ten

A century ago Denmark built an island to defend its capital. Now it is full of tourists and is sold for ten million

by

The world has started 2026 slope of an island linked to the Kingdom of Denmark, but Greenland is not the only island dependent on Copenhagen that makes headlines. In it Øresund Strait There is a small Danish island that in recent weeks has also sparked interest due to its history, status and (above all) ownership. His name is Flakfortet and in this case, unlike Greenland, there would be no problem with Donald Trump controlling it. Of course, first you would need to go through the cash register and pay 10 million euros. The reason: Flakfortet is actually an old military fortification built on an artificial island and in private hands that has just gone up for sale. What has happened? that the Danish real estate market has incorporated an unconventional piece: a maritime fort built on an artificial island. That’s what they advertise on their page. Lintrup & Norgarta Danish firm specialized in real estate that for a few weeks advertise the sale of the Flakfortet fortress, located in the Øresund Strait. The property is offered for 74.5 million of Danish crowns, equivalent to about 10 million dollars. “The island has modern facilities and historic structures and is visited by thousands of people each year,” highlights the agency. The announcement has attracted the attention of media outlets such as the German newspaper Bildthe specialized medium Yacht or the Danish public broadcaster TV2which specifies that the complex reaches 30,000 square meters (m2) and there are around 10,000 built. Among its facilities, the island includes a large marina and a heliport. But what is Flakfortet? A vestige of the First World War. And a huge and picturesque reminder of the turbulent start of the 20th century. Flakfortet is a maritime fortress built on Saltholmrevan artificial island built from tons and tons of stone, concrete and sand in the Saltholm Strait. In fact, it is located between saltholm island and Copenhagen. Flakfortet was not the result of a whim or megalomania. It was promoted at the beginning of the 20th century, after the Defense Agreement of 1909 with which an attempt was made to improve the fortifications (land and sea) that protect Copenhagen from enemy attacks. To be more exact, his works were developed between 1910 and 1916. And what was it used for? The idea was to shield neighboring Copenhagen by sea. Hence, Flakfortet was projected as a true fort, capable of hosting around half a thousand soldiers and equipped with powerful cannons. Danmarks Nationalleksikon remember which in its day was equipped with howitzers, half a dozen cannons and anti-aircraft artillery. However, its role during the two great conflagrations of the last century was rather modest. In fact, the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, with the project still uncompleted, frustrated the plans to equip it with modern howitzers. In the 40s it was occupied by the Wehrmacht and in the 50s it returned to Danish hands, although without much success. At the end of that same decade it closed as a naval anti-aircraft fort and during part of the 1960s it hosted the HAWK 541 Squadron of the Danish Air Force. Over time it was rented to the Copenhagen Sailing Union and was converted into a marina in the 1970s. And in recent decades? His military past is behind him. After the Danish army decided to abandon the fort the weapons were dismantled and the casemates abandoned. As the 20th century progressed, the soldiers gave way to sailors who arrived aboard sailboats, tourists and history lovers fascinated by the fortification’s past. The next major chapter of his chronicle was written in 2021, when Denmark sold the island to Malmökranen AB, a Swedish company that acquired it for around 400,000 euros. It may not seem like a lot of money, but the company had to invest significantly more to remodel the facilities and modernize its services, which includes a restaurant, a desalination plant that supplies the island with drinking water, and generators. These improvements, added to a ferry service that connected the island with Copenhagen and the interest aroused by the fort’s military past, explain why Flakfortet attracted up to 50,000 visitors in high season. Good business, right? If we ask Malmökranen right now, the business seems to involve more the sale of the island than its direct management. And it’s not something new. In 2015 the complex already looked for a buyer without much success. More than a decade later, its owners have decided to try again, asking for even more money for facilities that have a port and heliport. The agency in charge of the sale wait that the island will attract the interest of specialized investment firms or millionaires looking for a “secluded and quiet” property. Nor do they rule out that the Danish State itself decides to recover Flakfortet because it considers it “a critical infrastructure” and its location. If it is finally an individual who takes over its reins, they should keep in mind that they cannot do whatever they want with the old fort: since 2002 It is considered a historical monument, so any significant work must have the OK of Heritage. The island must also remain open to the public. Images | Wikipedia and Google Earth In Xataka | China has been dumping tons of sand into the ocean for 12 years. And now we are seeing islands emerging in the middle of nowhere

Ten years ago, we were afraid of fast charging. The 10,000mAh batteries are going the same way

by

The world of smartphones is divided in two: a Chinese market betting on gigantic silicon-carbon and some “traditional” manufacturers who do not dare to take the leap. This weekend, the controversy was sparked by YouTuber Marques Brownlee, after publishing a video that has surpassed one million views in less than 24 hours. what has happened. “The problem with smartphone batteries”is the title of a video that has spread like wildfire among the community tech. In it, he explained some of the problems that silicon-carbon batteries supposedly suffer from, a technology that China is betting on to boost the capacity of its phones. above 10,000mAh. The problems. Silicon-carbon batteries are not a new technology, but they have been starting to be implemented in smartphones for just two years. During this time, there are several concerns on the table. Possible swelling due to the expansion of silicon: with each charge, a battery contracts and expands. Silicon can triple its volume, generating greater internal stresses in the battery. At the same time, there are fears that this expansion-contraction cycle could cause cracks and leaks in the battery. Need for reinforcement in battery compartment (such as small steel cages) to contain swelling. Long-term reliability not yet demonstrated in smartphones. Yes, but. Concerns about whether silicon-carbon batteries are safe or not are legitimate. Just as, back in the day, we were worried that a mobile phone with “fast” charging like the OnePlus 3 in 2016 (those times when Dash Charge was 30W) could explode. Today there are already mobile phones with 120W. The first commercial mobile phone to incorporate this type of battery was the Honor Magic 5 Pro in its Chinese version. No cases of the slightest problem have been reported to date in its more than two years of life. Manufacturers do not go crazy. Manufacturers are more than aware of the possible dangers that these types of batteries can have, and equip their phones with specific chips to control the charge in real time if excess heat is detected. Some brands, like Honor, go so far as to create microscopic tunnels in their batteries so that lithium ions can reduce chemical friction. Because yes, although carbon silicon batteries are called that, they are not made of pure silicon, they are a natural evolution of lithium batteries themselves. It’s not that easy. The next challenge after the introduction of silicon-carbon batteries has been to take advantage of their ability to store greater energy in a smaller size to achieve barbaric capacities: 7,000mAh, 7,500mAh, 10,000mAh. Energy densities notably higher than those that large manufacturers, such as Samsung, Apple and Google, currently mount in their high-end phones. Here an extra degree is added to the uncertainty: not only do we have more modern and not so tested batteries, but we also have capabilities that make their behavior even more unpredictable. Go deeper. The war for high-capacity batteries adds, apart from doubts about their reliability on the part of some manufacturers, logistical and economic challenges. They are more expensive batteries, and some manufacturers They are not taking them out of China yet. for that same reason. Added to this is that although the spec sheet tells us about milliamp hours, the main measure to determine the energy capacity of a battery is watt hours (Whr). Europe does not like batteries with more than 20 Whr, and they require longer and more expensive transport and authorization protocols. If the RAM crisis threatens to skyrocket the price of smartphones, thinking about incorporating significantly more expensive batteries does not seem like a viable plan to maintain the current margins of large manufacturers. Image | Apple In Xataka | We already know why mobile phones with 6,000mAh are not arriving in Europe: there is a clear person responsible

In Tokyo there is a bookstore with only one book in the catalog. It has been open for ten years and works

by

In an alley in the Ginza district of Tokyo, a small white-painted room houses what could be considered the most radical bookstore in the world. Morioka Shotenopened in May 2015 by Yoshiyuki Morioka, reverses the commercial logic of the book: while the Japanese publishing industry produces approximately 80,000 new titles each yearthis establishment only sells one, which is renewed every week. It is not performance. Morioka Shoten It is a business that works, selling multiple copies of a single work for six consecutive days. The interior is unusually bare for a bookstore (concrete walls, a piece of furniture used as a counter, a cable telephone) and serves as a canvas for displays inspired by the current book. It is a bit the absolute opposite of Amazon: from infinite offer to minimalism in choice. How it works. Each title remains on display for exactly six days, from Tuesday to Sunday, accompanied by artistic installations, objects or photographs related to its content. The space functions simultaneously as a gallery and a point of sale. The location of the project reinforces this symbolic dimension: the Suzuki Buildingbuilt in 1929 and protected as historic architecture, housed between the 1930s and the end of World War II the offices of Nippon Kobo, the publisher that produced the magazine ‘Nippon’, which many consider foundational for the modern Japanese publishing industry. The context. The opening of Morioka Shoten in 2015 comes at a critical time for the industry. Two decades earlier, in 1995, Amazon had begun operations, and the domino effect was inevitable: American independent bookstores went from more than 7,000 stores in 1994 to just 1,651 in 2009, a reduction of 76%. The physical bookstore model seemed obsolete given the speed of the Internet and recommendation algorithms. Morioka Shoten proposed just the opposite: concentration, deliberate scarcity and time to focus on a single work. The philosophy of issatsu, isshitsu. The Japanese expression issatsu, isshitsu It means “a room, a book.” For eight years, Yoshiyuki Morioka worked as an employee in second-hand bookstores in the Kanda neighborhood, a traditional bibliophile district in Tokyo. He later opened his own independent bookstore in Kayabacho, where he organized author presentations that multiplied sales. The question that it was done was: why maintain hundreds of works if the optimal experience was produced with just one? The Takram design studio developed the store’s visual identity based on a sketch by Morioka himself: a rhombus that condenses the double metaphor of the project, simultaneously representing an open book and a single room. The resurgence of indie. The proposal is part of a broader recovery of independent book trade. In 2015, a curious phenomenon occurred in the United States: American indie bookstores. They began to multiplyup to 49%. The study cited factors such as the feeling of community, the work of booksellers as curators and the capacity of bookstores as meeting points. The pandemic accelerated the trend: since 2020 The sector grew by 70%, in 2024, 323 new stores were inaugurated and in 2025, more than a hundred additional stores were opened in the first months of the year alone. Quality over quantity. The commercial results of the experiment confirm the viability of the model. Morioka Shoten has sold more than 2,000 works since its inauguration. The weekly catalog has ranged from comics by Tove Jansson to botanical photographs by Karl Blossfeldt, novels by Mimei Ogawa and short stories by Hans Christian Andersen, spanning fiction, non-fiction, manga and illustrated books. In an era that offers immediate access to millions of titles, abundance generates paralysis when it comes to decisions. From that point of view, Morioka’s radical limitation does not restrict, but liberates. In Xataka | The 24 most beautiful bookstores in the world

The director of Sirat criticizes commercial cinema. But meanwhile, four out of ten directors film once a decade

by

Oliver Laxe’s statements comparing commercial cinema to “bimbo bread”, especially pointing out the contradiction of making films for Netflix. have generated an unexpected controversy in the Spanish audiovisual sector, relativizing the extraordinary career of ‘Sirat’. The film not only got five statuettes at the European Film Awardsbut it has also received eleven Goya nominations and two Oscar nominations. The debate arises at a significant moment: a study by the European Audiovisual Observatory reveals that four out of every ten European directors and screenwriters who released a feature film in 2015 did not sign another one during the following ten years. A complicated metaphor. Oliver Laxe conceded an interview with The World in which offered his diagnosis on the crisis of youth attendance at the theaters: “It is our fault and our responsibility that young people do not go to the cinemas. They have been given fodder, bimbo bread and their palates are accustomed to sugar and processed foods.” The food metaphor did not stop there. Laxe went on to argue that when these viewers are offered “a rye bread or a pure cereal,” the palate is not prepared, although he insisted that “the sensitivity is there.” The filmmaker, whose film has exceeded three million euros at the Spanish box office and has attracted precisely a young audience, closed his reasoning with a resounding statement: “Having very political proclamations, but then making a movie with Netflix seems like a pure contradiction to me that nullifies your speech.” The accounts don’t work out. The answer did not take long to materialize. Jota Linares, a filmmaker from Cádiz who has often filmed for Netflix, replied in the SER questioning Laxe’s analysis. Linares challenged the simplification of the problem: “I will tell you what allows me to continue maintaining political ideas and express them freely despite having directed series and films for Netflix: my social class.” And he added: “I assure you that, due to my social class, I would be incapable of supporting myself by making only auteur films spaced over time for about two or three years. It doesn’t work out for me, although I see that it does for you.” Finally, he concluded that “you don’t hack the system from within with a six million euro movie with thirty publicists working at your feet. No, dear Oliver. That’s being at the top of the mainstream.” ‘Sirat’s’ money. The contrast between both positions reveals broader tensions in the sector. Laxe speaks from a relatively privileged position, since his film had the financial backing of Movistar Plus+ and is now enjoying an international campaign that has taken him to the Oscars. Linares, for his part, represents a silent majority of filmmakers who fight to get each new opportunity. Precariousness as a backdrop. The debate takes on a more urgent dimension when confronted with the data that published El País based on the study of the European Audiovisual Observatory. The research, which analyzes the careers of 38,762 professionals, covering some 30,000 projects, provides revealing figures: 40% of those who released a feature film in theaters during 2015 did not sign another film again in the entire subsequent decade. At the same time, more than half of the films released each year are debut films. The report’s conclusions leave no room for doubt: there is “an impressive turnover and great precariousness.” Cinema versus television. The document also shows a growing separation between film and television. Only 11% of directors and scriptwriters worked in both formats between 2015 and 2024, dismantling the idea of ​​fluid transfer between screens. On television and platforms, 85% of screenwriters and 91% of directors active in 2015 continued working later, compared to the 60% that disappear from theatrical cinema. “The majority survive poorly. Those who endure have family financial support behind them,” explained director Cristina Andreu in 2021. Little seems to have changed since then. Structural contradiction. Can the industry demand “rye bread”, as Laxe says he does, when the system expels 40% of its creators after a film? Is it fair to hold the public responsible for having a palate “accustomed to processed” in an ecosystem where professional continuity is more the exception than the norm? Laxe himself acknowledges that ‘Sirat’ was considered “a suicide” during the search for financing. If even an ultimately successful project faced that initial diagnosis, what happens to proposals from filmmakers without a safety net? The tension between the discourse of cinematic quality and the precarious reality of European production raises uncomfortable questions about who can afford to cultivate discerning palates. When, furthermore, the system itself does not guarantee anything. In Xataka | Many agree that ‘Stranger Things 5’ lowers the quality of the series. But that doesn’t change Netflix’s ambitious plans.

Ten years ago Beijing was an unbreathable city. Today its air quality is better than that of Madrid for a reason

by

On December 8, 2015, schools were closed in Beijing. Construction stopped. Only a handful of cars could circulate on the streets. The atmosphere was unbreathable. We don’t say it, the city leaders said it at that time. As stated BBCit was the first time that the red alert due to contamination. In China, an action protocol with four levels had been launched to deal with this type of episode. That day marked a before and after. Just over a decade later, Beijing is one of the Chinese cities with the best air quality. The country still has a serious problem with pollution but the data show that the country’s capital has left those days of constant fog behind. And it has done so, in large part, by a huge investment in cleaning up transportation. Better air quality than Madrid That December 8, Beijing registered 291 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5ultrafine particles especially harmful to health. They are polluting emissions that can come from different sources but in whose production diesel engines intervene decisively. That’s why DGT environmental labeling that It is used in Spanish ZBEs discriminates (by age) between diesel vehicles and gasoline vehicles. Is 291 micrograms a lot? To get an idea, the WHO recommended At that time, it did not exceed 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Obviously, this pollution rate occurred on a specific day under specific circumstances, but the annual levels were so high that in 2013 they signed 89.5, as stated in Motorpassion. Last year, according to published data By the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau, the city signed 27 micrograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5. A fact that improves the air breathed in Madrid, “which did not exceed 31 micrograms of PM 2.5” on average, in the words of the Madrid officials. The decline is absolutely spectacular and is marked by profound changes in mobility, lowering the 30 microgram barrier for the first time in its history per cubic meter on the annual average. In addition, 311 days of 2025 were classified within the parameters that point to the best air quality. For this, Beijing launched a campaign against pollution which became especially relevant a little over a decade ago, although it already took its first steps with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Days. It was not until 2013 when the city took serious measures. More than a million coal-fired boilers in the city were replaced with boilers that run on gas or electricity. The city added more than 600,000 new energy vehicles (electric or plug-in hybrids that generally operate in completely electric mode). But, above all, 1.9 million cars that were considered too old and polluting were taken off the road. Low emission zones had a key effect in achieving this. Then, the 6NI mechanical (which was equivalent to our Euro 6) to let vehicles pass or not. Automobiles that, in addition, had to stay at home alternately (discriminating by license plate) when high pollution episodes were activated. The evolution of Beijing has been so spectacular in the last 10 years that it is common to see it as an example for those most polluted cities, like New Delhi, in India. Photo | zhang kaiyv and Quique Olivar In Xataka | Tire pollution is as serious as engine pollution. This company says it has found the solution

Spain adds eight more billionaires in 2025. A single fortune accounts for six out of every ten euros: Amancio Ortega, of course

by

Before the arrival Christmas lottery and change the luck of some people, the latest report ‘Billionaire Ambitions 2025’ from UBS, reveals that Spain is experiencing a new leap in the elite of great fortunes, with more billionaires than a year ago. But that’s not all, since the report indicates that not only has the number of billionaires increased, but the volume of existing assets has also grown. That is, richer than they are richer. The rest of us mortals only hope to be healthy after the Lottery draw. Spain wins “ultra-rich.” He UBS report points out that in Spain there are already 32 people with assets exceeding 1,000 million dollars. This represents a net increase of eight new ultra-rich in the last year since the same 2024 report recorded 27 assets over one billion in Spain. UBS calculates that, together, these 32 great fortunes reach 213.1 billion dollars, equivalent to about 182.6 billion euros, as calculated Forbes. …and they are getting richer. This equity volume represents a growth of 21.5% compared to the previous year, an increase that UBS links to the good performance of some of the main businessmen in the country and to the greatest concentration of assets in the hands of a few families. According to these same sources, Spanish billionaires have added around 11.6 billion dollars (about 9.94 billion euros) to the national wealth in the last year, reinforcing the weight of this small group in the economy. Six out of every ten euros in the hands of Amancio Ortega. Within this new photo of the new ultra-rich in Spain that UBS has left, the weight of the enormous concentration of wealth in a single person has not gone unnoticed: Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex. The UBS report indicates that the Ortega’s heritage It has remained at average levels of $124.1 billion during the last two quarters of 2025, after having increased its fortune by about $21 billion in just one year. This increase marks Ortega as the owner of approximately 58.2% of all the combined wealth of Spanish billionaires. That is, about six out of every ten euros of that group are concentrated in their personal fortune. The solidity of Pontegadea and the “great success” of Inditex. The strong increase in Ortega’s assets in 2025 is explained, to a large extent, by the strength of investments of Pontegadea, already converted into one of the real estate most solvent in Europeand by the behavior of Inditex on the stock market. In fact, Ortega’s textile empire has recently experienced one of the days most bullish of the yearin which each share of the company rose by around 8.9%, closing with a revaluation of 8.86%. This surge in the stock market has directly impacted the wealth of Ortega, who controls 59.294% of the capital of Inditex, causing the valuation of his fortune to skyrocket by $16,100 to the current $140.2 billion. assigns Forbes on your list. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega has collected dividends at Inditex: he has bought Amazon’s headquarters in Canada and has money left over Image | Unsplash (Igal Ness)GTRES

In 2015, a man found a rock and kept it thinking it had gold. Ten years later he discovered his true value

by

Imagine that one day, while searching for precious metals with a metal detector, you come across a strange reddish rock. You immediately think that it may be hiding gold, so you don’t hesitate to take it home. After numerous attempts to pierce it and discover what’s inside, you give up. It is a practically invulnerable rock, at least with everyday tools, such as grinders. This is what we just described This is what happened to David Hole.an Australian who used to explore Maryborough Regional Park with his detecting equipment in search of precious metals. And yes, he found the rock and tried to open it without success. In the end it turned out to be something much more valuable than any precious metal: a celestial body that had probably traveled to our planet from Mars or Jupiter, in other words, a meteorite. The Maryborough Meteorite The cosmic rock was discovered by Hole in 2015, although the man did not know what it was until 2018. Three years after its discovery he decided to take it to the Victoria Museum of his country in search of answers. Geologists Bill Birch and Dermot Henry They immediately suspected that it was a meteorite. And this was actually a surprise since most of the “meteorites” that people bring to the museum are not actually meteorites. The specialists had a peculiar piece measuring 38.5 cm x 14.5 cm x 14.5 cm. The next step was to photograph it and do a thorough analysis that consisted of making a small cut in order to analyze its composition. After analysis, it was confirmed that it was a meteorite with a high percentage of iron, that is, an ordinary H5 chondrite meteorite, which suggests that its formation could have occurred in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The origin of the Maryborough Meteorite, it should be noted, is a hypothesis, as researchers do not know exactly where it came from or when it may have impacted Earth. However, radiocarbon dating indicates that the rock has remained on Earth between 100 and 1,000 yearsalthough it is believed that it could have crossed our atmosphere in a period of time between 1889 and 1951, that is, in a recent period. If we talk about the value of the meteorite compared to gold, it is difficult to establish a comparative framework, but the museum points out that this is much more valuable. They say that finding gold on Australian soil is more common than finding a meteorite of these characteristics. “This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria,” they point out, adding that they are important scientific elements that “take us back in time” to study our Solar System. Certainly, meteorites contain valuable information about the formation of elements in the universe and give us a unique opportunity to study them closely to analyze their characteristics and chemical composition. A different type of research, but complementary, to the missions that are driven towards space, such as that of James Webb Space Telescope u the ambitious OSIRIS-REx. Images | Museums Victoria In Xataka | Who or what excavated the ravines on Mars? The answer is even stranger than we always thought In Xataka | There is already speculation even with Martian soil: the largest piece of Mars on Earth has just been sold for 5.3 million dollars

Ten AI startups have skyrocketed their valuation by $1 trillion in 12 months

by

Logic tells us that companies that they lose money consistently should have a black future. What is happening in the world of AI is just the opposite, and right now ten startups in very red numbers They have achieved something unusual in one year: in one year they have grown by one trillion dollars in their joint valuation. It is something simply extraordinary… and disturbing. The big three. OpenAI is of course the protagonist of this select group, and today it is estimated that its valuation amounts to half a billion dollars. Elon Musk’s company, xAI, is valued at 200 billion, while Anthropic is also close to that figure according to a Financial Times study. In one year the valuation of these AI startups has skyrocketed. Source: Financial Times. And his immediate followers. Databricks, which was founded in 2013, was quick to join that segment and now has an estimated valuation of $100 billion. Figure (robotics), SSI (Sutskever’s startup), Scale AI, Perplexity, Thinking Machine Lab (Mira Murati’s startup) or Cursor complete this group of new startups (almost all of them) and with skyrocketing valuations. Investment fever. This growth in its valuation is due, of course, to the fact that all of these firms have raised multimillion-dollar investment rounds by firms that trust in a future full of AI. In fact, venture capital and investment companies in the US have injected 161 billion dollars throughout this year, and they have done so without being able to see even a hint that their bet is going to be a winner. All these AI companies They burn money like there’s no tomorrowand its profitability—and future—is an absolute unknown. bubbles are good. “Of course there is an (AI) bubble.” The person who says it is Hermant Taneja, president of the venture capital firm General Catalyst. His firm has invested in Anthropic and Mistral, and has done so without batting an eye because according to him, “Bubbles are good. Bubbles align capital and talent into a new trend, which causes some carnage, but also creates new lasting businesses that change the world.” Maybe it is, but only for a few.. Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, also think there is a bubblebut it coincides with that positive vision because it is probably him who will benefit (if everything explodes). Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, already indicated a year ago that the bubble will end up bursting and that only 1% of companies will survive. Bezos adds to that perception: “this is the good type of industrial bubble that is totally contrary to financial bubbles. The banking bubble, the crisis of the banking system, that is simply bad, as happened in 2008. These bubbles are the ones that society must avoid.” It happened with dotcoms. The analogy with the dotcom bubble It’s inevitable. At that time something similar happened with the inflated valuations of internet companies, and when the bubble burst only a few survived, but those that did managed to become the mistresses of the world. ANDThis bubble is much bigger. At least, from the point of view of the figures invested. In the dotcom fever, venture capital companies invested 10.5 billion dollars, which if we adjust for inflation becomes about 20 billion dollars. In 2021, these same firms invested 135 billion in startups in the SaaS (Software as a Service) segment. This year, investment in AI companies will likely exceed $200 billion, according to PitchBook. One of the directors of these firms describes this with a strong word. “This is FOMO“. And the valuations are skyrocketing. Startups that have $5 million in annual recurring revenue are seeking investment rounds that value them at $500 million. That they pursue those valuations that are 100 times their income makes ridiculous the excesses that already occurred in 2021, for example. Although venture capital firms know that they will lose money on most of their bets, they also hope that one or two that they get right will more than make up for that entire bet. Not investing is losing forever. Mark Zuckerberg shares this vision of venture capital firms, and his company is making colossal investments to avoid missing out on AI. The founder and CEO of Meta recently explained that He doesn’t care about losing 200,000 million dollarsbecause it would be much worse to be left behind in this race. Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, agrees and believes that a trillion dollars of investment will end up wasted, but AI will end up producing 10 times that in value: “The only way we know to create great technology is to try as many things as possible, see which ones work, and then focus on the ones that succeed.” Time will tell if they were right and if this bubble, as investors defend, is “a good one.” In Xataka | OpenAI is making the tech industry unite its destiny with yours. For the sake of the global economy, it better work

Ten banking giants are going after stablecoins. They are trying not to miss the digital money train

by

A consortium of ten of the world’s largest banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Santander and BNP Paribas, have announced that they are exploring creating their own stablecoins, according to Reuters. Why is it important. It is the first time that a consortium of this magnitude has officially reacted to the threat posed by stablecoins (stablecoins) for your business. What has happened. The consortium has made this announcement regarding this development. They would be digital assets anchored 1:1 to the main G7 currencies (dollar, euro, pound, etc.) and, key, they would work on public blockchains, the same technology used by the crypto world. The advertisement seeks to stand up to the absolute dominance of Tethera single company that currently manages a volume of 179 billion dollars outside the traditional banking system. The small print. This movement does not come so much in a context of innovation as in a crisis management room: The money that Tether moves is money that escapes the control and commissions of the SWIFT system. The bank is not creating something new, it is trying to build its own version of something that already exists, works on a large scale and is taking over their ground. The great contradiction is that, to compete, they must use a technology (blockchain) designed explicitly to eliminate intermediaries. The business model of a bank is, precisely, to be that intermediary. They are forcibly adopting the foundations of technology that threatens to erode an increasing part of their business. And now whatand. The ball is now in the court of governments and central banks. For a regulator, a stablecoin issued by a private bank continues to be a threat to monetary sovereignty. This movement only serves to hurry them up in the development of their own digital currencies (the famous CBDC). A CBDC controlled by the European Central Bank or the Federal Reserve could, in the long term, render obsolete both stablecoins of Tether as those now proposed by banks. The banking consortium, in its attempt not to be left behind, may have only managed to accelerate the arrival of a much more powerful competitor: the State itself. In Xataka | It is not bitcoin or Ethereum: Tether is the stablecoin that has turned its creators into emperors of finance Featured image | Alicja Ziajowska

The French Revolution proposed dividing the day into ten hours. It didn’t catch on, but an artist has created watches that respect that idea

by

Apparently it is a normal clock: its division by hours, its two hands (yes, we already know that if you are from Generation Z it is very possible that you do not know how to read time in this device, but let’s start from the fact that it seems to all of us that this looks like a traditional watch)… However, as soon as you look closely you will see that there is an extraordinary difference: the dial is divided into ten spaces instead of the usual twelve. In the name of Lewis Carroll, what the hell is this. Ruth Evans, provoking. The clock is the work of artist Ruth Ewan and is part of a series of similar creations, called ‘We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted To Be’, originally presented at Folkestone Artworks in 2011. It is a triennial of urban art works that, in its latest edition, includes 91 works by 52 artists. Ewan, a Scottish artist whose works always contain a social message, has retouched for the occasion some of the watches she created almost fifteen years ago for the contest. How they work. The strange arrangement of the numbers is not an aesthetic decision, but rather we are looking at clocks that divide each day into ten hours, each hour into one hundred minutes and each minute into one hundred seconds. Midnight takes place at ten and noon at five. Currently, you already know: a day has 24 hours, each of which has 60 minutes, each with 60 seconds. From there we also use decimals: a second has ten tenths of a second, one hundred hundredths or one thousand thousandths. But Ewan’s is an absolutely rational division of time that is not capricious: it has a historical basis. Making history. As we already said in its day, The ten-hour system was officially implemented in 1793 as part of the radical reforms spurred by the French Revolution. This decimal system was intended to simplify calculations and break with the past, aligning itself with other revolutionary aspects such as the republican calendar that divided the year into 12 identical months, of 30 days each and 10 days per week. The use of decimal time was mandatory from the end of 1793 until April 1795, when its use was suspended after only 500 days, due to great popular resistance and the difficulty of adapting daily life and existing clocks to this new system. Some watchmakers attempted to create watches with dual numbering (decimal and traditional) to help the transition, but the change clashed with customs and business needs that depended on the traditional system. What does it mean? Ewan’s intention with this watch is to show how changes in the organization of time can also symbolize profound social transformations, and proposes a new way of perceiving the world and questioning current systems. Let us remember that revolutionary France sought to introduce reason, equality and efficiency in all aspects of social life, including the measurement of time. With something as simple as reminding us that time can be perceived very differently with a simple change in the artifacts with which we measure it, Ewan proposes a possible new social order, and an invitation to imagine alternative futures. The work questions the rigidity of capitalist chronological time, and that is why Ewan prepared and distributed some pamphlets that spoke of the utopian concept of time in the Revolution. In Xataka | Physicists do not know precisely what time is. Still, they suspect it’s just an illusion.

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.