terrible

US supermarkets want to use digital price tags. Great idea for them, terrible for customers.

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Supermarket price tags want to live his particular revolution. The traditional ones, which normally show the price on a sheet of paper, cardboard or plastic, are in danger, because companies in the sector have a great idea: replace them with electronic ink digital screens that can be updated from a central server in a matter of seconds. It seems like a great idea, but consumers are clear that what it is is a nightmare for their pockets. The advancement of ESL/DSL labels. The technology that wants to replace traditional labels is the so-called Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) or Digital Shelf Labels (DSL), which are nothing more than electronic ink screens that can be managed instantly from a central server. Walmart, the largest retail chain in the world, is leading this transition and aims implement them in 100% of its establishments in the US before the end of 2026. The argument. This company explains that the measure seeks to reduce operating costs, and that any modification will always require validation by a human agent. Amanda Bailey, who leads a team at a Walmart store in West Chester (Ohio, USA) estimated that the time spent changing prices on products in the store had been reduced by 75% thanks to DSL, and with that time they can serve customers better. Consumers, against. A recent survey from the consulting firm GBAO Strategies reveals that consumers do not share Walmart’s optimism. According to the participants’ data, 65% are convinced that supermarkets will use this technology to make shopping carts more expensive. Only 3% believe that it will serve to make it cheaper. The idea is not bad. ESL tags are ultra-low power devices that connect to the premises’ Wi-Fi or Bluetooth infrastructure. Theoretically, the idea is very reasonable, because in addition to reducing price management times, it eliminates cashier errors, reduces paper waste, and allows offers from the physical store to be instantly synchronized with those on the website. But be careful. However, these labels also open the door to disturbing scenarios, such as the application of dynamic pricing. Cold drinks can suddenly cost more if it’s very hot outside, or from price adjustments based on inventory. There is even talk of more sophisticated AI algorithms and already patented by Walmart capable of managing a customer profile in real time to adjust the price of the product based on what the data ensures that they are willing to pay. Surveillance pricing. The industry talks about personalized prices, but consumer associations have dubbed the phenomenon “surveillance pricing” )”surveillance prices”, in a literal translation). The concept is simple, forceful and disturbing: the supermarket monitors the user’s purchase history and their geolocation through the mobile app in addition to other parameters such as the level of aisle traffic to squeeze its profit margin. If there is an electronic tag, I’m leaving. The rejection of these labels is clear in the aforementioned survey: 68% of them fear that these “surveillance prices” will increase the cost of living. 58% indicated that they would avoid buying in stores that implement this type of digital price tags. 67% demand a law that completely prohibits this technology. The reaction is not strange: in April inflation rose to 3.8% in the US (annualized data) while salaries only rose 3.6%. It is the first time that salaries have failed to keep up with inflation, according to CBS News. In Spain the situation is paradoxical. In December 2025 the salaries agreed in the agreement they had grown 3.49% compared to the previous year, while the average inflation until that month was 2.7% (very moderate due to low electricity and fuel). That seems like good news, but 1) two out of every three workers They do not have a salary review clause and 2) the price of food has become more expensive by 37% in the last five years and things are getting worse. The ghost of Uber, Wendy’s and Ticketmaster. We already know this story, because in the past they have already arisen various controversies with dynamic prices. Image | E Ink In Xataka | If you want to anticipate how your shopping basket will rise, you just have to look at what is happening to toilet paper.

AI text detectors are terrible. And there are writers winning awards thanks to it

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AI does many things well, but writing is not one of them. And detecting if something is written by her is even less so. From the first generations of ChatGPT, to advanced models like ClaudeAI has not been able to write in a human way. The tone, the imperfection, the non-repetition of hackneyed phrases… For the writer, it is relatively easy to identify when a text has been written with AI. Text detectors written by AI do not seem to have it so clear. Writing well has become a “this was probably written by an AI”, to the point that there are AIs detecting some of the great books of Spanish literature as created by AI. And since there is no way to fix this piphostio, there are those who are taking advantage. The mess. One of the news of the week shows the problem we have in identifying whether or not a text is written by AI. Three of the five regional winners of the Commonwalth Short Story Prizeorganized by the British literary magazine Granta, are suspected of having written their fiction works with AI. The accusations come from the readers of the works themselves, as well as from the writers who have participated. It is a contest with a very high reputation in the country, in which different short stories are presented and a prize is awarded to a writer for each of the major regions (Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe…). The prizes amount to up to $6,700 and it is one of the English references in short literature. How do people know? One of the winning works, The Serpent in the Grove, began to raise suspicions. Phrases like “not X, not Y, but Z.” (“Not the neat work of bees nor the harsh sound of a machete against the vine, but a harsh sound, as if the earth swallowed a scream and held it back.”) Strange words without context (“the forest hums at noon”). Some fragments detected by AI tools as 100% created by AI. The author did not make any statements in this regard and, browsing his social media accounts… one finds that they are also generated by AI. In fact, the matter is so murky that an effort even had to be made to prove that the author really existed, and that he was not a character created by AI. “We do not currently use AI systems in our judging process as this is an award for unpublished fiction. Providing an unpublished original work to an AI system would raise serious questions about consent and intellectual property. We also do not use AI to assess stories at any stage of the process. By submitting their stories to the award, authors accept our rules and guidelines for participation. These include confirmation that their submitted work is original. All shortlisted authors have personally declared that no AI was used and, after subsequent consultation, the Foundation has confirmed it”. Undetectable. In the case of Granta, they did not want to use AI systems to recognize whether or not the texts were artificially created. But if it had been done, it would be of no use. Well-known services such as ZeroGPT or Grammarly have significant limitations when it comes to detecting technical texts. In fact, there are already have detected recognized works or fragments of the Bible as AI-generated content. The same thing happens the other way around: there are texts that are 100% generated by AI that the detectors can interpret as 100% human, although it is somewhat more complicated. LLMs (language models like ChatGPT or Claude) don’t actually write, they just make predictions. Its basic mechanism is to calculate, word by word, which is the most likely next given the previous context. This produces coherent, well-structured, grammatically impeccable texts… and flat, very flat and robotic. AI almost always chooses the most predictable option, because that is what it is optimized for, and it has no qualms about repeating patterns in the results it offers to each and every person who uses it. Bad writing as a solution? It is easy to find examples that illustrate ways to circumvent these systems. In the case of yours truly, I am preparing a systematic review on a fairly academic, quite technical topic. The University uses AI detectors, so I usually run the text through it to check the percentage. My surprise lies precisely in how AI detectors penalize correct writing. 100% human texts detected with an 80% probability of having been generated by AI. Solution? Write them but with somewhat more disjointed phrases and without absolute rigor. Be that as it may, the reflection is clear: if not even AI knows how to distinguish a text written with AI… how can humans confirm it at a legal level? In Xataka | We have a problem with AI. Those who were most enthusiastic at the beginning are starting to get tired of it.

Someone has looked at the temperatures under the Pacific and found a terrible forecast for next year

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On September 1, 1513, on the verge of despair, Vasco Núñez de Balboa left Santa María de la Antigua in search of “a new sea rich in gold”. It took weeks and he lost dozens of men, but on the 29th of that same month he was the first known European to reach the shores of the South Sea. We still called him that. Seven years later, Magellan (emerging from that enormous and labyrinthine hell of canals, hurricane winds and storms that we call Tierra del Fuego) He called it Pacific and the name stuck. But there is nothing peaceful about it. That huge chunk of water concentrates most of the planet’s seismic and volcanic activity, generates the most violent typhoons, and is home to some of the most severe extratropical storms that exist. And I haven’t talked about El Niño yet. What about El Niño? We have been talking about the 2027 ENSO event for the past few days. We have always done it with quite a worrying tone and the truth is that, the more we know, the less exaggerated it seems to me: there are meteorologists who already describe the subsurface heat of the equatorial Pacific as “possibly the blob of warm anomalies ever recorded since we know how to measure these things“. And, as I say, it is not an informative “outburst”: the heat that is moving eastward beneath the tropical Pacific is (in volume and intensity) comparable to or greater than that which preceded the great Children of 1997-98 and 2015-16. What’s more, that heat is moving across a planet that is already 1.4 degrees above the pre-industrial level. Why are we getting nervous? This, I think, is the central question. First of all because what is invisible matters more than what we can see. In fact, “what we can see” (what we can measure on the surface of the ocean) is simply a trailer for what we are going to see in the coming months. It is true that the mechanisms that allow coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere are always mysterious and the uncertainty is great. However, as we move out of spring (the time that most “confuses” the models) the quality of our data increases. The problem is that, these new data, They only corroborate (little by little) our first intuitions. Of course, caution is necessary. Both ECMWF and NOAA they ask for caution and yes, it is important to be cautious. In one month, the scenario of having a Child before summer has suddenly become very likely and this growth in probabilities has left us all out of the loop. The public conversation, as a consequence, is getting out of control. But in reality, we are in completely uncharted territory. The problem with being unprecedented is that we grope in the dark. If we move forward. Today, there is only one clear idea: as in the 19th century, what happens will depend on the decisions we make. Image | Alex Boreham In Xataka | There are more and more extreme weather events. In return, they are leaving fewer victims than ever

Drink water right before going to sleep? Science has finally clarified whether it is a good idea or a terrible enemy of sleep

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Before going to sleep, some people may have an almost standardized ritual in which they should drink one or two glasses of water, and also have a backup on the bedside table in case they get thirsty in the middle of the night. But there are also many questions about whether it is positive to drink water before sleeping for eight hours or if it is counterproductive by forcing us to get up in the middle of the night. And here science has something to say. It has benefits. What is clearly known is that during the night our body does not go into a total pause, but rather continues with an active metabolism even though it is attenuated. That is why we lose approximately half a liter of water simply due to evaporation when breathing and sweating, and to compensate for this, hydration can be the best ally. It is investigated. A Japanese studio published this same year analyzed a group of middle-aged men to conclude that drinking 280 ml of water just before going to bed significantly reduces morning depressive mood and improves well-being upon waking up. But it is not the only one, because a 2025 crossover trial with 15 healthy adults found a relationship between drinking fluids before sleeping and the duration and quality of sleep. REM phasewhich is what makes us truly rest. And it makes sense, because adequate hydration favors the release of vasopressin, a key hormone for regulating the biological clock and preventing tissue dehydration during deep sleep. And it is essential, because it can translate into less fatigue and headaches in the morning. He has problems. It will not always be beneficial to have this habit, since the main enemy of drinking water at night is nocturiawhich is the need to wake up to urinate during the night. And although the total time we spend awake is not drastically altered, because it is only a few minutes, there is an interruption in sleep. It depends on the quantity. Logically, drinking a glass of water is not the same as drinking a whole bottle before going to sleep. That is why when you go over half a liter of water there is a possibility that some pre-existing problems such as chronic insomnia will worsen or even increase the risk of falls when getting up in the dark. How to do it. There are a series of tips that we can follow to stay hydrated during sleep and they are summarized in the following points: You should limit yourself to drinking around a quarter of a liter of water in the final part of the day to avoid overfilling your bladder. The last glass of water should be drunk two hours before going to sleep. Maintain good hydration throughout the day to avoid reaching the end of the day with a major hydration problem. Images | krakenimages.com on Freepik In Xataka | There are people obsessed with magnesium as a supplement when the best way is to put it directly into your diet

A woman spent six months in prison because an AI made a mistake. The terrible thing is that no one checked it

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Angela Lipps is a resident of Tennessee (USA) who has never been on a plane or taken a trip to other states in the country. Even so ended up in a security cell 2,000 km from her home for a terrifying reason: AI facial recognition software decided that her face matched that of a scammer operating in North Dakota. we have it. It all started with the clue given by the security cameras. Fargo police were investigating a bank fraud in which a woman used fake military IDs to withdraw huge amounts of money. The detectives in charge of the case decided to entrust the work of recognizing the images from the security cameras to a AI facial recognition softwareand after the analysis the system returned a name: Angela Lipps. An agent took a look at her social media, decided that her body and hairstyle matched those of the suspect, and signed the arrest warrant. like in the movies. A US Marshals team showed up at Lipps’ home in Tennessee and He detained her at gunpoint. She was babysitting four children, but that didn’t matter: she was treated like a fugitive from justice. They did not ask him any prior questions, nor did they compare his version. They didn’t even have physical evidence that placed her in North Dakota beyond what the facial recognition system had said. And since the AI ​​said it, it had to be true, right? Six months in prison (and in limbo). Being considered a fugitive, Lipps was not eligible for bail, and spent 108 days in a Tennessee jail waiting to be extradited to a state she had never visited. Then, in late October, she was transferred to a prison in North Dakota. In all that time, no one at the Fargo Police Department bothered to even check to see if the suspect had an alibi because once again, there was no need to check: AI couldn’t fail. At least, according to the police forces that were in charge of the case. Zasca. The funny thing is that proving Lipps’ innocence was really easy. When a public defender finally reviewed the suspect’s bank statements, the case fell apart. While the scammer was stealing thousands of dollars in North Dakota, Angela Lipps was buying tobacco at a Tennessee gas station, using Uber Eats and cashing her Social Security check in her hometown. The GPS and bank records were definitive and irrefutable evidence. Come home come back. On December 24, on Christmas Eve, the prosecutor’s office in charge of handling the case dropped the charges and Angela Lipps was released. Of course: they did it without further ado, on the street, in a state she didn’t know and where it was very cold while she had been arrested wearing summer clothes. The defense lawyers were in charge of paying for a hotel for him and another NGO called F5 Project helped him return home. The tragedy does not end there. The problem is that his return to Tennessee was not happy at all. During the six months he spent in prison, Lipps was unable to pay his bills and ended up losing his house, his car, his savings and even his dog. The Fargo police chief, who held a news conference to mark his retirement, did not even want to answer questions about the case. There has been no official apology or compensation for this huge police error. It’s not the first time, but it seems incredible that it won’t be the last.. We do not know what will end up happening with this scandal, but it is not the first of its kind that has occurred. In the US they have been arresting suspects using facial recognition systems for some time, but These systems fail and cause arrests of innocent people. This type of problem of poor application of AI tools in criminal investigations is present in Spain, where we already talked about the tragic consequences of using VioGén or what happened to him false complaint detection system just a year ago. AI can help, but in these types of processes human supervision is especially crucial. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | AI videos have broken Instagram and TikTok algorithms. Welcome to the new “AI dumps”

We have solved the problem of space junk by burning it. A SpaceX lithium trail just proved to be a terrible idea

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For decades, the aerospace industry has had a consensus solution to the problem of space junk: burn it. A fairly simple phenomenon that is based on the satellite reentry when it ends its useful life in the atmosphere so that it begins to suffer friction and completely disintegrates. But the reality is that we are facing a huge problemsince physics reminds us that matter is neither created nor destroyed. We have captured him. Science is realizing that we are not removing space junk, we are just vaporizing it into metallic aerosols that are changing the chemistry of our own sky. And the definitive clue to this problem was found on the night of February 19, 2025where a team of German researchers pointed a laser into the sky over Kühlungsborn. What they detected in this case at about 100 kilometers altitude, in the thermosphere, was something that should not be there, since there were large amounts of lithium. And it wasn’t there for no reason, since it just coincided hours before with the re-entry of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which had disintegrated over the Atlantic between Ireland and the United Kingdom. Something new. The signal measured in this case was not very subtle, since was 10 times bigger to the usual concentration in that region, and this finding was collected in an article because it marks a great milestone: it is the first time that the metallic contamination released from a specific piece of space junk at the exact moment of burning has been observed “live” and from Earth. The metallic iceberg. The incident with this Falcon is not something isolated in our society, but is a symptom of the structural change we are experiencing. In 2023, a team of researchers already used different devices to be able analyze more than 50,000 aerosol particles in the stratospherewhich is the layer where our ozone layer resides, at about 15-30 km altitude. What did they see? Historically, the metals found in the stratosphere came from meteorites that entered our planet. But today it is estimated that 210 tons of aluminum per year in the atmosphere comes from the disintegration of satellites and rockets, compared to the 20 tons per year that vaporize naturally from meteors. But lithium is not the only metal in the atmosphere of our planet, since scientists have detected more than twenty elements, among which aluminum, copper, lead or silver stand out… This is something that does not fit with the normal composition of meteorites, but it does coincide with the materials that different aerospace companies use to create their rockets and satellites. There is no planning. The pace of launches has skyrocketed in recent years, and if today we are close to 10,000 objects orbiting the Earth, we have to know that only Starlink aspires to have more than 40,000 satellites in Earth orbit low. But the problem is that the useful life of these devices is short, so their inevitable fate is to end up vaporized over our heads. Its effects. Science here is quite clear that the effects of filling the stratosphere with these metals are currently unknown. But the projections suggest that we should not be calm because elements such as aluminum and copper are important catabolizers that can affect the delicate ozone layer. In addition to this, metallic particles can act as special condensation nuclei, altering the microphysics of polar stratospheric clouds. And if that were not enough, adding anthropogenic material to sulfuric acid aerosols changes their size and ability to scatter sunlight. Ironically, we are altering the reflectivity of the stratosphere, the same layer that some scientists want to use for climate geoengineering, without knowing what the consequences will be. The planetary limit. The models here suggest that, if the planned megaconstellations materialize, the fraction of stratospheric particles contaminated with aluminum from satellites will rise from the current 10% to around 50%. In other words, the load of metals in the stratosphere could grow by around 40% compared to natural levels. Here for years space agencies have assumed that disintegrating satellites was a completely harmless and clean practice. The example of the Falcon 9, which has validated the warnings of the scientific community, shows us that the Earth’s orbit and our atmosphere make up a connected ecosystem. In this way, launching tens of thousands of objects into space and then burning them on our own roof may be a solution to keep space clean, but we are dirtying the sky in return. In Xataka | Spain and Portugal have joined forces to launch satellites with a mission: to monitor catastrophes in real time

India has bombed clouds to improve its terrible air quality. They have wasted 400,000 dollars

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The sky of New Delhi is a painting. While half the world is focused on reduce your emissions and improve air quality (something that ultra-polluted giants like China are successfully implementing), the other half continues with inefficient decarbonization policies. India is one of themand the arrival of winter does not help. To combat its poor air quality, the country has “sown its clouds” about New Delhi. And there are voices that suggest that they have spent a fortune and it has not been worth anything. Crisis. The situation of the large cities of India, with the focus on a capital that has more than 28 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area and a density of almost 6,000 inhabitants per km², is really complicated. Vehicle emissions account for 40% of emissions in the city, but there are other sources such as construction dust, inorganic aerosols or industrial activities themselves that contribute a lot. ‘dirt’ in the city air. The quality is not good at any time of the year, but in the post-monsoon season, between October and November, the situation becomes critical. It is when a large amount of rice stubble and other waste is burned, which, together with the rest of the sources of particles since the arrival of cold air traps the pollutants near the ground, causes the amount of particles to skyrocket. And it’s not a joke: esteem that between 2009 and 2019 there were nearly four million deaths in India linked to poor air quality. Figures. To measure this “dirt” in the air, we turn to PM2.5. It is a measure of the amount of fine particles that are suspended in the air, specifically those that have a diameter equal to or less than 2.5 micrometers. They are so small that they can penetrate deep into the lungs, reaching the blood system and posing a serious health risk. That said, PM2.5 levels in Delhi are between 140 and 170 µg/m³, almost 12 times higher than the safe levels set by the WHO, of 15 µg/m³. Petter Ljungman, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, analyzed the role of these particles and determined that “each increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter in the concentration of PM2.5 leads to an 8.6% increase in mortality.” Bombing the clouds. In the face of a crisis like this, two things can be done: become aware and rethink the country’s strategy or resort to desperate measures. As we read in Reutersit seems that the Government has opted for the latter. On October 28, the Delhi government in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur carried out the first tests of cloud seeding. This is India’s first attempt at this technique and it is not about “creating clouds”, but rather making the existing ones release water. Using a series of catalysts launched from aircraft, water droplets contained in a cloud can be made to coalesce into larger, heavier droplets. In this way, and due to their own weight, they fall to the ground in the form of rain. It is not something new because, although it may seem like something out of science fiction, we have been “sowing” clouds for half a century. Negative… results. The problem is that each time we have had more and more evidence that it is something that is of little use. If clouds are good candidates, yes, showers are generated, but the big problem is that it is a very expensive practice for the results obtained and that is the reason why more and more countries have abandoned his projects related to this “creation” of rain. In the case of the Indian experiment, the cost was about $400,000 to put into operation the planes that dispersed sodium chloride and silver iodide over several districts north of the capital. Each of the flights cost about $70,000 and the person who said that it was not of much use was not an external entity or someone critical of the Government: it was the director of IIT Kanpur himself. Manindra Agarwal admitted that the results were “not as desired” because the humidity levels in the clouds were extremely low. It was a crucial error because it is estimated that the minimum for condensing these cloud droplets is 50% and the chosen ones had levels between 15 and 20%. Despite this, Agarwal commented that a reduction of between 6% and 18% was observed in certain particle measurement parameters, but they were at very localized and short-lived moments. deaf ears. And of course, faced with the investment of such a fortune without results, it did not take long for the voices to say “I told you so” to rain down. Climate activists said it, but also two other official bodies: the Indian Meteorological Department and the Air Quality Management Commission. The two organizations indicated That the technique requires specific clouds that are absent during Delhi’s cold, dry winter. Recommendations. In the end, what this action demonstrates is that, in desperate situations, desperate measures only work as a source of funds. The solutions must be considered more in the medium and short term and this is something in which China has served as an example. In the case of India, what is being proposed is control over stubble burning during this autumn season, better waste management and stricter industrial regulations. On the other hand, the country has taken giant steps in recent years in terms of transport electrification is concerned, but progress must also be made in improving urban forestry that “traps” pollution and in the use of large-scale renewable energy. Until they do that, the almost 30 million inhabitants of New Delhi will breathe air equivalent what they would inhale if they smoked seven cigarettes a day. Images | Naomi E Tesla, Submitmpsd In Xataka | The Atacama salt flat is the key on which the electric car industry pivots. And it’s starting to dry

The “best mechanic in Spain” says that leaving the car parked for a long time causes “irreversible damage.” It’s not as terrible as it seems

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Any object that uses mechanical components is something that should be used from time to time. Although we are talking about cars here, it is not exclusive to cars. If you have one bicyclesome automatic watch either photo cameras old, it is something that you most likely have in mind. And the thing is that, with the passage of time, the liquids dry out or become stuck and the components can begin to suffer from corrosion. That’s exactly what happens to a car. When a vehicle is not movingthe moving parts lose lubrication and the liquids always remain in the same places. It is also easier for corrosion to appear. In short, it is the same case as the previous ones. With the difference that a car is an object that usually weighs between one and two tons and is designed to move at high speeds on the road, leaving aside its maintenance clearly puts our health and that of the rest of the drivers we meet on the road at risk. But what should we fear and what can we not worry about? For the best mechanic in Spain in 2023, the problem is obvious: “irreversible damage may occur.” a long, long time In 2023, Javier Sendín, from Talleres Cardiocar de Salamanca, was chosen as best mechanic of Spain for The Official Workshop Community. This award delivered annually and over the years it has brought together more than a thousand participants. The winner is chosen after online tests in which theoretical questions are presented and, phase by phase, it ends up deciding who is the best in Spain. In The Vanguard They have contacted Sendín to ask him about some risks that we should not overlook when maintaining our car. Whoever was the best mechanic in Spain has remembered the importance of not forgetting of a vehicle because we cannot expect that after a long time without starting, the car will be in perfect condition. “Although it may not seem like it (leaving the car still for weeks), this can be harmful. Components such as the suspension are affected, since the silentblocks and other rubber pieces tend to dry out or warp when left in the same position for weeks or months. It is also very negative for the battery, both in thermal vehicles and, especially, in hybrids and electric vehicles (…) there is a risk of irreversible damage.” What “the best mechanic in Spain 2023” claims is undoubted. The question is how much time has to pass for the damage to be especially noticeable. The truth is that if a car remains stationary for a few weeks, the damage is still minor. For example, it is not good for tires spend a lot of time supporting the weight of the car in the same position as deformities may arise. Despite this, in less than a month you will not notice substantial changes. Of course, keep an eye on its pressure so that when you get going again everything is in the best state. The battery is the other problem that can appear when the car has not moved for a long time. Especially if its useful life is already on its last legs, it is not a good idea to leave the car stationary for a long time. Yes indeed, if only a few weeks passthe worst that can happen is that the battery is completely discharged. However, if the battery is in good condition, may take more than two months to download. If we contemplate this happening, a good idea is to unplug the battery completely. So, when should we start paying real attention to our car? The American Automobile Association recommends that we put more emphasis on car care when they pass more than 45 days immobile. In that case, you should try to keep the car indoors and in a dry place. In this way, the car is more protected from corrosion and components that suffer from changes in temperature and humidity, such as tires, are more protected. Among the advice given from RACE There is checking the levels of the car’s fluids: brakes, coolant or oil. And with the passage of time, part of them may evaporate or have dried out in some specific points. Keep in mind, however, that again we are talking about months with the car stopped and not a few weeks. In that case, do not force the mechanics excessively when putting the car back into operation since we will not be risking any breakage. In fact, it is estimated that until after three months Since the car came to a complete stop, the components will not start to cause real problems. That is why possible damage from having the car stopped is not the most common case. Yes indeed, from the RACC They also recommend paying close attention to gasoline. First of all, we should not rush the tank to the maximum since impurities always remain at the bottom of it and it is easier for them to end up damaging a component such as the spark plugs. But if the car has been stopped for a long time it is not good to leave it loaded with fuel either. Over time, it loses properties. If we have a classic car that we use a few times a year, it is best to leave some gasoline in the tank but renew it shortly after we get going. You don’t have to use up the tank but you also don’t have to leave the car forgotten with a full tank. We talked, once again, about leaving the car sitting for months. Photo | Felix Neudecker and Sten Rademaker In Xataka | The “one minute rule” or how to always keep your car ready and avoid breakdowns worth 3,000 euros

We have filled Europe with traps to combat the terrible Asian wasp. It was a bad idea

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That non-endemic species reach new territories It’s a colossal problem. It is estimated that more than half of contemporary extinctions They are the fault of invaders and there are examples of kicks (reaching the Arctic due to climate change). He coypu or the blue crab They are two of those invasive animals, but if we share something in Europe it is the “fear” of Asian wasps: a ‘bug’ that we have been fighting for 20 years and against which we are losing miserably. And the big problem is that we are killing flies with cannon shots. vespa velutina. About three centimeters long, this wasp came to Europe at the beginning of the century. Supposedly, he did so aboard a cargo ship from China, landing on the French coast and, since then, colonizing other territories. In 2010 the species spread to Spain, entering from the Basque Country, colonizing the Cantabrian coast and arriving in Galiciabut it has also expanded to Portugal, Germany and even the United Kingdom. It is already well established and, although it is true that it is not more aggressive than “our” wasp, when it gets angry and stings it can cause serious allergic reactions, causing occasional deaths. The worst thing is that it continues to expand at a rate of about 80 kilometers of territory gained each year. Invaders. It’s no longer that they can bother us, but rather that, as an invasive species, they do what they do best: destroy the native ones. And not with other wasps, but with bees. The Asian wasp is a predator of other insects, but has a predilection for honey bees. It attacks their hives indiscriminately, causing enormous damage to beekeeping. At a time when awareness about importance of bees in naturebeyond for him human consumption of honeythere are those who take matters into their own hands and have started setting traps. It moves fast Flies with cannon shots. There are several types. On the one hand, the most homemade: the typical upside-down bottle that we fill with mixtures attractive to wasps (juices, wines, fruits and sugar), creating a sticky paste in which the wasp becomes trapped. There are others that are more sophisticated and selective, with large holes for wasps to enter, but with release mechanisms for smaller animals and pheromones that attract insects. The problem is that they are remedies that can do more harm than anything else because, although commercial traps have release mechanisms for accidentally captured insects, you have to be careful and, basically, it is killing flies with cannon fire. Those who do not have to fall fall. And the main criticism is precisely that: the traps do not discriminate and damage is created to biodiversity because many insects that are not the Asian wasp are killed. Among them are moths, beetles, flies, bees and an ally that fights against the Asian invader: the European hornet. In a recent investigation published Pest Management Science has analyzed how in Galician vineyards, traps against Vespa velutina have turned out to be ineffective in controlling the damage that the insect does to grapes, but although Asian wasps are trapped, other species that have an important role in pollination are also captured. Solutions? The request of the researchers is that the Galician administration, promoter of this massive trapping, takes a step back because what is produced is a false idea of ​​effectiveness due to general captures, but without implying that the objective, which is to stop the Asian wasp, is met. What do they propose? That this elimination technique be reconsidered and look at the scientific evidence, since “environmental problems are complex and can rarely be solved with quick and easy solutions.” It is not a solution as such to the damage that these invasive wasps can cause, but it is to put an end to the indiscriminate killing of other insects that do a job in our ecosystem. What is evident is that, as we mentioned a few paragraphs ago, for a kind of outsider to arrive and establish itself so quickly in a territory is something devastating. And the Asian wasp is a perfect example. Images | Clame Reporter, Didier Descouens In Xataka | After centuries of disappearance, there are people releasing beavers into the Tagus and other rivers in Spain. The problem is that we don’t know who

Printers have been a terrible product for 30 years. The fault is Nash’s balance

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Let’s go back to 1949. A young mathematician named John Nash Find an original idea for your thesis at Princeton University. Game theory already existed thanks to the previous works (1944) by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, but the von Neumann model focused on zero -sum games (one player wins, the other loses). Nash had a spark of genius in proposing that in any game there should be at least one point where no player could improve his situation by changing his strategy unilaterally. Formalized that idea in a short two -page article (‘Equilibrium Points in N-Person Games‘) In January 1950, and with it revolutionized history. Including printers. Is the printer the worst technological product in history? And is that the printers is an almost manual example to apply the call Nash balance. These types of products have been following – at least, to a large extent – the economic model of the machin and blades: you sell cheap the first, but face the second. Consumers know that when we buy an ink printer, the price will be economical, almost ridiculous. But we also have assumed that ink and cartridges for those printers will be very expensive. And if they are not, what will end up being is Ink subscription… either to the printers themselves. Not only that: in the last 30-40 years we have seen how printers have become-probably- The worst technological product in history. It is no longer only that printers can get stuck or work erratically. The real problem is terrifying form in which manufacturers have protected their business, preventing in all possible ways that users can for example use Compatible cartridges and tonniers of third parties. Nash’s balance explains very well why manufacturers do what they do. Imagine two great manufacturers such as HP and Canon with two options: Expensive and blocked cartridges (current model) Cheap and open cartridges (which allow competition and lower prices) Given this situation, HP and Canon managers know that three types of market situations can be found: If both keep expensive and blocked cartridges: they earn a lot If one “opens” its cartridges and lowers prices and the other remains closed: the one that opens loses income and the one that is still closed earns more … or the opposite. Whatever happens, one will end up winning a lot and the other losing a lot. If both open: there is strong competition again, but both win less Given that scenario, manufacturers make an inevitable business decision: they close their cartridge technology and sell it face Because that’s what gives more benefits to everyone. Nash’s balance is fully fulfilled here: it describes a stable point for each player (company) but does not ensure that the result is the best for the whole. Collectively and from the social point of view, the optimal would be to open the technology and lower prices: companies would earn less, but the market would be larger and fair. Reality, as we know, is very different. But maybe that reality can change. We need a “Tesla printer” The printer user has therefore 30 years constant bleeding which translates into an exaggerated expense in cartridges and also in an erosion of time and productivity. What has happened with printers is something extraordinary: We have normalized that printers are almost more a problem than a solution. The Open Printer, a striking printer project “Open Source” and is based on the use of HP cartridges but accepts compatible third -party cartridges. Source: The Open Printer. And that is why we have a panorama in which there is a great opportunity for a revolution in the printers market. This segment is hungry for an ethical disruptive: the manufacturer who abandons the current Nash balance can change everything here. It is a mature field in which an innovative based on transparency and reliability could not only capture the market, but even redefine it. What the market needs is a kind of “Tesla printer”. And we refer to a printer that causes in this segment what Tesla managed to provoke in the car industry: a machine that has a great design, a reliable operation and that is also designed to last. But above all, that offers an alternative to current printers and their dictatorial philosophy with cartridges. Here are some projects underway. The project The Open Printerfrom the Parisian startup Open Tooks, is intended as A repair ink printer, Open Sourceand that focuses its operation on reparable cartridges. Its creators claim that this printer is created “with standard mechanical components and with modular parts”, which theoretically simplifies its assembly, modification and repair. Source: The Open Printer. In fact, the Open Printer works with a small Raspberry Pi W plate as an operations center. There are no proprietary firmware or cartridges with DRM. It is designed to use HP63 cartridges (HP 302 in Europe) both in black and in color but they serve both those of HP and third parties. And not only can you print on AAR or A4 folios, but even in 27 mm paper rolls. There are no details about its price or availability for the moment, but the idea will not be launched directly, and will first be launched as a collective financing project. We know for previous failures (and frauds) that such financing models It has its risksbut in this case that option seems reasonable and we only have to wait for the best of the project. That may not be the only launch in this regard, and in fact There is an even more interesting rumor. Frameworkthe company that has conquered us with its repairable laptops, seems to be considering the idea of ​​creating its own printer (modular and repairable? We expect that!). This is how at least a recent message indicates in X in which they commented on how “one of you must have sabotaged the office printer and has forced us to manufacture one. It is not possible that HP is selling printers that broken.” … Read more

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