is there simultaneously a restriction of supply in relation to demand occurring throughout Europe in relation to demand that explains the increase in residential prices? It does not seem that this is plausible. Therefore it is not reasonable, prima facieturn to the scarce construction of new housing as the main cause of the price of housing”, they reflect the authors before remembering that Spain has invested a higher percentage of GDP in construction than the European average. Do we need more land? The researchers also question whether in Spain the problem of lack of accessibility to housing can be explained by the scarcity of land. And to prove it, they go to the newspaper archive: between the late 90s and the early 2000s, buildable land was made available in the country, which allowed for “massive construction” of residential housing. This boom was not accompanied, however, by a reduction in the price of the square meter. Quite the opposite: residential prices increased, as in other parts of Europe. If Spain saw housing prices rise between 1996 and 2008, it was not because there was no land on which to build or build new homes. “Spain became more urbanized than ever and the result did not represent a reduction in prices, on the contrary,” underlines the UPC in your statementwhich recalls that between 2000 and 2012 Spain was the European country with the greatest “consumption” of land: more than 2,400 square kilometers (km2), almost as … Read more

Google has solved problems in two hours that would take three years on a supercomputer. It’s the quantum advantage we needed

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Google has taken a notable step into the field of quantum computing with a new algorithm called Quantom Echoes. This algorithm has been able to demonstrate for the first time a “practical and verifiable quantum advantage” that makes its quantum computer make fools of today’s large supercomputers. 13,000 times faster than a supercomputer. The new algorithm, called Quantum Echoes (“Quantum Echoes”), has made it possible to demonstrate that a quantum computer – based on Google’s Willow quantum chip— successfully executes a verifiable algorithm that exceeds the capacity of today’s large supercomputers. Thus, that computer managed to execute that algorithm 13,000 times faster than the best current classical supercomputer when executing similar code. “Quantum verifiability”. Google’s quantum supercomputer solved the problem in just over two hours, when in the second supercomputer most powerful in the world, Frontier, would have taken 3.2 years. But it also did it in a verifiable way: the result can be repeated in the quantum computer itself or in any other of similar caliber. Quantum echoes. The algorithm resembles an advanced echo: you send a signal to the quantum system, perturb a qubit, and then precisely reverse the evolution of the signal to “listen” to the resulting echo. This echo is special because it is amplified by constructive interference, a quantum phenomenon where waves add up to become stronger, which allows this effect to be precisely measured. The algorithm allows modeling the structure of systems in nature, from molecules to black holes. An achievement with a lot of Nobel Prize behind it. The milestone is based on decades of research in this area, including that carried out by the recent Nobel Prize winner, Michel H. Devoretwho is part of the Google team. Together with his colleagues John M. Martinis and John Clark he laid the foundations for this advance at the University of California at Berkeley in the mid-1980s. “Quantum verifiability”. Google’s quantum supercomputer solved the problem in just over two hours, when in the second supercomputer most powerful in the world, Frontier, would have taken 3.2 years. But it also did it in a verifiable way: the result can be repeated in the quantum computer itself or in any other of similar caliber. Quantum echoes. The algorithm resembles an advanced echo: you send a signal to the quantum system, perturb a qubit, and then precisely reverse the evolution of the signal to “listen” to the resulting echo. This echo is special because it is amplified by constructive interference, a quantum phenomenon where waves add up to become stronger, which allows this effect to be precisely measured. The algorithm allows modeling the structure of systems in nature, from molecules to black holes. An achievement with a lot of Nobel Prize behind it. The milestone is based on decades of research in this area, including that carried out by the recent Nobel Prize winner, Michel H. Devoretwho is part of the Google team. Together with his colleagues John M. Martinis and John Clark he laid the foundations for this advance at the University of California at Berkeley in the mid-1980s. Hello qubit. His discovery: the properties of quantum mechanics could also be observed in electrical circuits large enough to be seen with the naked eye. That gave rise to the creation of superconducting qubitswhich are the basic blocks with which Google has created (like other companies) its quantum computers. Devoret joined Google in 2023, thus strengthening the company’s trajectory in its search for the now famous “quantum supremacy”. Promising practical applications. The advance is directed directly to the solution of important problems in fields such as medicine or materials science. Quantum computing remains an experimental technology and faces a key challenge with error correction, but Quantum Echoes demonstrates that “quantum software” is advancing at a pace parallel to hardware. Google applied Quantum Echoes to a proof of concept experiment for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. This technique acts as a “molecular microscope”, a powerful tool that will help design drugs or, for example, establish the molecular structure of new polymers. a marathon. This new milestone demonstrates the progress that this technology has made in recent years, but Google is not alone here. Microsoft or IBM have also made notable advances in recent years, and of course there are numerous startups both in the US like in china who work in this area. In Xataka | Decoherence is the biggest problem with quantum computers. This superconductor wants to end it

science has solved the mystery of plasma rain

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Although it may seem incredible, it rains in the Sun. But it is not a rain of water like the one we know on Earth. It’s a rain of incandescent plasmaa phenomenon that for decades has baffled scientists by not understanding it. Now, a team from the University of Hawaii has solved the mysteryand the answer is completely changing our way of understanding the atmosphere of our ‘reference’ star. The discovery. Published in the prestigious magazine The Astrophysical Journal, not only explains why these spectacular plasma condensationsbut also gives us new tools to predict space weather that affects our technology here on Earth. The mystery. The “solar storm“, or more technically coronal rain, occurs in the corona, the outermost and hottest layer of the Sun. There, masses of denser and relatively “cold” plasma condense and fall back towards the solar surface, creating bright arcs and loops. And although we talk about ‘cold’, the reality is that we are talking about tens of thousands of degreescompared to the millions of degrees in the surrounding plasma. Although for us it would be something unthinkable. The big enigma was speed. Solar models predicted that this cooling and condensation process should take hours, or even days. However, observations showed that rain formed within minutes during solar flares. Something didn’t add up. Now the problem has been located in the models that were used. And they assumed that the chemical composition of the corona was static and uniform, a simplification that has undoubtedly resulted in us calculating the phenomena that occur in our star much worse. The key. The key breakthrough came when the researchers, led by graduate student Luke Fushimi Benavitz, decided to abandon that old assumption. They introduced into their simulations a factor that until now had been overlooked: the abundance of chemical elements varies in space and time without being static. And this is where physics gets very interesting. The mechanism. The first thing that happens in this case is a solar flare that heats the chromosphere (the layer below the corona). This impulsive heating causes a large amount of plasma in the chromosphere to “evaporate” and rise at high speed towards the coronal loops. This ‘new’ plasma will have a composition similar to that of the photosphere, which is the surface we see of the Sun. Once the plasma was already in the coronal loop, rich in materials such as iron or silicon, it is pushed and concentrated at the highest point of the arc, creating a ‘peak’ with these elements. One property of these elements is that they can radiate a lot of energy quickly and this causes the plasma to cool. And this sudden concentration at the apex of the loop acts as an ultra-powerful radiator, causing localized and very rapid cooling. Finally, this sudden cooling causes a pressure drop. As a result, more plasma from the surrounding area is sucked into that area, increasing the density. The most interesting thing is that the higher the density, the cooling becomes even more efficient and a ‘thermal runaway’ occurs. As its name indicates, the temperature will plummet and the plasma will condense, forming rain. The importance. For the first time, this model has done something that had not been achieved before: simulate the formation of rain on the Sun. And understanding it goes far beyond solving an old riddle, but it affects us completely. Most importantly for us, it improves our ability to predict space weather. solar flares They can launch enormous amounts of energy and particles into space which, upon reaching Earth, can damage satellites, disrupt communications and overload electrical networks. More precise models of the Sun’s behavior allow us to better anticipate these events that until now gave us very little preparation time. Rewriting. This discovery forces us to rewrite a fundamental part of solar physics. The idea that the composition of the solar atmosphere is dynamic and not static opens a large field of research ahead to understand exactly how energy moves through the star. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | As if nothing were going on, the Sun has just caused a radio blackout with its most powerful eruption of 2025

We needed more than ever a way of predicting better storms and hurricanes. AI has solved the problem

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Among the areas in which Google Deepmind works, Meteorological prediction It is one of the most precision is obtaining thanks to the refinement of artificial intelligence tools designed for it. And the company has just demonstrated that AI can overcome traditional methods in hurricane prediction. And is that your model Weather Lab managed to forecast more accurately The trajectory and intensity of Hurricane Erinwhich went from tropical storm to Category 5 in less than 24 hours A few days ago. The first real exam. Until now, the meteorological models were a promise. Hurricane Erin became the first real -time fire test for the Google system. During the first three critical prediction, the artificial intelligence model exceeded the official forecast so much of the National Center for American Hurricanes such as several traditional physical models, including the most reliable Europeans and American. How it works. Traditional models are based on complex physical equations that recreate current atmospheric conditions: humidity, pressure, temperature. Google’s approach It is radically different. Its AI has been trained with a massive data set that includes historical weather information of the entire land and a specialized database with details of almost 5,000 cyclones observed during the last 45 years. “They match these long historical data with details about how hurricanes behave and statistically combine them to see patterns that the human eye could not detect,” Explain James Franklin, former head of the Hurricane Specialists Unit of the National Hurricane Center. Why does it matter so much. The precise prediction of hurricanes is vital to know what type of measures are needed to protect themselves from them in case of emergencies. The three to five forecast days are crucial to make decisions about evacuations and preparation measures. In Google’s internal tests With storms of 2023 and 2024, its model managed to predict the final location of the cyclones with about 140 kilometers more precision than the European model (ECMWF), considered the most exact available. Exceptional performance. Franklin stands out The performance of the Google system: “It really surpassed the other guides in terms of intensity. It captured the general form of the change of the life cycle almost exactly. practically without error.” The model not only succeeded in the trajectory, but predicted with surprising precision how Erin’s intensity would evolve throughout his life cycle. Still in development. Despite success, the Google model is not ready for public use. Weather Lab includes a warning that recommends trusting the official forecasts of the National Hurricane Center. However, Franklin It is optimistic About the future: “For next year, you will receive a very serious look and will really play a role in the forecasts that leave the Hurricane Center.” Cover image | Brian McGowan In Xataka | It is no longer necessary to pay to transform our photos into what we want. The latest Google offers it for free for everyone

The “cold stain” of the North Atlantic is one of the greatest enigmas in the oceanic climate. We may have already solved it

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There is a region of the North Atlantic that for years intrigue to experts in weather and oceanography. They call her The “cold stain” of the Atlantic And it is a small oasis in an ocean whose waters have been tempered over the years. In a matter of weeks, two studies bring us closer to the resolution of this enigma. Two studies. The two new research published in recent weeks, one in the magazine Communications Earth & Environment And the other in Sciences Advances They address the enigmatic stain and give differentiated but complicitary explanations of the oceanographic dynamics behind this cold spot on the surface of the sea. One of the central axes for both studies is The southern overturning circulation of the Atlantic (AMOC)one of the most important sea currents for the climate on both sides of the “puddle.” A cold stain. The cold stain of the Atlantic is a relatively small region of the ocean surface whose average temperature has dropped (about 0.3º Celsius) instead of ascending as has happened with most surface waters. La Mancha is located south of Greenland, not far from the coasts of Newfoundland, near the waters of the Arctic Ocean. AMOC. Both works indicated directly to the AMOC current as the centerpiece of this climate puzzle. But what is exactly AMOC? The southern overturn circulation of the Atlantic is a current connected to the thermhaline circulation that transports water from north to south and from south to north in the Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic the current transports through the surface layers of the ocean the warm waters of tropical latitudes towards high latitudes and the border with the Arctic. Arrival to these latitudes, the water cools and descends to the deepest layers of the ocean, where it is dragged into a current back towards the South Atlantic. This current not only transports water masses of different temperature but also of different salinity: the water of the tropics is warmer more salty than the water in the Arctic environment. A weakened current. He first of the studies He focused on the weakening of this current observed in recent years. In its analysis, the team used direct observations of the current in the last two decades with indirect measures taken throughout the last century in order to “rebuild” the changes in this circulation. They contrasted these data With predictions that different oceanographic models generated under different assumptions. According to its analysis, only a weakened AMOC current could be linked to the data corresponding to compiled observations. “It’s a very robust correlation,” explained in a press release Yuan Li, co -author of the study. “If you look at the observations and compare them with all simulations, only a monoc-debilitated scenario reproduces the cooling in this unique region.” By sea and by air. He Second study He pointed out, however, the weakening of the AMOC current may not be the only relevant factor in the appearance of the Atlantic cold stain. According to this study, the weakening would have been The initial triggerbut the cooling of the stain would have reduced in turn evaporation and moisture in the atmosphere of the region. Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, this would have been in turn in the reduction of this effect and therefore a regional cooling. “Reduce the greenhouse effect, so to speak, it will feed back the surface and amplify the existing cold anomaly,” also pointed to a press release Yifei Fan, co -author of this second study. In Xataka | 200,000 abandoned radioactive barrels are sought off the coast of Galicia: we have only found 1,000 Image | NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

For centuries the blue pigment recipe used by the Egyptians had been a mystery. We just solved it

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Not all Treasures They are made up of jewels, gold and precious stones. For a long time a group of researchers from Washington State University It is behind of a treasure equally fascinating but much more elusive: the Egyptian bluethe synthetic pigment older which is recorded and that once used the artists of the ancient Egyptian to decorate from alabaster bowls to coffins, ceramics and murals. Despite their enormous popularity and that the Romans continued to use it, their recipe was lost over the centuries. Until now. What is Egyptian blue? One of those mysteries that has been intrigued by archaeologists in half the world. Egyptian blue is basically a dye that stands out for two reasons. The first, because it is the synthetic pigment older known to date. It was used thousands of years ago. The second is its bluish tone, which allowed artists to use it as a much more expensive mineral substitute, such as turquoise or lapislázuli. With everything and although we talk about “Egyptian blue” in general, the pigment was very heterogeneous. Depending on where it would have been manufactured, how it would have worked with the material or quality of its components, the tone could vary between gray, a more or less deep blue and a green off. A factor that influenced the process for example was how quickly cooled the mixture. How old is it? Quite. We know that Egyptian blue was already used 5,000 years ago. And that at least. In fact The oldest sample Known is a small alabaster bowl made in the 3250 AC The pigment was used in ceramics, sculptures, murals, sarcophagi, pieces that we still keep today and show its bluish hue. It was also applied to different surfaces, such as wood, stone or cardboard, a material similar to Paper Maché. Did you only use the Egyptians? No. His color liked the artisans so much that the Romans ended up incorporating it into their palette after the conquest of the ancient Egyptian and came to be used during the Renaissance. The Smithsoninan Institute remember that a few years ago it was discovered that at the beginning of the 16th century Rafael used Egyptian blue in the fresco ‘Galatea triumph’a work elaborated for the Villa Farnesina, located in the neighborhood of Constévere, Rome. Although Rafael’s intention could be to imitate the old Roman technique, the Washington State University (WSU) Precise that during the Renaissance the pigment formula had practically fallen into oblivion. That is what a team of researchers has now wanted to solve led by the American institution and who has worked side by side with the Carnegie Museum of natural history and the Institute of Conservation of the Smithsoninan Museum. And how have they done it? Based on trial and error. And try again and again until you give in the nail. The team He thoroughly examined Pigment samples and elaborated 12 recipes in which he experienced with different raw materials and elaboration times. The results have been reflected in An article Posted in NPJ Heritage Science in which he details how he worked with mixtures of silicon, copper, calcium and sodium carbonate dioxide. The main ingredient is the cuprov. To complete the process, the mixed mixture warmed 1,000º Celsius For different times, between one and 11 hours, in an attempt to replicate the temperature with which the ovens of the time work. The resulting samples were also cooled at different speeds to then study their pigments through microscopy and analysis techniques. The results were compared to real pieces of ancient Egypt. Is it so complicated? Beyond the materials used or the techniques with which they were mixed, the great challenge for archaeologists has been to replicate the exact tones that Egyptian artisans worked. “One of the things we observed was that with small variations in the process very different results were obtained,” John McColy commentsone of the authors of the study and director of the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of the WSU. “There were people who made the pigment, he transported it and then used it elsewhere.” During their study the researchers in fact discovered that to obtain the most bluish hue, only half of the components that generate the blue color were needed. “It doesn’t matter what the rest contains and that surprised us”, Add McCloy. “You can see that each particle contains a lot of elements. It is not uniform, much less.” To such an extent that the WSU acknowledges that one of the conclusions reached by the experts is that the pigment is surprisingly diverse. Did you achieve your goal? That seems. In A statement Run a few days ago the WSU says that after trying different formulas and examining the results in detail, its team has managed to “recreate” the famous Egyptian blue. The feat is not only the result of curiosity or advance to better understand the art of the ancient Egyptian. WSU herself recalls that in part the renewed interest in the Egyptian pigment responds to more pragmatic reasons. “In recent years, interest in this pigment has resurfaced due to its optical, magnetic and biological properties, with potential new technological applications,” Point out The institution. “The pigment emits light in the nearby infrared of the electromagnetic spectrum, invisible to the human being, which means that it could be used for purposes such as traces and create anti falsifications.” Images | Washington State University, Matt Unger, Joshua Franzos and Carnegie Museum of Natural History In Xataka | A 2,000 -year -old cup has revealed an unexpected facet of the Egyptians: psychedelic cocktails

Energy and space. China has solved them by sinking them into the sea

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China has opened in Shanghai The first commercial submarine database fed entirely by marine wind energy. It is an important evolutionary leap after two years of experience with its pilot installation in Hainan. Why is it important. The digital infrastructure is facing Two crisis worldwide: The excessive energy consumption of data centers. The shortage of urban land to expand them. This underwater installation solves both problems of a stroke, because it reduces energy expenditure to 40% while releasing space on the mainland. The context. China already tested the commercial viability of Submarine centers in Hainan Since December 2022, where an installation operates 30 meters deep without registering a single server breakdown in these two and a half years. Microsoft experienced with PROJECT NATICK In Scotland in 2015, but it was Hainan who marked the first real commercial deployment of the world. Shanghai now represents the “version 2.0” of this technology. In figures: Investment reaches 1.6 billion yuan (222.7 million dollars) to create an underwater cluster of 24 megawatts. The natural water cooling system reduces cooling consumption of 40-50% to less than 10% of total consumption. More than 90% of energy will come from marine wind farms. What has happened. Yesterday, Tuesday, June 10, The tripartite agreement was signed Among the authorities of Shanghai and the company Hicloud Technology. The first phase, 2.3 MW, will begin operating in September as a national model project. The second phase will scale up to 24 MW with an energy efficiency (PU) of less than 1.15. And now what. The installation anchors an industrial ecosystem that will support AI, 5G, Internet of industrial things and electronic commerce platforms outside China. The country thus consolidates its leadership in submarine digital infrastructure while other countries remain focused on expanding land centers to use. Outstanding image | Hicloud In Xataka | Saudi Arabia wants to become a new power in data centers. Nothing is clear that I can do it

Japan went to South Korea as a desperate measure for the lack of rice. They have not even solved a national emergency

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To understand what is happening in Japan we must go back in time. The summer of 2024 left A perfect storm On the basis of the nation’s diet: rice. A unprecedented shortage of grains in his own fields began to leave No stock to shops. Then, the tourist boom has duplicate the problem turning it into a historical crisis reflected in a fact: 30% more expensive was being paid. Given the danger to running without a basic pillar, the decision was made “Release” tons of your reservations. What nobody could anticipate. Foreign rice. In April, La Nación opted for another unprecedented decision in 25 years: Import rice From South Korea, an unthinkable measure in a society Historically reluctant to the foreign grain, but that was forced to make its customs more flexible to the vertiginous increase in the price of the national grain. With prices that They doubled their value Regarding the previous year (reaching 4,214 yuan by 5 kg in April) and with a government response that fails to contain the climbing, consumers have begun to look beyond their borders. Not just that. The Aeon chain He also announced which will begin to sell American rice Calrose starting next month, with a price 10% lower than the Japanese grain, a decision that could mark a turning point in consumption habits. In front of national rice. The arrival of South Korean rice, sold both online and in supermarkets, although even in small volumes (just two tons with another twenty on the way), marked a point of cultural and economic inflection. The nationalist preference for local rice, which had condemned to failure Previous attempts such as that of Thai rice in 1993, has yielded to the urgency of more accessible prices. The Guardian told Cases of testimonies such as that of Miki Nihei diner, who said not to notice any difference when eating Californian rice, and revealed a change in public perception: the quality of foreign grain was no longer a sufficient reason to resist, when the pocket suffers. The rice becomes a politician. Now, a few weeks after crucial elections for the Upper House, the government of the Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru ishiba is on the edge of political collapse Given the growing discomfort by the exorbitant increase in the price of rice, central food in Japanese food. With inflation that has reached the most symbolic product in the country, citizens have expressed their frustration in surveys such as that of the Kyodo agency, which places the approval of the Ishiba cabinet in a minimum of 27.4%marking a fall of more than five points in just one month. The pressure intensifies not only from the opposition, but also from its own Democratic Liberal Party (PLD), already weakened after lose most In the lower house last fall. THE DEBATE ON THE Impost to consumption Of 10%, that the government refuses to reduce despite popular claims, is emerging as the decisive axis of the electoral contest of July, with almost three quarters of voters asking for their total or partial cuts, especially in food. A late remedy. As we said at the beginning, in an attempt to contain the crisis, the government decided to release rice from the strategic reserves In March, a normally reserved measure For natural disasterswhich failed to stop the price increase. The price price in supermarkets reached practically Double of what cost a year ago. Although the price dropped minimally after the release of the first 300,000 tons, the results were disappointing. To reinforce his strategy, the executive announced the launch of another 300,000 tons Additional until July, with the novelty that part of these items will overcome wholesalers to reach the points of sale faster. However, More than 87% From respondents believe that these actions are insufficient, and citizens do not trust that trade negotiations with the United States focused among other issues in rice imports will be resolved in favor of Japan. From there to that leap For the search for “foreigner” rice In South Korea. A political fire. The theme has become more violent in recent days. It happened when the Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Taku Eto, unleashed A political storm and socially by declare that “he has never had to buy rice” thanks to the gifts he receives from his supporters. The phrase, pronounced during a fundraising party, was disseminated by the Kyodo and quickly replicated agency by other meansgenerating a wave of indignation in social networks where thousands of citizens, faced at record prices of the Japanese basic food, demanded their immediate resignation. Eto, visibly pressed, apologized the next day before the journalists, claiming that “he had exaggerated to please the public” and that his wife, after reprimanding him on the phone, reminded him that she Yes Buy Rice When it ends at home. Thus, he avoided responding if he will present his resignation, leaving the tension generated in full countdown to the key elections of the upper house in July. A market that does not supply. In short, the Rice search Out of the nation is not (alone) a commercial turn that responds only to the registration of the national product, but (also) to the suspicion of hoarding by distributors, logistics bottlenecks and a Shot demand For booming tourism. Given this panorama, the image of ishiba as an effective manager It wobblesand its refusal to touch the consumption tax is interpreted as disconnection with the real needs of citizenship. The rice crisis is not only forcing logistics and commercial adjustments, but also raises questions about the viability of food self -sufficiency in Japan, a country that for decades has shielded its agriculture with subsidies, tariffs and a national identity speech linked to the consumption of domestic rice. Suddenly, the rice not only feeds: it also marks the measure of discontent. Image | Ilo Asia-Pacific In Xataka | Japan had used its rice reserve against earthquakes or tsunamis. Now is your weapon against the price escalation In Xataka | In Japan there … Read more

why technology has not yet solved this

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Today tickets for Bad Bunny concerts went on sale. What should have been a happy day for fans It has become a nightmare. Many complained in networks of the error messages In the browser, the endless virtual linesthe Forced interruptions of the process or the worst, the messages of “exhausted entries” –or error– when They caressed success In that mission impossible. We are in 2025 and one would expect technology to have fixed this. And yet, he has not done so. What is happening? SALE BY ARRIVAL ORDER = Frustration. Traditional ticket sales systems work under an old and theoretically simple principle: the first one that arrives is the first to buy it. In computer science this is known as the FIFO (First In, First out) system for the implementation and management of queues, and has no major mystery. Or at least, not until you try to apply it to the sale of macroeventos tickets. Then, disaster. Too much demand. We have experienced it today when tickets for the concerts of the Bad Bunny world tour have come to sale. The demand has been colossal and has exceeded the offer, which has caused the service that managed the direct online sale has collapsed. Error messages were constant, and many users saw how they had to wait endless virtual lines And the process was interrupted at totally random times without them being able to do anything. When virtual tails reach figures of 15,000 users – for example, there are much more crazy– The system ceases to make sense. It is not useful or operational. He “Scalping“At the agenda. This stock market It is applied too In these scenarios and refers to the technique of buying tickets with bots and other systems that allow the limits imposed on entries for inputs for human users. Ticketmaster even created the Fan-To-Fan system As a controversial official controversy blessed by the system that Tickemaster, of course, takes its commission. It is estimated that Ticketmaster and Live Nation They control 70% of the business of the sale of tickets. And more problems with resale. There is an entire economy Around pages like Viago or Stubhub, which They buy mass tickets and then try to resell at greater price. The German Heavy Metal Rammstein Group went to court When demanding Viagogo, a company with which they have been fighting since 2018 for this issue. It happened with Renfe tickets. In April 2022 Renfe offered bird tickets to 15 euros. The promotion was striking, so I threw myself to the browser of my PC to try to take advantage of some of the options they gave me. After achieving access to virtual tail to buy one of those tickets, I met 166,321 people in front of me and an estimate of waiting time for an hour and a half. Half an hour later there were 144,115 people in front. The alternative was to use Renfe’s mobile app, but the process made it clear that these types of problems are constantly presented. The raffles work. In popular events such as Cycotourist march QH (Quebrantahuesos) The fans who want to sign up must first register as QH users, something that gives access to a raffle granted by the dorsals. It is a very reasonable solution to events with a demand greater than the supply. It is the method that also FIFA has used for years To sell tickets for football World Cup matches. The solution exists, only that it does not apply (much). It is a good example of a relatively simple system to solve the problems that have arisen with Ticketmaster on numerous occasions. The process would be as follows: Open a pre -registration to enter the raffle of entries. Leave it open for a prudential time of, for example, two weeks. There would be no careers for entering the pre -registration or being the first, because that would give exactly the same. Therefore, server overload risks are minimized. During that pre -registration the user must overcome Captcha challenges, double verification against email and storage of some credit card data. With this, the participation of bots in the process is greatly prevented. Payment of a symbolic commission for the pre -registration. Another very powerful measure to avoid the participation of bots. There should also be a limit for the number of records that can be made per person/mail/payment card. From there the draw is celebrated, which is granted X inputs from the number Y Registry. If there are 1000 tickets available and there are 10,000 pointed users, an example would be for the draw to come out number 6,713. The records from 6,713 to 7,712 would get their entrance. The winners could register in their account and buy the entry into a certain period. If not, that entry would be offered to the next one who could not obtain it after the draw, and so on. There would be no frustration, just bad luck. The draw or lottery process is much less frustrating. Of course there is the possibility that you do not get the entrance, but a system like this would avoid the great problems of the current direct sales mechanism that has proven not to be effective. But they do not decide the sustained. There is another big additional problem, and although there are solutions such as the proposal, who decide how entries are sold and buy are artists and promoters, who can go to alternative solutions. Concerts on demand. For example, Announce additional dates of concerts by surprise. It is a peculiar idea: it is thus possible to announce a limited number of concerts to measure demand, and from there adjust the offer keeping the number of events (if they can be replicated) programmed or changing it according to said demand. In Xataka | Taylor Swift has canceled the sale of tickets with Ticketmaster. It is the confirmation that the current system is broken

We have been looking for the definitive cure of allergies for years and we have not yet solved the big problem: understand them

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The end of the rains and the arrival of good weather have, for many, a dark back: The allergies. Spring, and especially the months of May and June, brings us the pollen proliferationone of the most important allergens, the main cause of sneezing at this time of year. The most common way of treating this type of allergies is through antihistaminesdrugs aimed at blocking the effects of histaminea neurotransmitter that also plays an important role in immune system. Recall that allergies are nothing other than a reaction of our immune system to external substances that understands as dangerous and that are not really, allergens. Antihistamines are very useful when treating allergic symptoms. But one thing is that, and another thing is to definitively cure these disorders. Today we do not have A cure for allergiesbut at least there are some routes open to hope. So close we are to achieve it. Perhaps one of the first treatments that come to mind when talking about healing the allergy are vaccines. What we understand today as vaccines against allergy are immunotherapy -based injections, and its logic is not far from conventional vaccines: it is about administering a small amount of what causes us allergy capable of alerting the immune system without unleashing an allergic reaction. While they are a useful treatment in many cases, they do not finish solving the problem, so we will need periodic injections that will improve the response capacity of our immune system. What ways are there open? Almost ten years ago, We commented on some of the open research lines in the search for a cure for allergies. These ways included, for example, the “biological therapies.” These are therapies that focus on antibodiesthe proteins that our body produces when it detects substances that it understands as harmful. This type of treatments They are still One of our great hopes. An example of this is omalizumab, a drug in principle aimed at combating asthma and approved two decades ago in the United States. In recent years, science has been validating this therapeutua option. A recent example is in A study Posted in 2022 in the magazine Clinical and Translational Allergy. In this analysis, the team observed that the drug was effective when preventing spring allergic rhinitis. Understand the problem To understand how our knowledge has evolved in recent years, we must first understand why it is so difficult to find a definitive cure. The background problem is simple: We do not understand the allergies well enough to find a solution. We still do not understand why certain people suffer from a certain allergy while others suffer from another type of reaction, at the same time that others do not seem to have such problems. We don’t know either Why allergies are permanent despite the fact that the antibody that we generally associate with them does not usually remain in our body for long periods of time. Two studies Published last year in the magazine Translational Medicine Science They can help us understand this situation a little better, explaining at least this last point. The answer could be in an antibody that we usually do not associate with allergies, immunoglobulin G (IgG), and the cells that produce it. What the teams responsible for these studies discovered is that some cells responsible for producing IgG produce immunoglobulin E, which is associated with allergies, when they run into an allergen. The key to allergic “memory” could therefore be in these cells. Before going better, everything seems to indicate that the allergies problem will go worse. And is that every time More people suffer This type of disorders. There are several factors that could be, independently or together, behind rapid ascent in the number of allergic people in the world. One of these hypotheses is that of hygiene. Since our immune system is “trains” through exposure to external agents, the absence of these agents in early stages can imply that our system does not perceive them as normal and, exposed in later stages, ends up reacting disproportionately. s From the environmental point of view, we must also consider the presence of pollutants in the atmospherelike particular matter. These pollutants can also affect our airways, combining their effect with that of conventional allergens and aggravating the situation. In Xataka | The time of the year in Japan has arrived where everyone has a mask. The fault is World War II Image | Cottonbro Studio

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