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First it was a suspicious cake. Now China has discovered that thousands of restaurants on its delivery apps… do not exist

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One of the most famous stories of the internet era it happened in 2013when American journalists discovered that a supposed restaurant called “The Shed at Dulwich” became one of the best rated of London despite the fact that, for much of its existence, it did not even serve real food. The case demonstrated how a compelling digital presence can be more powerful than an authentic physical business. The cake that uncovered the cake. It all started with something seemingly trivial. A customer from Beijing ordered a birthday cake through a delivery application and received a decorated product with inedible flowers. The claim seemed like just another incident among millions of daily orders, but the subsequent investigation ended up uncovering one of the largest food fraud schemes in Chinese digital commerce. The business he had purchased from claimed to have nearly 380 stores spread across the country. Actually, I didn’t have not a single physical store. The licenses were fake and the company existed only within the applications. What started as an isolated complaint ended up opening the door to a national review that revealed a much deeper problem: “ghost kitchens,” thousands of restaurants that seemed real to consumers. They just didn’t exist.. Food delivery drivers start their workday for Kangaroo delivery service in Beijing The operation. Apparently, the BBC told this week that the so-called “ghost kitchens” were operating by taking advantage of the control gaps of the delivery platforms. These businesses advertised themselves as conventional restaurants, often using rented licenses, falsified documentation, or non-existent addresses. When a customer placed an order, the supposed restaurant I didn’t cook anything. In many cases the order was automatically transferred to intermediary platforms that organized auctions between different suppliers. The order ended up in the hands of whoever agreed to prepare it. for the lowest price possible. The consumer believed they were buying from a specific brand when, in reality, the food could come from any unknown kitchen, without knowing who made it or under what sanitary conditions. The figures of a monster. The national investigation carried out by the Chinese authorities revealed the magnitude of the phenomenon. Inspectors identified more of 67,000 ghost restaurants distributed among the main delivery applications in the country. In addition, they discovered a chain of illegal orders that only in the cake sector had been managed around of 3.6 million orders. The authorities they concluded that delivery platforms, middlemen and numerous sellers had built a parallel supply chain based on opacity and in mass subcontracting. What seemed like a set of isolated frauds turned out to be an industrialized system that operated on a large scale and moved millions of transactions. The price war behind the fraud. They remembered in Nikkei that the origin of the problem lies in the fierce competition in the home delivery sector in China. With almost 630 million users Using these services, platforms compete to attract customers through constant discounts, aggressive promotions and an ever-increasing range of establishments. In that context, the pressure to reduce costs It ended up generating a race to the bottom. An example cited by the investigations showed how a cake sold to the customer for $35 ended up being awarded to a supplier willing to manufacture it. for just 11 dollars. Between intermediaries, commissions and platforms, much of the money disappeared before reaching the chef who actually prepared the product. The consequence was a model that rewarded volume and price above quality, traceability and food safety. The platforms, in the garlic. The investigation was not limited to the sellers. The authorities they concluded that many platforms had deliberately relaxed their controls to accelerate their growth. According to regulators, companies they did not properly verify the licenses of the establishments and allowed the presence of unauthorized sellers because a broader offer helped to attract more users. Some employees they came to recognize that applying strict controls could cause merchants to migrate to rival applications. The result was a situation in which commercial incentives ended up trumping legal and health obligations. Historical fines. Beijing’s response has been one of the most forceful seen in years within the Chinese digital economy. The authorities imposed sanctions worth 3.6 billion yuanabout 500 million dollars, to large companies such as Taobao, JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo, Douyin and other platforms involved. Some businesses were temporarily suspended from recruiting new vendors and forced to eliminate detected ghost restaurants. Sector analysts have described the operation as one of the tougher regulatory sanctions imposed on internet companies since the entry into force of the current food legislation. The new digital surveillance. From now on, platforms must verify periodically that the licenses are valid, that the physical addresses exist and that the businesses actually correspond to the advertised establishments. Restaurants without in-person service will have to state it clearly to users. At the same time, some cities have begun to implement transparent kitchens equipped with cameras that allow you to follow the preparation of food live. They are also being deployed artificial intelligence systems capable of detecting fake photographs, supervising kitchens and analyzing possible irregularities. Even delivery drivers have been incorporated into the surveillance system through reward programs for those who report suspicious establishments. The end of uncontrolled expansion. Beyond food safety, the campaign reflects a broader shift in Chinese regulatory strategy. For years, platforms grew by prioritizing the number of users, sellers and orders. Now Beijing wants to replace this accelerated expansion with a model more controlled and predictable. The appearance of tens of thousands of non-existent restaurants showed the extent to which competition had distorted the market. What began with a simple cake purchased online ended up revealing an ecosystem where millions of consumers believed they were choosing between thousands of different restaurants when, in many cases, behind the screen there was no establishment, no dining room and, sometimes, not even a real company. Image | TurnOnTheNight, Tracy Hunter, SKWTAM8 In Xataka | Just Eat knows that we Spaniards are hooked on Delivery. This is how … Read more

Thousands of Spaniards are obsessed with Hyrox. So Amazfit has launched two smart watches for them

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Crossfit is dead long live Hyrox. The other day a colleague asked me what the hell is that, and I had a hard time answering him in a simple way. So that we understand each other, it is basically a mix of running and seasonal exercises. You do one mile, move on to a station (sled pushing, burpees, rowing, weighted lunges), you do another mile, move on to another station for a total of eight. A boom that already brings together thousands of participants in competitions. Such is the Hyrox boom that one of the most relevant smart watch manufacturers in the world, Amazfit, has released two especially oriented for sports measurements of this discipline. Let’s take a look at the new ones Amazfit Balance 3 and Balance Ultra. Technical sheet of the Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra amazfit balance 3 amazfit balance ultra DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 47.5 × 47.5 × 12.5mm 48.6 x 48.6 x 13.3mm MATERIAL Grade five titanium for the case Stainless steel and grade five titanium versions for the case SCREEN 1.5 inches AMOLED technology Resolution 480×480 3,000 nits peak brightness Supports glove mode sapphire lens 1.5 inches AMOLED technology Resolution 480×480 3,000 nits peak brightness Supports glove mode Sapphire Lens STRAP SIZE 22mm 22mm CONNECTIVITY Dual band GPS Bluetooth 2.4GHz WiFi Dual band GPS Bluetooth 2.4GHz WiFi SENSORS BioTracker PPG biometric sensor (supports blood oxygen measurement) temperature sensor Acceleration sensorGyroscopic sensorGeomagnetic sensorbarometric altimeterAmbient light sensor BioTracker PPG biometric sensor (supports blood oxygen measurement) temperature sensor Acceleration sensorGyroscopic sensorGeomagnetic sensorbarometric altimeterAmbient light sensor ENDURANCE 10ATM 45 meters diving 10ATM 45 meters diving processor ZPS3044S ZPS3044S memory 64GB 64GB BATTERY 780mAh 780mAh COMPATIBILITY iOS and Android iOS and Android SOFTWARE Zepp OS 6 Zepp OS 6 PRICE 349 euros for the steel version 449 euros for the titanium version 599 euros, unique titanium version Born for Hyrox Amazfit Balance Ultra vs Amazfit Balance 3 The most notable thing about the new Amazfit Balance Ultra and Amazfit Balance 3 is that they are specifically designed for Hyrox. It’s not that they have just one specific way to practice this sport, it’s that they have an entire library of hybrid training plans to prepare ourselves when making one. They are able to create strategies depending on the actual length of the track we are going to compete on, and even the size of the ROX Zone (the transition area between the running track and the exercise stations). The degree of analysis during Hyrox training is more than precise: We will see the weather in each of the stations in the apptarget pace, completed pace and average pace. In addition, a monitoring system called Hybrid Chargein which not only a measurement of physical parameters is made objectively: the watch will also ask us about our subjective sensation to track our recovery even more completely. These measurements will also analyze how we have performed in our training, to tell us if we have done better in the strength or resistance stations, with the aim that we are clear about the points to improve. Two great clocks with all the letters Beyond the specialization in Hyrox that Amazfit has wanted to provide to its Balance 3 and Balance Ultra, we are faced with two watches with more than interesting specifications. The panel is both 1.5 inches, AMOLED, with sapphire coating (it is quite difficult to scratch us due to the physical properties of this material), and with a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Don’t you know if this is a lot or a little? It is the same brightness of a iPhone 17 Pro Maxwithout going any further. The main differences are in the battery. The Ultra model has 780mAh and lasts up to 30 days of typical use according to Amazfitwhile the Balance 3 has 658mAh and up to 21 days of typical use. Although in real use with GPS the figures go down, Amazfit is well known for offering one of the most complete autonomy in sports watches. There are also slight differences in the finish: The Ultra model is finished entirely in grade five titaniumwhile the Balance 3 has grade five titanium and stainless steel versions. Of course, the steel Balance 3 is not completely metallic (just the frame), the casing is plastic. These watches have something that their competition does not usually include: a Dual band circular polarization GPS antenna. This curious name refers precisely to how many GPS satellites transmit signals (circularly), which allows the signal to reach widely and with less interference. By the way As Amazfit usually does, there are dozens of sports modes, measurement of blood oxygen, heart rate, sleep and stress (among others), all through the app Zepp Lifewhose data can be synchronized with third-party apps such as StravaAdidas Running, Apple Health or Google Health. If you have never tried an Amazfit, it is worth knowing that incorporate ZeppOS 6. It is a hybrid between a simple java system and a complete system like WearOS either WatchOS. It has its own “application store” (a small repository), countless watchfaces (both official and third-party), and it works quite correctly. Besides, It is a system that allows callswith hardware that incorporates a microphone and speakers to be able to respond from the watch, just as we would do in the most advanced systems. Versions and price of the Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra The Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra are from the company’s most advanced watchesand they will arrive in Spain at the following prices. Amazfit Balance 3 in stainless steel case | 349 euros Amazfit Balance 3 in titanium frame | 449 euros Amazfit Balance Ultra in Titanium Case and Frame | 599 euros With the Ultra, Amazfit begins to look closely at the heaviest rivals on the market, looking for a niche in the Hyrox athlete that has not yet been covered. In Xataka | The Deportivo de la Coruña store knows how many people come in, … Read more

Alcasec managed to access hundreds of thousands of banking details in Spain: now it has accepted prison

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There are cybersecurity cases that seem distant until they force us to look inward. We are not talking about a large foreign technology company or a gap lost in some remote corner of the Internet, but rather about banking data of citizens in Spain, access linked to public infrastructure and a chain that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, ended with hundreds of thousands of records entered into a portal for sale. What we have seen with Alcasec It matters not only because of the name itself, but because of what it reveals: personal information has become a very valuable commodity. The agreement. This part of the case has been settled in the National Court with an agreement between the accused and the Prosecutor’s Office. According to EFEJosé Luis Huertas, alias Alcasec, has accepted a sentence of two years and seven months in prison for the crimes of illegal access to computer systems and discovery and disclosure of secrets. The Prosecutor’s Office initially requested three years, but applied the mitigating circumstance of confession. Along with him, Daniel BE and Juan Carlos OG, thus identified in the judicial information, have also accepted a sentence: two years and two months for the first as a cooperator and one year and three months for the second for discovery of secrets. The access. The indictment describes an entry built in layers, not a simple stroke of luck. On October 19, 2021, Alcasec contracted two massive data storage systems with Cherry Servers, a company based in Lithuania, using an email account created when he was a minor to hide his identity. Later, Daniel BE, whom the Prosecutor’s Office links to Russian forums specialized in the unauthorized sale of passwords, provided him with a stolen digital certificate issued to the General Directorate of Traffic. With that certificate, always according to the accusation, he managed to navigate the SARA network, connect to the CGPJ Judicial Neutral Point website and obtain the credentials of an official from a Bilbao court. The impersonation. The next step, always according to the Prosecutor’s Office, was to convert that first access into a way to obtain more credentials. Alcasec and Daniel BE created a page that pretended to be the access website to the Judicial Neutral Point, and the former sent a text chain to different courts that redirected to that false page. Two officials mistakenly entered their passwords, which allowed the scope of the attack to expand. The mechanics are important because they show that the intrusion did not depend only on a technical vulnerability, but also on deception of real users. The scale. With these credentials, according to the indictment, Alcasec made 438,099 requests to the Tax Agency’s “extended bank accounts” web service and shortly after carried out a second attack. The data is not minor: we are not talking about an isolated query, but rather a massive volume of queries to sensitive information through a system connected to the Administration. For the sale of data, some of relevant people, the portal was available. The reduction. The accepted sentence does not come out of nowhere, but from an agreement in accordance with the Prosecutor’s Office. As we noted above, the initial request was for three years in prison, but it was reduced to two years and seven months when the mitigating circumstance of confession for the recognized crimes was applied. The prosecutor also valued the collaboration of the accused during the investigation, particularly in providing their codes and passwords. In addition, they accepted the confiscation of the effects and the physical and virtual money seized in the searches carried out in Madrid, Cartagena and Dos Hermanas. Another investigation. There is an important nuance to not mix planes. Alcasec has been in provisional prison for a year for a different reason, related to a network of cyberattacks that seized sensitive and private data of millions of citizens and that he allegedly led. In that investigation he was arrested along with former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez, currently on trial for Operation Kitchen. The reading. What this case leaves behind is not only an accepted conviction, but a fairly clear photograph of where part of cybercrime has moved. We are no longer just talking about entering a system, but about chaining access, taking advantage of real credentials, consulting sensitive services and preparing information for sale. Images | Capture YouTube In Xataka | We have spoken with one of the leading cybersecurity companies in Spain. And his diagnosis is not encouraging

Ukraine has been left without thousands of drones. An error classified them as electric cars, and the Treasury has fried them with taxes

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During World War II, the United States Army created entire systems classification and emergency purchases because normal bureaucracy was too slow to keep up with the pace of war. Eight decades later, Ukraine has discovered the same problem from the opposite side. Drone warfare crashes into bureaucracy. Ukraine has been transforming the front into a war laboratory automated where ground drones have become essential to transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or attack Russian positions without exposing soldiers. The problem is that, while kyiv was trying to accelerate this military revolution, the bureaucracy has ended up mistakenly classifying these unmanned vehicles within the same tax category than electric cars. When an old exemption for EVs expired on January 1, drones began paying a 20% VAT. The result has been devastating: according to the industry, the army could have bought some 5,000 additional drones only in the first half of 2026 if that tax had not come into force. Thousands of drones lost at the worst moment. They counted on Insider that the impact has been especially serious because it has arrived at a critical phase of the war. Ukraine is increasingly relying on autonomous systems to compensate for human and material attrition against Russia, to the point that Zelensky claimed that his forces carried out more than 22,000 missions with ground drones in just three months. kyiv wanted to acquire 50,000 units this year, but the new VAT skyrocketed costs, froze public contracts and left manufacturers whole for months. no state orders. Some companies drastically reduced production to survive, while others tried to reclassify their robots as armored vehicles to avoid the tax burden. A trapped military industry. The chaos also reflects how the military technological revolution is advancing faster than the laws themselves. Ground drones were so new within European and Ukrainian commercial standards that they did not even there was a category clear to classify them. When a former tax exemption for electric vehicles expired, the system automatically absorbed these military robots into the same regulations. The Ministry of Defense suddenly found itself with insufficient budgets and paralyzed purchasing processes because, technically, essential weapons for the front had no longer been considered. exempt military equipment tax. Manufacturers like Tencorecreator of the popular TermIT dronethey spent up to five months without public contracts and had to survive thanks to volunteer organizations that directly supply military units. In a war economy where many companies literally live from order to order, three months without state purchases is equivalent to little less than a heart attack industrial. The big problem is not just making weapons. The episode reveals something deeper about the evolution of modern warfare. For years, drones, artificial intelligence and automation have been talked about as the future of combat, but Ukraine is discovering that the bottleneck is not always in the technology. Sometimes it is in the administrationin legislation or in bureaucratic systems designed for peacetime. Russia and Ukraine are immersed in a race of constant adaptation where every month counts and where losing half a year due to tax procedures can have direct effects on the front. The sector itself calculates that the tax exemption would save about 200 million dollarsa gigantic figure for an industry that still depends on precarious financing and accelerated production. The problem is that even if Parliament now corrects the law, the damage has already been done: delayed contracts, lost capacity and thousands of drones that never made it to the battlefield when they were needed most. The paradox of the war of the future. The story perfectly summarizes one of the great contradictions of this war. Ukraine has become the country that has integrated autonomous systems the fastest in real combat and has built an ecosystem with more than 280 companies and 550 models different from ground drones. However, that same ecosystem remains dependent on sluggish state structures, legacy regulations, and legal frameworks unable to keep pace with military innovation. While the front is filled with robots that transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or attack Russian trenches without a human driver, the State continued to administratively treat them as if they were simple electric cars. The irony could not be more brutal: one of the most technologically advanced wars of the century lost thousands of combat machines not due to lack of industrial capacity or due to Russian attacks, but because the Treasury decided to apply the same tax treatment than to a civil electric vehicle. Image | x In Xataka | A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back.

For centuries Spain shone for its castles. Today we do not know exactly how many there are and we have thousands that are increasingly dilapidated

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There are times when the best way to raise awareness is to take out a cell phone at the right time and place. Occurred a few weeks ago in Escalona, ​​Toledo, when one of the tourists waiting to enter the castle of the town observed that stones were beginning to fall from one of the towers. His impulse was record the scenewhich ended up immortalizing the mere five seconds in which the structure crumbles in a cloud of dust, taking with it centuries of history. The video ended up going viral and leading to another debate: the conservation of the castles of Spain. At the end of the day Escalona It is not a unique case. Two collapses in one year. Escalona Castle is a stately fortress whose history can be traced back to Roman times and covers a period that extends from the 1st century AD to the 12th century. Neither that, nor its status as BIC, nor the City Council’s plans to restore part of the structure prevented two months ago, March 14the albarrana tower will collapse in front of a tourist’s camera. the castle Almonacid of Toledo It is also another heritage jewel of Muslim origin whose chronicle dates back to at least 848. Again, neither that antiquity, nor its enormous historical wealth, nor its protection like BIC prevented one of its most emblematic towers from would fall apart after several weeks of heavy rain. “We have reached this situation because they (the Board and the owners) did not spend a euro on historical heritage. In the end what we feared has happened: it has fallen,” explained the councilor, Almudena González, to The Country. @latinus_us Tourists recorded the moment in which the tower of the Escalona Castle collapsed, in Toledo, Spain; there were no injuries. The site dates back to the 11th century and in 1922 it became a Site of Cultural Interest. #Latinus #InformationForYou ♬ original sound – Latinus – Latinus How is it possible? That’s it the debate that began to gain strength after both events, especially because both occurred in a surprisingly short period of time, not far away and affected fortresses with high historical value. Added to that is the viral video of Escalona. The truth, however, is that both news have stirred up a problem that is by no means new. Although the vast majority of castles in Spain enjoy heritage protection since 1949in practice the state of conservation of the thousands and thousands of fortresses that are distributed throughout the Spanish geography is very “unequal”, as explains Miguel Ángel Bru, member of the Spanish Association of Friends of Castles (AEAC), to the SER. Do we handle data? Some. And they paint a scenario that clearly could be improved. In the same interview in which he was asked about the heritage of Castilla-La Mancha (where Escalona and Almonacid de Toledo are located), Bru provided a revealing percentage: only 20% of the castles have been rehabilitated and are maintained in an acceptable state. The remaining 80% present more or less serious conservation problems. Another interesting approach is provided by Hispania Nostra, an association that is dedicated to the defense of Spanish heritage and is known above all for its “Red List”which includes those elements “threatened by a serious risk of destruction, disappearance or irreversible loss of their heritage values.” If we search for “Castles and fortified architectural complexes” we obtain dozens and dozens of results spread throughout the country. And the selection increases if we include other types of structures, such as “forts, military buildings, towers or walls.” The percentage: 60%. Probably the most shocking fact was shared a few days ago by Bru on a talk with The Country in which he warned precisely about the state of conservation of a large part of the heritage: “Six out of every ten castles in Spain are exposed to collapsing, but if we refer to smaller landslides, partial falls, we would already be talking about eight out of ten.” In reality, the problem is not only that it is estimated that 60% of the fortifications are in conditions very far from what would be ideal. The real challenge is that we don’t even have a complete, closed ‘photo’ of how many structures there are. “The first catalog there is is from 1968, it is the one recognized by the Ministry of Culture, but it is completely insufficient because the number of records is very low,” duck the director of the AEAC. To solve this, the association has been developing for decades a list of defensive structures that already exceeds 10,000, but that does not mean that the study has ended. If we want to protect the castles, the first stepEssentially, it is to have a precise idea of ​​how many fortifications exist. The other figure: 2,807. Right now the catalog of Castles of Spain includes a total of 10,362 registered properties. That is the global figure, the most updated photo that the association has achieved. When we go down to detail, however, we obtain other more worrying ones. Of those 10,362 castles, only 728 They are in “very good” condition. 2,209 They are considered to be in good condition and 1,037 They are in a situation that technicians consider “regular.” In 537 cases the collective speaks of “consolidated ruins” and in 2,087 of “progressive ruin.” The entity contemplates still other scenarios, such as fortifications that have already disappeared or that have been altered. The big question: Why? How is it possible that, despite their high heritage, historical and even tourist value, and that they are protected by state regulations, there are so many castles with poor conservation in Spain? There are several factors that come into play. One is that not all buildings play the same cards. There are large historical complexes located in populated areas that have become symbols ‘pampered’ by the administrations. And also isolated fortifications or in rural areas that have not suffered the same fate. If we talk about … Read more

one where snipers and drones are eliminating thousands of wild boars

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In November 2025, the Generalitat came to deploy to the UME, drones and police controls around Collserola after finding dozens of dead wild boars near Barcelona. What started with two infected animals ended up turning the city’s forests into a huge crawl area sanitary. A city at war. For years, wild boars were a growing nuisance in Barcelona and its metropolitan area: animals that rummaged through garbage, crossed roads or appeared in housing estates next to Collserola. In 2026 the situation completely changed scale. The detection of African swine fever turned part of Catalonia into a huge health perimeter where the Generalitat began to unfold a response typical of an emergency operation. Ground zero around Cerdanyola was surrounded by fencesclosures of wildlife passages, collective traps and access restrictions. More than 1,900 troops work on the ground while drones, canine units and specialized companies “comb” forests and peri-urban areas looking for corpses, sick animals and groups of wild boars. I was counting a few days ago The Country that the political language stopped seeming environmental to approach that of a military campaign: “empty” entire areas, “eradicate” outbreaks and contain the spread of the virus before it reaches the Catalan pork industry. The massive hunting of thousands of animals. The magnitude of the operation explains to what extent the Generalitat considers the situation a strategic threat. The initial objective was to eliminate between 8,000 and 10,000 wild boars in the 20-kilometer radius around the outbreak detected in November 2025. The figure was later adjusted about 6,000 animals only within the critical perimeter, while the general plan aims to reduce the entire wild boar population in Catalonia by half, estimated between 120,000 and 180,000 specimens. Since January they have already sacrificed more than 26,000 animals throughout the community. In some points of the so-called “ground zero” there would be barely twenty wild boars left after months of continuous captures. He deployment includes hundreds of traps, Pig Brig nets, thermal visors, closures of wildlife crossings and constant controls to prevent animals from crossing natural corridors around Barcelona. Snipers, hunters and wildlife control companies. One of the most striking elements of the entire crisis is how hunters have gone from being a socially questioned figure to becoming in essential piece of the operation. Some act practically as specialized shooters in forested and peri-urban areas where drones perform poorly and animals move near inhabited areas. Many describe night shifts with thermal visorshigh-capacity traps and rifles prepared to shoot any specimen that appears in front of the viewer. The Generalitat has even started financing fuel, veterinary assistance for capture dogs and specialized material. At the same time, the Government has hired companies accustomed to operating in urban and peri-urban environments, especially in Collserola and other spaces where wild boars have become accustomed to coexisting with the city. The result is increasingly reminiscent of a permanent campaign wildlife control deployed around a large European capital. A gigantic economic threat. Behind this offensive there is a fear much greater than the overpopulation of wild boars itself. Catalonia concentrates an essential part of the pork industry Spanish and the expansion of African swine fever could cause a multimillion-dollar blow to exports, farms and international markets. Japan and the Philippines already restrictions have been applied and the Government fears losing health credibility if the virus escapes the controlled perimeter. That is why the institutional discourse insists so much in “biosecurity” and the need to act extremely quickly. The Catalan administration defends that it is not an ideological or political decision, but rather a a mandatory response to avoid an economic collapse. The pressure is so high that a debate has even been opened about accelerating the marketing of game meat to absorb the tens of thousands of catches and keep the system economically viable. The battle inside Collserola. The big problem for the authorities is that the war against wild boars is taking place in one of the environments most complex possible: a huge metropolitan area of ​​four million inhabitants. Collserola functions as a natural refuge and motion runner for animals accustomed for years to living next to housing estates, roads and peripheral neighborhoods. Some areas are so wooded that not even drones They allow us to accurately calculate how many copies remain. Technicians recognize that total control is extremely difficult and that is why restrictions on mobility and access to the natural environment remain in force months after the start of the crisis. Meanwhile, they continue new positives appearing week after week, fueling the feeling that the Generalitat is in a race against time to prevent the outbreak from spreading definitively beyond Barcelona. The city-nature relationship. The crisis has also left an uncomfortable image about how the relationship between big cities and wildlife has changed. For years, Barcelona lived with a growing population of wild boars that learned to take advantage of garbage, parks and urbanized areas. The animals lost their fear of people while administrations tried to manage the problem without resorting to massive slaughter campaigns. The african swine fever It broke that balance suddenly. Now the city lives surrounded by controls, restrictions and capture operations where police, hunters, veterinarians and wildlife specialists participate. The scene of teams searching forests with dogs, nets and rifles a few kilometers from densely populated areas has ended up projecting a strange sensation: that of a great European capital converted into the epicenter of a health war against thousands of wild animals. Image | Pexels In Xataka | The problem is not that 100 wild boars in Barcelona have swine fever. The problem is that we don’t know how it got there. In Xataka | The Argentine sea hid one of the most disturbing animals in the world: an 11-meter-long “ghost jellyfish”

There are thousands of scientific articles that ask you to pay to read them. Sci-Bot has arrived to access them for free

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Scientific knowledge is supposedly something that nourishes all human beings to continue advancing, but the problem is that in many cases the articles that contain this knowledge are in tools that require a subscription to read them. This limitation in access to universal knowledge has led to the emergence of different platforms that bring together all these articles, such as Sci-Hubwhich now improves with his AI called Sci-Bot which promises to put an end to ChatGPT’s “hallucinations” in the scientific field. How it started. At the end of this same month of April, a message on networks published by Mushtaq Bilal began to go viral, and no wonder, since it gave a notice in which, ironically, it invited us to use a new Sci-Hub tool that allowed access to scientific advances for free. Something they do through the back door and that already it almost cost them closure forced by the famous ‘Pirate Bay’ But logically this publication had the opposite effect, going viral, and also revived the eternal debate about the paywalls in science they can block access to this knowledge. But now Sci-Hub’s new tool has arrived to change this (partly). A great library. To understand the magnitude of Sci-Bot, you must first look at the size of its brain, since since Elbakyan founded the web in 2011, Sci-Bot has become in a headache for scientific dissemination giants such as Elsevier or Springer, which are behind the publication of thousands of top-level articles. Here, according to the official data of the platform itselfSci-Hub hosts 88,343,822 research documents and books, so we are talking about 100 TB of human knowledge covering more than 95% of the publications of the main scientific publishers. And with free access and without going through the checkout, as happens on the websites of some of these publishers. The jewel in the crown. As Sci-Hub’s own page reveals, Sci-Bot is an AI that is designed to be able to search within the titanic database to select the most relevant studies and compose articulated responses. Its main attraction is that compared to generalist AIs like ChatGPT or Claude there are hardly any hallucinations, such as its creators pointed out in a scientific article in which tests were carried out in this sense. And this is something very important because I have been able to experience with my own eyes how AI invents bibliographical references or assigns research to authors who have nothing to do with it. But Sci-Bot, being anchored to a real database from which it draws the information, means that there are direct references to the original papers, allowing users to jump over the hated paywalls to access scientific evidence. Still needs improvement. At the moment it is starting in its alpha phase and that is why it has different limitations, such as that it can only answer one question at a time and does not maintain the thread of chained queries, even if they are on the same topic. But the truth is that it is quite promising to have access to the vast majority of human knowledge. They put obstacles in his way. Here, logically, the magazines have a lot to say, since they do not like having the articles freely available when they request a subscription to access them. This means that right now Sci-Bot has the most recent scientific articles as its blind spot, since due to the new and aggressive security measures implemented by large publishers in recent years to avoid scrapingthe database has some gaps in articles published in the most recent months. This makes the AI ​​unable to respond regarding the most recent evidence. But without a doubt we are facing an advance that began with the arrival of Sci-Hub with the promise of democratizing science, although through the back door by freely publishing articles that are actually ‘private’. And the only thing this will do is create a new front between open access and large publishers seeking financial returns. In Xataka | More and more media outlets are going over the paywall in Spain, the big question is whether there will be subscribers for everyone

C-3PO had a boner in 1977 and was seen on thousands of trading cards. Until the parents realized

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As is well known, ‘Star Wars‘ was revolutionary in 1977 on many levels, but in no way was it more so than in merchandising. The story of the action figures and how Kenner beat Mattel by taking over the exploitation rights to the franchise is the most popular part of the story, but there are many other crazy anecdotes in a field that was literally beginning to be sown. For example, Topps launched a collection of trading cards with a very peculiar copy: 207 of the fourth series, with a nondescript image of C-3PO emerging from an oil bath. It lasted until the parents took notice. The sticker war. Sticker rights They were also disputed very briefly, as was the case with the action figures. Donruss, a company with experience in science fiction trading card collections, had the first option on the license and rejected it. Topps came in after some hesitation, put out a first series and watched it run out at an unprecedented rate. Five series later in 1977 alone, the film was still in theaters, and the company had to launch, with almost no time for revisions, series after series. For the fourth, the available photographs were almost the same as those already used in the first two, and that was where the problem arose. C-3PO oily. The controversial photograph showed C-3PO emerging from an oil bath. At first glance nothing seemed scandalous, but if you paid attention, the protocol droid seemed to have bypassed protocol with a large metallic appendage. The chrome earned its own nickname, “Golden Rod.” Parents’ complaints They didn’t take long to arrivethe letter was withdrawn and an airbrushed version produced. What happened really. There are three versions about the reasons that led to the error. The first, when in 2007 the official ‘Star Wars’ website published an explanation later removed: It was an optical effect because at the exact moment the photo was taken, a piece of the suit came off and was aligned in a way that suggested the obscene image. In his book ‘Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume One’, author Gary Gerani raised another theory: someone from the prop team on the set had placed a metal appendage as a joke between colleagues. Because. The most detailed explanation was given in 2019 by Anthony Daniels himself, the android’s interpreter, in promoting his autobiography ‘I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story’. According to the actor, the oil was real and C-3PO’s suit at that time consisted of two pieces of thin plastic (front and back) joined with gold-colored adhesive tape. The oil dissolved that tape and when Daniels left the bathroom, the pieces separated and formed a crease in the crotch that created the bulge. Additionally, the actor believes that a Topps employee, when processing the photograph, identified the crease and deliberately accentuated it. Error wanted. Paradoxically, the corrected version of chrome 207 is today rarer than the original. There are more than 1,800 copies of the card with the error compared to less than 700 of the amended version, since the error circulated for months before being removed, and the correction arrived at the end of the fourth series, with smaller print runs, and was quickly eclipsed by the fifth series. And how much is it worth? In medium condition it costs 30 or 40 dollars, but in good condition it can exceed 5,000. By the way: Daniels has systematically refused to sign the error card. Any copy with his autograph is a fake, he says. In Xataka | This Star Trek movie was canceled in 1977 because science fiction had no future. Two weeks later Star Wars premiered Header | Kory Westerhold on Flickr

Germany already has its first military plan since World War II. And it’s going to take thousands of soldiers to carry it out.

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For decades, Germany avoided any gesture that recalled its military past, to the point that even talking about its own strategy generated political discomfort. That reflection had deep roots: on September 1, 1939, the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany marked the beginning of the Second World War and left a mark that conditioned for generations the way in which the country understood the use of force. Almost a century later, that silence begins to be broken, but in a radically different context. A historic turn. Germany has taken a step that breaks decades of strategic caution by presenting its first comprehensive military strategy in the modern era, a 35 page document which bluntly assumes that the European security environment has changed irreversibly. In that sense, the invasion of ukraine has acted as a catalyst for a profound change in German mentality, forcing Berlin to move from a contained role within NATO to a much more active and defining one. For the first time since World War II, Germany not only talks about contributing, but to leadleaving behind his traditional discomfort with military protagonism. Except Washington. Although the official discourse continues to describe the United States as an indispensable pillar, the substance of the strategy points in another direction: Europe must learn to stand on its own. Washington is increasingly looking towards the Indo-Pacific and demands that its European allies greater involvementwhich has led Berlin to prepare for scenarios in which American support is not as automatic or immediate, at the very least. Without saying it openly, Germany is beginning to design a European defense framework where its role does not depend so much on North American coverage, but on your own ability to organize, coordinate and sustain the defense of the continent. The most powerful army in Europe. That’s the idea. The German plan is clear in its ambition: to convert the Bundeswehr into the conventional army strongest on the continent. To this end, a significant increase in troops is proposed, going from about 185,000 soldiers to figures that, adding active forces and reservists, could approach or exceed the 460,000 troops in the coming decades. This growth is not only numerical, but also structural, with a special emphasis on reinforce reserveswhich become a central element of national defense. The idea that emerges is forceful, one in which, if Europe wants to defend itself without depending entirely from the United States, will need a much larger military mass, and Germany is willing to lead that effort. A construction in phases. German rearmament is not considered as an immediate leap, but as a step process which will extend for more than a decade. In a first phase, the objective is to maximize readiness and rapid response capacity, ensuring that forces can operate at any time. Subsequently, it seeks to systematically expand capabilities in all domains, aligning with NATO objectives but with greater operational autonomy. Finally and finally, the horizon points to a deep technological transformationone where innovation, artificial intelligence and new forms of war define military superiority. Beyond the numbers. Yes, because the German strategy also reflects a more complex understanding of modern conflict, where the borders between military, civil and economic are increasingly blurred. Hybrid warfare, autonomous systems and the importance of information control force us to rethink not only how many soldiers or tanks are needed, but what effects they should be able to generate. In this context, the German strategy recognizes key shortcomings in Europesuch as intelligence, surveillance or long-range attack capacity, and proposes correcting them quickly so as not to be at a disadvantage against powers such as Russia. Europe as its own military pillar. The underlying message is difficult to ignore: the defense of the continent is already can’t rest exclusively in the traditional NATO structure as it was understood in recent decades. In this way, Germany wants to position itself like the axis on which a more militarily autonomous Europe could be articulated, capable of deterring and, if necessary, fight for herself. There is no doubt, the approach implies assuming a responsibility that was avoided for a long time, and that now appears inevitable in the face of a more unstable environment and a US ally. less focused on Europe. Human muscle. It is the last of the legs to analyze, because the entire German approach converges on a central idea that is beginning to take shape: if Europe wants to sustain a credible defense without completely depending from the United Statesyou will need mobilize hundreds of thousands of soldiers and rebuild a military base that had been reduced for years. Viewed this way, Germany is not only increasing its own forces, but is leading the way for what could be a continental effort much older. In that scenario, the question may no longer be just whether Europe can defend itself, but rather how much time, resources and personnel it is willing to devote to achieving this. Image | 7th Army Training Command, Pexels In Xataka | Germany was a sleeping military giant: now it has been awakened and it is already surpassing the US in bullets produced per year In Xataka | Germany is experiencing a new “industrial miracle” that it already experienced 90 years ago: that of weapons

We had always believed that evolution had been arrested for thousands of years. The redheads were telling us the opposite

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Evolution has been one of the great allies that has made us get to where we are right now, but there is also an idea that haunts the minds of some people when they point out that comforts, agriculture or the best technologies have made this natural selection stagnates in humans. But… Is this true? A myth. The answer is no. And to demonstrate it, a group of researchers has recently published a new article in the magazine Nature, breaking this myth, pointing out that evolution has not only stopped, but that the invention of agriculture made it step on the accelerator. Here the research team has achieved what until recently seemed impossible, namely tracing the footprint of natural selection over the millennia. How it has been done. It’s not easy to look back into such a long past, but here researchers have used a new method baptized as AGESwhere they have ‘only’ had to process 16,000 ancient genomes from Western Eurasia. In this way, the results have shown that there are 479 genetic variants that have experienced great selective pressure, which is why our biological adaptation has accelerated following the advances that have made humanity as it is now. Some examples. That there have been changes in our genetics is phenomenal, but sometimes we want clear examples of why this is the case. One of these points out that when the populations of Eurasia abandoned nomadism to settle, cultivate the land and domesticate animals, their diets, exposure to sunlight and social dynamics changed radically. This translated, for example, into an increase in genetic variants associated with light skin or red hair, the latter being something linked to mutations in the MC1R gene. And its meaning lies in the need to adapt the body to absorb enough vitamin D in climates with little sunlight, although it is also suggested that these genes could share different very relevant adaptation functions. And also aesthetic. Far from how functional it may be to have a greater absorption of vitamin D, the studies also provide curious data about our evolutionary aesthetics by pointing out that natural selection favored the reduction of baldness in these populations. Here the discussion is served, since it can be thought that it is related to sexual selection or even that it is the consequence of other changes in genetics that opened the door to fewer cases of baldness and also rheumatoid arthritis. Images | Johannes Plenio Gabriel Silverio In Xataka | We have just discovered that 20% of our DNA comes from an unknown hominid population: Population B

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