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This album has been reproduced millions of times in Spotify but has not generated absolutely no benefit

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‘Crisis (The Worthless Album)’ by Valentin Hansen It is not, of course, a normal album. Because Hansen is not a normal musician. It is rather A performative artist that he plotted this conceptual album with a single objective: not generating benefit, not leaving a trace on Spotify, demonstrating how absurd streaming They are getting used to us. 30 songs. In 2021, the artist based in Berlin Valentin Hansen launched this ‘crisis (The Worthless Album)’ which consisted of 30 tracks, all of them of 29 seconds. Why this duration? He stayed for a second to monetize them, generate Royalties or to be registered in the metrics of the platform, according to the rules of use of the platform. But here comes the amazing: he used a smartphones hacked to reproduce the album countless times. And demonstrate that it would not even generate benefits. A design issue. As They count on contemporary100‘Crisis (The Worthless Album)’ won zero euros in total, but “not by accident, but for a matter of pure design.” Its purpose was to generate exactly that benefit. It’s about a criticism of the economy of streamingwhere an artist earns $ 0.004 per reproduction, but algorithms favor mainstreamto what is already established purely economic interests, which falls into a very complicated mousetrap to make profitable. “I want to show how broken the system is,” Hansen said about his experiment. Real songs. Hansen is a real musician. It makes a self -conscious and hyperproduced indie (in fact, ‘crisis’ has eight real songs, only that the tracks are interrupted every 29 seconds, as has been said, thus starting each song in three or four pieces impossible to make profitable) and, in fact, ‘crisis’ arose as a reaction to its most popular song, ‘Killing a Friend’, after 1,7 million reproductions, only got 2,000 euros. Hence the criticism of the Spotify payment system: said in an interview than the initiative Bandcamp Fridayin which the platform gives all its income to artists, is the most reasonable way to make money with music in streaming. Other experiments in Spotify. It is not the first attempt to play with Spotify’s legal possibilities and vericuetos: Royalties). All completely silent. The band encouraged their followers to reproduce the album in continuous repetition while they slept, generating royalties. The goal? Finance with that money a tour of free concerts. And it worked: in seven weeks and after about 5.5 million views, ‘Sleepify’ generated $ 20,000. Of course, Spotify did not like this sympathetic hairmade and eliminated the album of its platform, adducing violations of its content policies and commenting that, as an effect of the media impact of ‘Sleepify’, they had received a large number of silent albums. Spotify ended up modifying its legal section, prohibiting issues in full in silence. Spotify mandates. For what Hansen’s experiment serves is to talk about the absolute dominance of Spotify in the industry and how unfair it is, therefore, that he has so much power and can decide how artists are rewarded and in what terms. And how that benefits the platformbut not to musicians. Therefore, it is important that in the face of the propaganda that Spotify is democratizing and verticalizing musicdiscordant voices such as Hansen still dare to denounce an unfair situation with artists. In Xataka | We already know what the key to something that seemed impossible, to earn money in Spotify was: being an AI

There is a region in Latin America that has more oil than all Saudi Arabia. And yet it produces 12 times less

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To the east of Venezuela, the Orinoco oil strip wants to return to its golden age, but faces political, economic and technical challenges. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserve in the world: 300,878 million barrels. To put it in perspective, Saudi Arabia has in its territory a reserve of 267,000 million barrels. A Treasury. The Venezuelan crude is concentrated in the Orinoco oil strip, a region of 55,314 square kilometers east of the country that extends over the Orinoco River basin. The Orinoco oil girdle It is rich in heavy and extrapeted oil, a type of dense and viscous crude that requires more expensive and challenging refining processes to transform into usable products, such as gasoline and diesel. The twenty -first country in oil production. The Orinoco oil strip has been known since January 1936, when the American company Standard Oil of New Jersey did the first well: “La Canoa-1”, in the state of Anzoátegui. But gigantic. Despite its age, the Orinoco oil strip remains the largest crude oil reserve. And yet, he has been unable to lift his head for years due to the political and technical and economic sanctions that surround it. In its oil peak, Venezuela produced three million barrels per day. Today is the Twenty -first country in the world In oil production with 770,000 barrels a day, from behind even neighboring Colombia. The United States, Saudi Russia and Arabia lead the ranking with 8-12 million barrels per day. A challenge and an opportunity. The sanctions on Venezuelan oil, led by the United States government, rose for six months in October 2023, which allowed a shy return of foreign companies to the Orinoco oil strip. The moratorium evidenced that the Venezuelan oil sector has problems beyond the political; structural problems. After years of negligence, corruption and economic crisis, Venezuelan oil needs foreign investment to modernize the expensive infrastructure with which it extracts and processes heavy crude. Although the sanctions were activated last year as a pressure measure of the Biden administration against the government of Nicolás Maduro, now foreign companies have the opportunity to obtain individual licenses to mitigate their effect, which shows some sprout of hope for a country in which oil remains an economic engine. The Petroleum Momentum of Latin America. The modernization of infrastructure, the attraction of foreign investment and the stabilization of the economy are crucial steps, but we do not know if enough to recover all the economic potential of the Orinoco oil strip. The context seems flattering. Latin American countries are involved in A “gold fever” of oil in which the most extreme case is that of the also Guyana neighbor, which has seen a growth of 33% of GDP thanks to the reserves discovered in its coasts in 2015. Meanwhile, Brazil has climbed to the 8th place in the world production of oil and Mexico is in the 11th place. What if falling? The question that floats in the air is the same for all these countries, what will happen to their investments when the expected drop in oil demand By effect of energy transition? For now, much of the world moves as if we were going to continue burning oil for many years. Maybe that is the answer. Images | EFOFAC, Wilfredor In Xataka | The Falkland Islands rest over 500 million barrels of oil. Now the United Kingdom wants to authorize its extraction *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

Astronomers have been theorizing about “planets kamikaze.” They just found one and is 100 times more violent than it was believed

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We already know A good handful of exoplanetsbut astronomers of the European Space Agency have just added a fascinating category to the catalog of strange worlds. The Kamikaze planets. Using the Cheops space telescope, The first exoplature observatory of EuropeESA researchers have first observed a planet that causes flares in their own star, a suicidal custom that will end up sealing their own destiny. The “Kamikaze planets” are actually a phenomenon of cosmic self -destruction that has been theorizing since the 1990s. But it had never been observed directly, so far. And what astronomers have seen is a hundred times more energy than anyone had imagined. A violent neighborhood. The protagonist of this story is Hip 67522, a solar system located about 490 light years from Earth. Its star is a bit larger and cold than our sun, but it is very different: while the sun exceeds median age with 4.5 billion years, Hip 67522 is a teenage star of just 17 million years. Like any teenager, this star is full of energy, with a very agitated nucleus that does not stop turning, which makes it a very potent magnet. Around this violent cosmic magnet two planets turn. The one that interests us is the closest, Hip 67522 B, a world that completes an orbit in just seven days. The planet that plays with fire. Since they began to discover exoplanets, astronomers wonder if there are worlds orbiting enough close to their star to disturb their magnetic field and, in essence, “prick it” so that great flares are unleashed. Cheops space telescope observations They demonstrated that the planet Hip 67522 B is so close to its star that its own magnetic influence interacts with that of its host. The planet acts as a whip: as the star orbits, energy is accumulated in the form of waves along the lines of the star magnetic field. When these energy waves collide with the surface of the star, they trigger a gigantic solar flare, much more violent than expected. And absolutely destructive for the planet. Up to 15 lashes captured in camera. The Cheops telescope detected a total of 15 flares, almost all produced while the planet was ahead of the star from our perspective. This synchronization is the definitive proof: the fact that the flares occur just when the planet passes between us and the star confirms that it is the planet who is causing them. The tragic part of this story is that the planet is causing these gigantic energy explosions in its own direction. Hip 67522 B is being bombarded with six times more radiation than I would receive if it would simply stay still. The planet is shrinking. According to astronomers, in the next 100 million years it could go from being a gaseous giant of Jupiter’s size to a planet of Neptune size. It is a slow -chanted cosmic suicide. Image | THAT In Xataka | Astronomers have discovered a planet that should not exist: great as a jupiter and light like sugar cotton

Many times art is inexplicable, and a retiree from Malaga uses the most illogical tool to create it: Excel

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Explain what art is as complicated as sometimes get the weather forecast. Few things are more subjective and, while for many a banana is a simple fruit, for others it is a work that costs 6.2 million dollars. But within that subjectivity, reflecting reality in a painting is one of the most “accepted” ways to create art. What if that painting is done not with Photoshopbut in Microsoft Excel? That is precisely, with what Jesús Villanueva enjoys. No tutorials. “Normal,” you may think, since who would have occurred. Well let me tell you … it’s not so weird. We are going to see it throughout this pictorial trip with such a boring program (and useful) as Microsoft Excel. The program, which has almost 40 years behind himit was launched as a system of exclusive spreadsheets for Mac In 1985 and its bases have not changed: it is still a calculation program. However, each version became more powerful and versatile. In it Microsoft blog We found the story of Jesús Villanueva, 78, who entertains himself not playing ‘Skyrim‘, doing Streaming of ‘Leage of Legends‘ either Catching Pokémon: It entertains with Excel. He studied a construction eyeliner course and is what has been dedicated, but after retirement and pandemic of the COVID-19something changed Miguel Ángel del Excel. With free time (because you have to have it to create such works), Jesus began using Excel as canvas. “I never found a tutorial to explain how to do it. It has been trial after proof, drawing after drawing,” he says. He began recreating buildings in a format without perspective, but as he learned to master the tool, he went to more complex compositions. Image | Jesús Villanueva Image | Jesús Villanueva The most impressive thing is that it is not dedicated to borrowing external resources or hitting images, but to draw with colors directly in the grid, combining complex and simple shapes to give life to your idea. It is based on photographs, yes, but draw all forms manually in the application. Your secret? “Everything is a matter of patience, even in works that can take up to three months, such as the Siena cathedral.” Other religious buildings in its porpholio are the Mosque of Córdoba or the Cathedral of Florence, for which he had to draw the little characters large and then reduce their size to be able to embed them on the general image. The “Insert Forms” brush. That is the basic tool for Jesus. Choose a figure, calculate the proportions to case in a reference image and there begins to adapt, color and combine with others to give life to the object you want. When he has it, he unites it to the rest and the scene is formed. He also plays with vector strokes and the change of scale of elements. Image | Jesús Villanueva Japanese landscaping. In it Instagram of Jesus You can see his work, but he is not the only passionate of this particular brush. Tatsuo Horiuchi, an 84 -year -old Japanese man, also decided to unleash his particular vision of art when he retired. He says he took 10 years to create something that he felt that he could proudly teach people, but also that there were people who did not understand their hobby or that they laughed at it. “Why do you put so much effort on something that is not useful? Are you crazy?” “Well yes,” he replies in a video in which we can see part of his collection. Excel has a lot of life. Horiuchi gives a very important key. “I think, even if you don’t have talent for painting, you can paint something whenever you have Excel.” And this is interesting because there are people – as I – who are denied to paint even if he would like, and with a grid, it may be easier to start drawing. In any way, it is always curious to see that Excel is not just the tool in which Sustains the world economy and even formula 1 equipment: Excel too It can be a sport. And to gamify a tool as boring as it has all my respects. In Xataka | Thousands of people have been living from art for three years. Ireland pays them 1,300 euros per month to fulfill their dream

The first quantum computer with error correction already has date. It is close and will be 20,000 times more powerful than the current

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It seems that in the end Israeli mathematician Gil Kalai was wrong. This professor at Yale University has been very critical for several years with Quantum computing. In fact, he argues that the increase in the number of states of quantum systems and their complexity will cause They end up behaving like classic computersso the superiority of the former will end up evaporating. It defends, in short, that totally functional quantum computers They will never arrive. However, we currently have very solid reasons to anticipate otherwise. And there are several companies that ensure that they will have a quantum machine equipped with the ability to amend your own mistakes Before I expire this decade. These computers will be very important because they will presumably have the ability to solve a very wide range of problems with which not even the most powerful classic supercomdators available can deal. Just a week ago we told you that Xanadu, a young Canadian company founded in 2016, Plan to have ready before 2030 A quantum computer of one million phototonic ulna with error correction. However, it is not the only company that intends to make this milestone come true. IBM plans to make available to its customers in 2029 ‘Starling’, its first large -scale quantum computer equipped with the ability to amend their own mistakes. It will execute 20,000 times more operations than current quantum computers IBM is going to build The quantum computer ‘Starling’ in a new data center that will be housed in Paughkeepsie, New York (USA). This machine will bring together 200 logical cubits that, in theory, will allow you to execute 100 million quantum operations. Logical cubits represent a way to overcome the difficulty involved in the use of hardware or physical cubits, which are extremely noise sensitive, and, therefore, prone to make mistakes. Each logical ul Each logical cubit is constructed abstractly on several physical or hardware cubits, so that a single logical cubit encodes a single cubit of quantum information, but with redundancy. It is precisely this redundancy that allows detect and correct errors that are present in physical cubits. Until very recently the number of hardware cubits that was necessary to implement a single logical cubit immune to errors was impracticable, but IBM says it has found the solution to this problem. Their engineers have published two very interesting technical articles in which they develop the strategy they will use to bring to fruition their large -scale quantum computer and error correction. In the first These articles explain what procedure will continue to process instructions and execute operations in an efficient way. AND In the second They describe how they will decode the information that physical cubits contain in an efficient way, and also what strategy they will use to identify and correct real -time errors using conventional computational resources. As I mentioned a few lines above, IBM says that ‘Starling’ will be ready in 2029, but before its arrival this company expects to reach other important milestones. At the end of 2025 ‘Quantum Loon’ will prove the technology used to connect cubits to a larger distance Within a single chip. In 2026 ‘Kookaburra’ it will be the first IBM modular processor designed to store and process coded information. In 2027 ‘Cockatoo’ will arrive to demonstrate that it is possible to intertwine two ‘Kookaburra’ modules, and, consequently, that it is viable to connect several quantum chips such as nodes of a larger platform. And finally, after ‘Starling’ will arrive ‘Blue Jay’, which will bring together 2,000 logical cubits that, in theory, will allow you to execute 1 billion quantum operations. Image | IBM More information | IBM In Xataka | Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. And those responsible will be quantum computers

A man stayed a 20 -euro bizum sent by mistake. The judge has fined her and has come out ten times more expensive

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With 28 million active users, Bizum is the most used system in Spain for payments among users. We send and receive a lot of money through Bizum and make an mistake when typeing the number we want to send money is something that can happen with relative ease. If we are lucky, they may return it to us, but what happens if who is on the other side decides to stay the money? Now we know. Staying a bizum sent by mistake is very expensive. As we said, making a mistake to type the number to which we want to send a bizum can be quite easy and it is just what happened to a neighbor of Benavente, as they say in Zamora’s opinion. The person who received the 20 euros did not return the amount and the woman decided to denounce him to the authorities. The Provincial Court of Zamora has proved him right and has condemned the receiver of the transfer to return the 20 euros, in addition to paying the judicial coasts and a fine of 180 euros for a slight crime of improper appropriation. More than ten times the original amount. The Civil Code says. The denounced has resorted to the sentence alleging lack of evidence and presumption of innocence, but the judge has confirmed it and considers that the woman had not consented to the transfer. This would apply not only to Bizum, but to transfers and any other payment received by error. He Article 1895 of the Civil Code It is clear, it must always be returned: When something that was not entitled to collect is received, and that by mistake it has been improperly delivered, the obligation to restore it arises. There is jurisprudence. There have been more cases that have reached the courts for transfers made by error, such as this one of an Alicante businessman who faces Three years in jail for not returning a payment of 341,000 That was done by mistake. EITHER This 2015 sentence who condemned a woman for staying with 25,900 euros of the pension plan of her ex -husband, the result of an error of the bank when rescuing the money. Bizum in figures. Bizum It has become the standard of immediate payments in Spain. Arrived in 2016 as part of an initiative among various banking entities, although it was not until 2018 when It extended and began to grow. It currently has 28 million users and it is expected to reach 30 throughout the year. In 2024 an average of 3 million operations were made per day. The record was the past Black Friday (November 29, 2024), with 4.8 million operations. Or what is the same: 55 bizums per second. In total, in 2024 1,093 million operations were made worth 44,206 million euros. We do not know the number of erroneous operations when sending money, but with these numbers it is logical that they are increasing. Bizum grows, legal doubts too. In parallel to this growth, unknowns have also been increasing from the legal and legal point of view. Many users wonder What income or payments should be declared to the Treasury. We know that it is not necessary to declare payments between friends and family, although the freelancers who use it to collect, the income that generate economic profitability as rentals or if the total amount adds more than 10,000 euros per year should do. Doubts have also emerged about whether something that has eliminated the Threshold of 3,000 euros in the control of transfers by the Treasury. In this case, if high amounts are received through Bizum, the Treasury may investigate it, just as they would do if it were a transfer or a metallic income. Little by little, light is shed and it is clear that, at the legal level, Bizum is one more method to move money and apply the same rules as any type of income In Xataka | Timo of the false bizum by mistake: how it works and how to avoid this scam

Ukraine has found the solution to produce three times more weapons than you can buy: the Danish model

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It was known that Ukraine had raised a drone industry in front of the Lack of help. What was no longer known was that, since Russia launched its large -scale invasion in 2022, the Ukrainian defense industry had experienced a Explosive growthmultiplying its productive capacity by 35, from 1,000 million to 35,000 million dollars in annual potential. The problem was that, that the “potential” had no exit due to lack of financing. Until now. Lack of funds. As we said, this immense development Not only has it covered large companies, but also small workshops that operate even from particular garages, adapting to the needs of the battlefield. However, and despite this growing capacity, the country is limited by the Lack of financing: The state budget only allows to hire about 11,500 million in weapons, which leaves more than two thirds of the idle industrial potential. In fact, companies in the sector and senior officials They coincide in Insider in which, if there were the necessary funds, Ukraine could triple your production Armamentistic, thus reinforcing its resistance and reducing its dependence on foreign suppliers. Now they think they have found the solution in Denmark. The Danish model. To solve this paradox, the Ukrainian industry has proposed a small -scale solution: the call “Danish model”. This formula, applied by Denmark since 2023, allows allied countries Buy directly Weapons produced in Ukraine, instead of sending them from their own arsenals or acquiring them to Western suppliers. This way not only Reduce costs and accelerates the delivery of material, but also guarantees that the soldiers receive exactly What they needmanufactured according to its tactical demands and with an optimized logistics. Several countries have already added to this approachand others, like Germany, work in own adaptations. Thanks to this formula, Ukraine has been able to increase the production of key systems such as Bohdana self -propelled obúsand already has a list of weapons (including artillery and armored vehicles) ready to manufacture if more funds are channeled under the scheme. Collaboration and alternatives. Although the Danish model represents the road faster and fasterIt is not the only one. Serhiy Goncharov, president of the National Association of Defense Industries of Ukraine, and other leaders of the sector have also raised more complex models, based on co -production and the co -production and the Financing of Ukrainian weapons which include European components. This formula, although slower, could be attractive to a European industry that is also expanding its capacity Before the fear of A Russian expansion In the continent. In addition, the use of frozen Russian assets as a source of financing and the establishment of industrial alliances for technological transfers is considered. So much, Goncharov warns That many Western partners still do not expand their defensive capacity with the urgency that the situation requires, and that Ukraine, therefore, has no choice but to continue growing on its own to meet their own needs. Strategic opportunity Collaboration with Ukraine not only represents a way of supporting his defense in the short term, but a strategic opportunity For allied countries. The Ukrainian arms industry, born and adapted in the midst of the conflict, accumulates a direct experience in combat that is invaluable for any military power. Let’s think that your constant contact with the front allows you to adjust the design and performance of weapons based on the real conditions of the battlefield, something that many Western industries cannot replicate with the same speed. In that sense, associating with Ukraine offers Europe and other regions a double advantage: strengthening an essential supply line for Kyiv and learning from a military ecosystem that has proven extraordinarily Resilient, innovative and effective under pressure. As Goncharov concludes“We do not choose to be at war, but that is our reality,” and within it, the production capacity is ready. Image | Ministry of Defense In Xataka | We suspected that Ukraine drones attack had been destructive. Space images have revealed how much In Xataka | A technology 20 years ago took Ukraine to the Russian bombers. Moscow’s response comes from China: a laser cannon

In his escape from tariffs, Google wants to move its production to India, according to The Economic Times

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Alphabet Inc is in conversations with Dixon Technologies and Foxconn (two of its main suppliers) to move part of its global smartphones production to India from Vietnam. According to, The Economic Times. The movement responds to the tariff crisis in the United States, after the imposition of global tariffs and the uncertainty of what will end up happening in countries such as Vietnam, which in the first instance were under a tariff of more than 40%. THE HOUSE OF THE PIXEL. The Google Pixel They are technically American mobile but their manufacture, Like the rest of the big playersIt is out of the United States. Pixel are manufactured mainly in China and Vietnam, two of the countries most punished by Trump’s tariffs. Fleeing from China. Time before the package of measures to fight commercially with China, Google had been trying to get the production of its devices out of China. Almost three years ago we had news about a specific movement: Google was moving the production of the Pixel 7 to Vietnamkeeping in China that of fold models, the most expensive to produce. A movement similar to Samsung’scompany that produces mainly in Vietnam and that has barely a presence in China. If a 10%global tariff is maintained, the supply chain would not suffer too much. If it turned to more than 40% initial, the photograph would change completely. Looking at India. It is not the first time that Google manufactures phones in India through its partners. Initially, the company moved part of the production to this emerging country to supply the local market, and now it would be in conversations with Dixon Technologies and Foxconn not only to produce more phones, but for the production of components. Cases, loaders, fingerprint sensors and batteries, are some of the components that Google wants to stop importing to be able to manufacture them locally in India. In the first tariff ads, India would correspond to a 26%tariff. Times and costs. According to Economic Times, Dixon and Foxconn have been manufacturing between 43,000 and 45,000 Pixel smartphones per month in India exclusively for local market, seeking to make their smartphones could be competitive in price against Apple and Samsung. Dixon is responsible for producing between 65 and 70% of the new Pixel, and Foxconn of previous models. This movement to increase production in India would have a horizon of two to three years, a much shorter term than Google had planned in a pre-aroncel scenario. Currently, Google has almost 14% market share in the United States, so maintaining a competitive price to continue having muscle in its local market is key. They are not alone. The Google movement responds to a practice that the smartphone industry has been executing for years. Apple, who has tried in recent years move part of its production to India, It has not arrived on time, and its supply chain continues to depend mainly on China. Samsung dodged the bullet fleeing to Vietnam, and even the great chips manufacturers have been considering to escape from China to avoid geopolitical instabilities. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, Analysis: A great candidate for Best Android of the Year … with a big pending matter

In times of fall in stock market, a luxury investment has become a “shelter”: bags

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In times of financial uncertainty, generalized falls In stock markets around the world and the dollar losing credibility as a reference currency, investors seek refuge values ​​to protect their assets. The gold It used to be the safeguard In times of crisis, but a new trend has gained strength in recent years: the Investment in luxury articlesespecially exclusive bags such as Hermès Birkin. Get out of the bag to get into the bag. The attractiveness of these high -end bags signed by Hermes, Louis Vuitton Or Chanel not only resides in its exclusivity and status, but also surprise by their profitability. While actions and gold experience ups and downs, Birkin bags have demonstrated a constant revaluation of their value in the second -hand market. During periods of financial volatilityluxury bags, and in particular Hermès Birkin, has positioned itself as an asset of investment at levels of artthe high -end watches or the Classic luxury cars. According to the report of Art Market Researchin the last two decades, luxury bags have gone from being an accessory to what is now “the only category of collecting women centered.” Scarcity marketing. This investment model is sustained thanks to something as basic as the law of supply and demand. Hermès, like most luxury brands, applies a deliberate scarcity strategy with a very limited production of their pieces in which, curiously, It is the brand who chooses What products sell to your customers. The high demand for these articles causes waiting lists among their clients that can reach six years. The perception of exclusivity increases the desire for the product, which causes automatically revalue in the second -hand market when leaving the store. This is a phenomenon quite common In markets. For example, we live it after launch of the Sony PS5when these consoles arrived with counts to stores and doubled their price in the second -hand market or, at another level, with The Purosangue Ferrari. More Birkin, less gold. The Birkin de Hermès, is considered one of the best investments in the world of luxury, even surpassing traditional assets such as art or gold in terms of profitability and stability. A 2020 study Prepared by Credit Suisse and Deloitte, he revealed that the value of the Birkin increased 38% on average that year, far exceeding the performance of the S&P 500, which grew 16.3% in the same period. A study Baghunter compared the value of Hermès’ bags with respect to the S&P 500 and gold since 1995. The results showed that the financial behavior of the Birkin was much more stable and profitable than the stock market index and the value of gold, with a less volatile market and greater interannual returns. While the S&P 500 offered an average annual return of 8.65%and gold just 1.9%, the Birkin registered an average annual increase of 14.2%. A second -hand birkin: from 9,000 to $ 200,000. As with the market of the Collection luxury watchesthe high demand for certain editions of Birkin has generated spectacular revaluation. A Birkin de Hermès costs between $ 9,000 and $ 12,000, but can reach prices of up to $ 200,000 In auctions or specialized platformsdepending on its rarity, state and materials. In 2015, a pink crocodile skin birkin was sold by a record of $ 223,000, consolidating the reputation of these bags as high performance investments. The most expensive birkin ever auctioned was a Birkin 30 Himalayas with diamonds, than It reached a price of $ 450,000 in 2014. The Chinese offensive: the true value of the Birkin. In a context of commercial warfare like the current one, the boom of the Birkin as an investment has not been exempt from controversy. After the imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, Chinese influencers networks They have started a campaign To demystify the value of these bags. During the last days, Tiktok and X They have filled with videos of these Chinese influencers directing directly to the customers of these brands by analyzing the manufacturing costs in China. The message indicates the manufacturing price of a Birkin of Hermès around $ 1,400, while luxury brands sell their bags for a price up to ten times higher than its real cost, feeding the perception that there is a speculative bubble around these luxury items. In Xataka | A rare 900,000 clock has marked the end of moderation in goal: Mark Zuckerberg and his fondness for expensive watches In Xataka | Nicolas Puech: Hermès’s Swiss Millionaire who wants to leave a gardener with Spanish ties as the only heir Image | Hermes

In 2025 the plug -in hybrids will contaminate three times more. It is not magic, it is the change of homologation that attacks manufacturers

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How much does a plug -in hybrid consume? It is almost impossible to be clear. It is a technology that depends so much on the use that is given to make any type of estimate involves falling into an error. So far we have seen plug -in hybrids that approve consumption between one and two liters per 100 kilometers. How realistic is this? It depends, as we said, How we use the car. If you are one of those who get the most out of this data on the car computer. The problem is that, according to the data they handle in the European Union, few drivers do this Ideal use of a hybrid car. This causes the estimated real consumption of these cars to be much higher than reflected in the technical chips. To solve it, the European Union completely changes the homologation cycle, which raises the consumption and has a direct impact on the broadcast portfolio that each company will have to present in 2027. The headache of plug -in hybrids As we said, the European Union is not believed by the homologations that have been made so far with plug -in hybrids. Not because they considered that they did not reflect a realistic figure, rather the problem is that they did not reflect the real use that has been extended. If you are a user who makes Between 50 and 100 kilometers a day For an urban environment and/or its vicinity, a plug -in hybrid can be a perfect car if you have to load it every night. With a consumption of 20 kWh/100 kilometers in electric mode, we can expect a cost of two euros or less daily. Prioritizing battery use most of the time, gasoline spending should be ridiculous. However, the European Commission believes that these types of cars are not always used in the most efficient way. In a report published in 2024 They collected that the realistic mean of consumption of a plug -in hybrid in Europe is 5.94 l/100 km of fuel (5.97 l/100 km between the plug -in hybrids of gasoline, the most common) for the type of driving that is made. And they highlighted another very important point. CO2 emissions are 139.4 gr/km of CO2, instead of 39.6 gr/km of CO2 approved on average. Therefore, as of this year other cycles are beginning to make during the homologation of new cars. Until nowa plug -in hybrid was subjected to constant cycles in which the speed was increasing to exhaust its battery. After its electric warehouse, one last cycle was made only with the Combustion engine. It was a way to simulate the most efficient conditions of use of a PHEV: throw to the extent of the possible electric motor until the battery is exhausted. But since January 1, 2025 it is applied EURO 6E BIS. This new way of measuring plug -in hybrids is mandatory for all homologated cars until December 31, 2026. From there, all cars sold by manufacturers as new will have to undergo this new test. With this new protocol, the conditions are harder. The test will be extended up to 2,200 kilometers and the test will run over time with the empty battery. Temperature conditions will be more extreme. And when EURO 6E BIS-FCM enters into force, cars will face worse circumstances with tests that will extend up to 4,260 kilometers. What happens is that in many countries Aids have been delivered to purchase of a plug -in hybrid, thinking that their owners would make a more efficient use of them. However, In Switzerland they already took their aid In 2022 because they considered that with the use that they were giving them contaminated as much as a diesel and They were taking advantage of advantages of cleaner vehicles. All this has direct consequences for the coming years on emissions. The maximum allowed limit for each brand is 93.6 gr/km of CO2 on average in 2027. For the calculation the Weight of the emissions registered in 2025, 2026 and 2027. The brand that exceeds will have to pay 95 euros for each gram overcome and car sold. That is, if you have sold one million cars and record 94.6 gr/km of CO2 on average, the fine will be 95 million euros. Having until the end of 2026 with plug -in hybrids that barely approve just over 30 gr/km of CO2 is an advantage for manufacturers that can prioritize their sales if their electric cars are not working quite well. Keep in mind that these data allow up to three plug -in hybrid cars by a gasoline without exceeding the maximum allowed barrier. The problem will come with the new models that are coming to the market and, above all, from 2027 that manufacturers must withdraw these markets from the market or assume that the same vehicle will now reflect a volume of emissions that can be between three and four times higher. That is, they will be able to use the “trick” of the plug -in hybrid but will not add so favorably as until now. Photo | Byd In Xataka | Catl wants to convert plug -in hybrids into true electric cars with its last battery: 400 kilometers of autonomy

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