told

Generation Z was told that job success was having a good salary. Having more life has become your new luxury

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Generation Z is creating a new work scenario and we have several examples of this: they have a different concept of labor relations than previous generations had and their definition of commitment is now governed by rules that they demand reciprocity to companies. It’s not strange. This generation has seen how their parents have worked non-stop and end up just as drowning at the end of the month. Therefore, when young people talk about job success, they no longer think only about the payroll, they also think about power. leave on time and to be able to dedicate time to your personal life. The strike that marks the step. To understand this shift we must first look at the reality of this generation. According to data According to the INE, youth unemployment in Spain stood at 24.5% in the first quarter of 2026. It is almost double the average Eurostat for the European Union as a whole, slightly above 15%, but half of the 42.91% we had a decade ago. As pointed out by the ‘I Barometer Challenges and Learning. Youth positions on training and professional challenges’ prepared by the Reina Sofía Center of Fad Juventud and Banco Santander, this pressure is conditioning even decisions as important as choosing what to study. The urgency of the salary, even if it is precarious. According to data from this report, 64.7% of young people admit that they decide their future thinking about making money as soon as possible, not in the future. job you would like to do really. “I want to have a kind of stability. So I feel pressured by that, because I don’t want to live constantly as if on the edge, I want to have that stability,” said one of the young participants in the study. Six out of ten also believe that there are factors beyond their control that hinder progress in their career: precariousness, lack of opportunities and economic pressure They are among the most mentioned. And yet, 67% do not contemplate throwing in the towel despite the difficulties to prosper in their career, moving away from the stereotype of unmotivated youth. Success changes its definition. With that starting point, the young people of generation Z have changed the definition of what is considered succeed at work. Before, success consisted of moving up in rank and salary every few years. Now free time, mental health and a work environment come into the equation don’t burn. Conciliation stops being an extra and becomes be entry condition. The report Workmonitor Randstad marks a turning point: the balance between life and work already weigh more than salary when evaluating a job. More than half of those surveyed would leave their position if it prevented them from living outside the office. What they ask for: financial guidance and education. According to data from the Reina Sofía Center Barometer, generation Z does not ask for a miracle either, just a guide to develop your capabilities professionals. 75.7% want to better understand what interests them before deciding their career, while 74% demand more information about job opportunities of each training option. That is, not waste time studying a career that leaves them on a siding. And more than 73% lack basic financial training to manage their daily lives. The result of all this is that in the future we will have fewer young people willing to sacrifice time in their personal lives for a little more salaryand more companies that are going to have to offer both as an incentive if they want retain talent. In Xataka | The wealth of Spaniards under 35 years of age has plummeted by 75% in recent years. And we know the culprit Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

Sony has told you why it stops selling games in physical format. The real reason, of course, is the same as always: money

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Sony has announced that in January 2028 will stop manufacturing physical discs for PlayStation. Among the brief reasons given for making this decision is adapting to the player’s preferences, and following the trends that rule the industry: digital games sell more than physical ones, therefore, this is the choice of the players, which must be adhered to. However, what you have to look at there to find Sony’s true motives is “best sellers.” And specifically, we have to ask ourselves what economic benefit Sony extracts from these sales. The clear accounts. You just have to take note of the profit percentages that Sony makes with each game sold to understand the operation. According to the analysis of consultant Serkan Toto, Kantan GamesSony receives around 54% more for each digital copy of its own game than for the same physical copy. At a price of 70 dollars, a digital game leaves you the full 70 dollars, because there is no external store that takes commission (of course, from there you have to extract development, marketing and corporate costs, if the game is from an external studio). The same title on disc, after deducting the distributor’s margin (about 30%) and the manufacturing cost (about 5%), is left with a profit of about $45.50. Although the calculation is approximate and countless external actors must be taken into account (especially third parties), the comparison makes clear the maxim that is guiding these decisions: the fewer intermediaries, the greater the profit margin per unit. Less physical. Added to this is that the physical aspect already weighs little in the company’s overall income statement. According to a corporate report of the company itselfphysical software represented only 3% of its revenue in 2024. All these decisions must also be contextualized: at a time when Your Playstation 6 can cost a thousand euros sales price and that the current component crisis promises not only to continue, but directly double next yearcutting that 3% can save millions. Kill the second hand. There is another figure that should be taken into account: resale. Every second-hand record that changes ownership is a sale from which Sony does not see a euro. An Alinea Analytics analyst said that “what this is all about is profitability and control for PlayStation”, two very juicy terms in this new situation because a digital code, apart from all the savings in intermediaries that we said above, is linked to a personal account that cannot be resold or lent. Every second-hand product that Sony was unable to sell now becomes a new purchase at full price, or is not produced at all. This second-hand market is not exactly marginal, and is now being seen to disappear. GameStop saw a 14% drop in its quarterly revenue last March, and explicitly attributed to the shift towards digital. The analysis firm Circana estimates that spending on new physical games in the United States has fallen to 1.6 billion dollars in the last year, compared to a maximum of 11.5 billion in 2009. In other words, we have had an almost uninterrupted decline for seventeen years. It’s the market, friend. Sony has taken the most aggressive step, but the direction had already been set from different parts of the sector for some time. A week before Sony’s announcement, Rockstar confirmed that The physical edition of ‘GTA VI’ will not have a disc version. Both Xbox and Playstation have sold versions of their latest consoles without a disc reader. It is an inescapable trend, which began on PC and in stores that have ended up becoming massive options, such as Steam, and which reveals that a corporation will always prefer, rather than a one-time sale, that we are subscribed (literally or figuratively) to a constant purchase, to a service that never ends. Therefore, saying that the player has chosen digital for convenience is, at the very least, a liquid truth. As he told newsletter ‘Friday in Kiribati’we must not get carried away by that discourse: we have not chosen the preeminence of the digital, it has been imposed on us: “it seems that during the last decade no one has designed consoles without a reader, exclusive discounts for digital versions, subscription catalogs, stores integrated (and hyperpresent) in the designs of the systems, games that, despite having the disc, need to connect to the internet (…) nor have they invested obscene amounts of money in convincing us that getting up from the couch to change a disc was a thing. of the past.” Image | Photo of Alexey Savchenko in Unsplash

We have been told that drinking water on an empty stomach helps you lose weight. Scientific evidence says otherwise

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The Internet and social networks are full of supposedly easy tricks that promise almost miraculous results with a minimum effort for our body. One of these tricks is a habit that many people do as if it were a ritual: drinking a large glass of water, “yes or yes”, as soon as we get out of bed in the morning. This simple gesture promises to ‘wake up’ the intestines, activate the metabolism and promote weight loss. It’s a myth. What we hear on social networks is not always true, since we must face a large number of myths that have no scientific support behind them. And right now the best scientific evidence does not support this idea, Although it is true that drinking water increases our energy production. Thermogenesis. To understand where this widespread myth comes from, we must analyze the term “water-induced thermogenesis”, that is, the ability of our body to begin producing energy after drinking a glass of water. Here is a classic study In the medical literature it was observed that the consumption of 500 ml of water managed to increase the metabolic rate by around 30% during a period of 30 to 40 minutes. But although this percentage may seem incredible, the reality is that the acceleration of the metabolism translated into a total expenditure of 24 kilocalories. That is to say, its effect was so small that short-term weight loss was hardly going to be noticed due to this. It has been verified. Subsequent research in the fields of endocrinology and nutrition has attempted to replicate these data in different contexts. We have one of the examples in a clinical trial that evaluated the physiological effects in overweight or obese people, where an increase in energy expenditure of 24% was found for 60 minutes after ingesting 500 ml of water. But again it was seen that this slight temporary metabolic rebound does not imply a fat loss that is relevant in itself. On the scale. If now, instead of staying in the laboratory, we go to the real effect that this habit has on patients, we find that the narrative of water on an empty stomach as a slimming remedy loses much of its support, since the scientific evidence on weight loss attributable to water consumption is, in general terms, limited and of low to moderate quality. And the studies that have been done, despite pointing to weight loss, have a follow-up that is too short and a methodology that prevents giving a firm conclusion about applying this recommendation. The power of water. That dismantling the myth of a glass of water on an empty stomach is anticlimactic does not mean that hydration has no value in a weight control strategy. And the evidence suggests that drinking water helps to lose weight indirectly, since the mere fact of modifying the diet to go from a high consumption of sugary soft drinks or industrial juices to drinking water eliminates hundreds of calories a day with little effort. In addition, various trials suggest that drinking water before meals makes us feel full much sooner, which will reduce the amount of calories that we end up eating and, therefore, advancing a little further in the diet. Images | engin akyurt In Xataka | We believed that with Ozempic, people who lost weight exercised more. we believed wrong

Where electricity comes from in each country in the world, told on an essential map

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To stop climate change, it is essential to “clean” electricity, that is, decarbonize it to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. The reason is clear: the electricity sector is to blame for approximately a third of global emissions, according to IEA data for 2025. What this world map does is shed light on the origin of the light that reaches us when we press the plug because knowing where the electricity comes from in each country is the first step to knowing what needs to be changed and how long it takes to achieve it. This map of Our World in Data sample for each state what is the main source of electrical energy for the period 2024/25. Behind this data visualization initiative is the University of Oxford and for its preparation uses information from Global Electricity Review Ember. There are 215 countries in their database, although for this representation they use 91 states that represent 93% of global electricity demand. Viewing and understanding the map is simple: one color for each dominant technology: orange is gas, gray is coal, blue is water, purple is nuclear, yellow is solar. In addition, it offers the percentage of that dominant technology to know how much this source represents in the state total. This point is important because a state can be colored orange because gas accounts for 40% of the total even though it has 35% renewables in total. It is a map of the present, not of how we want it to be or where the trend is going. The first thing we see on the map is that andCoal remains the largest single source of electricity generation in the world, a ranking that has been leading for more than half a century and that in this visualization represents 35% of the global generation. Of course, it is the lowest percentage since the founding of the IEA in 1974. One of the reasons why the global electricity sector continues to have so much weight in emissions is precisely because of the leadership of coal. Another reason is gas. In fact, in 2024 fossil fuels still generated almost 60% of the world’s electricity. Broadly speaking, the map shows how gas is hegemonic in rich countries in the northern hemisphere while coal dominates in Asia. In South America and parts of Africa, hydroelectricity is historically what makes the difference. However, Europe is a true rainbow, the result of decades of political strategies and investments. In fact, the big green shoot for the decarbonization of electricity goes through renewable energieswhich in 2025 surpassed coal for the first time in history: solar, wind, hydroelectric and others together produced more than a third of the world’s electricity. The good news is that almost all of the increase in electricity demand in 2024 was covered by clean sources. But there is one that shines with its own light: solar energy, which in 2024 surpassed wind power for the first time globally. Two states that are true powerhouses in solar generation are Spain with 22% and Chile with 25%. What is the main source of electricity for the countries of the world. Our World in Data What the map doesn’t say Our World in data map has small print: While it is true that renewables have grown, so have coal and gas. Thus, in 2024, developing Asian countries they consumed 80% of all the coal used for electricity in the world, when in 2000 it accounted for 40%. And there is a problem that the map leaves out: there are hundreds of millions of people who They do not have access to electricity. More specifically, 730 million in 2024. Of all of them, Africa concentrates 80%. These countries will have to build their network from scratch and the million-dollar question will be whether they will have the financing to do it with renewables or will they rely on the classic fossils, which are cheaper and more readily available. Another important fact that this world map omits is where does the fuel come from. That is, a country colored orange may depend on a neighbor with whom it has a strained relationship. Without going any further, in 2021 45% of imported gas by the EU came from Russia. When war broke out between Ukraine and Russia, that dependency made electricity more expensive overnight. Europe reacted, but at what price: now imported LNG it is more expensive. It is not the only one: Southeast Asia too suffers from energy dependence of the coal that matters. In Xataka | How much electricity each country on the map produces with renewable energy, displayed on a graph In Xataka | The most fascinating map you will see today: the entire electrical infrastructure of the planet, in an interactive infographic Cover | Our World in data

The European Commission wants to sweep Huawei off the map. Spain has told him not so quickly

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The European Commission lhas been trying to expel Huawei for years of their telecommunications networks. And that intention wants to become a binding law, one that would exclude all Chinese teams within a period of 36 months. But there are two countries acting as a retaining wall: Spain and Germany. what’s happening. The European Commission wants to veto Huawei and ZTE citing security reasons. Through a review of the Cybersecurity Regulation, it proposes mandatory elimination of high-risk suppliers. The current draft establishes the mandatory recall of equipment provided by “high-risk suppliers”, assuming a formal veto for Chinese telecommunications companies. The Spain case. In Spain we have a problem with this intention. Telefónica renewed its 5G core contract with Huawei in 2024 and valid until 2030. As relevant information, this 5G core was renewed with the Chinese manufacturer for private equipment, but the contracts for government institutions and business services were awarded to Nokia. In other words, the most sensitive infrastructure is already in European hands. Vodafone –now controlled by Zegona–, maintains the majority of its network with Huawei technology, and although MásOrange has been reducing the presence of the Chinese brand in its equipment for some time (less than 40% in 2027). In short, Large Spanish operators have been using Huawei equipment for years despite the EU’s warnings, and they do not seem willing to simply sweep it off the map. The German case. Something similar happens in Germany. Huawei is still present in more than 60% of the country’s antennas, and although progressive withdrawal plans are already underway, the schedule imposed by Brussels does not seem realistic. Fighting tooth and nail. Both countries have warned the Commission of their concerns in this regard: vetoing China from the European network infrastructure may provoke retaliation, in addition to making the deployment of the network significantly more expensive.to artificial intelligence infrastructure which Europe has been dreaming of for a year and a half. The EU Council requires a majority to approve this plan, so Spain and Germany can look for allies to try to stop it. This would allow the process to be delayed, require modifications and exceptions in the draft, or even end the proposal if it fails to move forward. The possible outcome. With such fierce opposition, the most likely outcome is that there will be no victory for anyone. Spain and Germany may knock down the proposal completely, but they do have enough muscle to deform it. It seems inevitable that, sooner or later, Huawei will disappear from European telecommunications, but the deadlines will not be as immediate as Europe intends, nor is it ruled out that there will be specific exceptions if countries demand it. In Xataka | I tested four Huawei devices at once to evaluate their ecosystem: great hardware, lacks glue

With the Find X9 Ultra, OPPO has an ambitious plan to conquer the heart of Spain. And its CEO has told us what it is

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From the offices of OPPO In Madrid, at the top of a building very close to Plaza de Castilla, you can see an old water tank from the Canal de Isabel II. It is a huge concrete structure inaugurated in the middle of the last century that today, no longer in use, functions as one of the visual “landmarks” of the square. It is very big, about 40 meters high, but it is very far away. I take one of the OPPO Find X9 Ultra that’s on the table, I open the camera, zoom in 10x and take a photo. The result is impressive. The camera returns an image full of details: the contours of the concrete, already worn, the advertising signage that floods its dome, the brutalist curves that the tower draws. All this from inside an office and interrupted by a large window. I look towards the back of the room, where there are some boxes of snacks and pastries ready for breakfast. There are tiny inscriptions on the side, so I repeat the process: I open the camera, zoom in 10x and take another photo. The sharpness is extraordinary. There is no pixelation or noticeable distortion or digital zoom artifacts in the drawing of the letters, nor a great chromatic distortion with respect to what my eyes see. “What we want to do with the Ultra is not just another incremental improvement, we want it to be an alternative to your professional camera,” he explains to me. Kevin ChoCEO of OPPO in Spain since last summer. “It would be like buying a camera with a built-in phone and not the other way around, right?” I ask him. “That is, camera firstmore than a phone with an interesting camera.” Looking at the wide range of tools on the table, it’s hard not to agree. The launch of the Find X9 Ultra in Spain marks a milestone for OPPO: for the first time, the company launches its top-of-the-range phone in Europe, something reserved until now for Chinese consumers. OPPO has not spared any details: the Ultra incorporates an ambitious 300 mm teleconverter equivalent in 35 mm and 13x format that is attached to the phone’s gigantic lenses to multiply the camera’s possibilities. Why has OPPO made such a determined bet for photographyWithout a doubt the most notable aspect of a Find X9 Ultra full of attractive features and specifications? “There is a very marked polarization in the market,” explains Cho. “Around 30% or 40% of buyers continue to opt for devices under 200 euros, or even second-hand, but what we are also seeing is an expansion of the premium segments. It is the same trend month after month: premium sales are growing.” (Xataka) Cho introduces a key word: “premiumization.” The market polarization of the mobile phone is neither new nor surprising for anyone who has paid attention to the dynamics of recent years. Many consumers tend to hold on to their devices for longer, as a result of the large investments they must make, which is why they demand more performance and quality from their products. This gap, also present in markets such as the car, has forced almost all brands to recalibrate their strategies. OPPO’s ambitious plan “We don’t want transactional volumes,” Cho continues, “you know, competing on price. We want to make sure we bring products that can create value for the consumer.” According to Cho, OPPO is facing its second wave of expansion in the European market: after a consolidation of the brand and sales in recent years, it is time to grow not so much through raw numbers as through loyalty in the segments. more exclusive of the market. And for that you need a product up to the task, hence the arrival of the Find X9 Ultra. A landing that, however, has required adaptations. Since his arrival in Spain, Cho has promoted a change in OPPO’s methodology, especially regarding the consumer: “We are doing studies to understand consumer preferences and to define our strategies.” Refers to focus group and surveys with more than 4,000 respondents, a very large sample that exceeds those that the brand was doing until then. Cho is clear that the only way to compete in the premium segment is by going to the user, or, in his words, “winning the heart and brain of the consumer.” (Xataka) The approach is ambitious, as are its objectives. When I ask him where he would like to see OPPO in five years in Spain, he answers without much hesitation: “As the number one brand.” The Find X9 Ultra is the first stone of a long road ahead, a way to “test the roof” of OPPO in Europe. His first steps have consisted of relearning and readapting the lessons of the chinese marketwhere OPPO is a brand with a lot of penetration and experience in the premium segments, for Spain and Europe. Before the launch on the old continent, OPPO has had to make some adjustments in terms of operating system and memory to adapt them to local needs and preferences. Given the constraints of such a competitive segment Like the premium one, OPPO has two other arguments to win over the consumer: its operating system, ColorOS, and the battery. Cho boasts leadership in the second area and widespread user satisfaction in the first: “In China, our operating system has consistently been our main selling point for the past three years.” In Spain, the Ultra works on Android, like the rest of the market, but Cho highlights the interoperability and customization of OPPO: “We have been working on inter-device and inter-ecosystem interoperability for some time, so that you can use the phone with a Windows computer or a Mac.” (Xataka) Camera, battery, operating system… The elephant in the room that needs to be addressed is AI. Is there the definitive angle for a mobile phone brand to be more attractive than its competition? Cho’s answer is not direct but clear: OPPO’s strength is … Read more

When they told us all the advantages of intermittent fasting, they forgot one small detail: that it could make us bald.

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For years we have been sold that intermittent fasting It was the strategy of the future to lose weight and improve our metabolic health. It is logical: it was something easy to implement, reasonable and very striking. Had everything necessary to become a fashion. And so it was. It is now, as the first long-term studies come to an end, that we begin to really understand its pros and cons. The most striking, of course, is the one that has to do with hair. What exactly is intermittent fasting? In general terms, we call ‘intermittent fasting’ a diet that alternates periods without food restrictions with brief periods of fasting. ‘Fasting’, here, is a deliberately elastic term: it can mean eating absolutely nothing or significantly reducing the number of calories consumed. The idea behind it sounds good.. When we undergo prolonged calorie restriction, the body goes into “savings mode” and that causes weight loss to slow down (or, at least, slow down). Intermittent fasting would attempt to trick the body into not adapting to the new calorie restriction and therefore continuing to “spend” at a normal rate. And does it work? That’s the bad news. “Research does not consistently show that intermittent fasting is superior to continuous low-calorie diets” when it comes to weight loss, the study tells us. more complete analysis on the subject after reviewing almost fifty studies. The clinical trials that have been carried out Subsequently, they only insist on the same thing: in general terms, the results are identical to those with the rest of the normal diets. Both in the dropout rate and in the amount of weight achieved or the improvement in health markers. The choice of another method, ultimately, has more to do with individual philias and phobias than with any type of extra scientific evidence. After all, everyone has a peculiar relationship with food and, consequently, there are some strategies that ‘fit’ us better than others. In other words, there are people who use it. Yes and the truth is that nothing happens. Little by little, researchers are discovering good things (can help intestinal cells regenerate) and bad things (could promote the formation of precancerous polyps). So, little by little, we are better understanding what it does, what it stops doing and what mechanisms are behind intermittent fasting. That’s when the surprises begin. Because, for example, a clinical trial carried out with mice has discovered that intermittent fasting slows hair growth. Researchers at Westlake University (in Zhejiang, China) took about 50 mice, shaved them and divided them into three groups with dietary restrictions (fed every 8, 16 or 48 hours) and one without restrictions which is the control group. After a month, the mice that could eat without problem had recovered their hair. Those who fasted, on the other hand, only partially recovered after 96 days. As? Because? What is happening here? The first thing is to make it clear that the researchers “They don’t want to scare people away from intermittent fasting.“; but rather highlight “the importance of taking into account that it could have some unwanted effects.” Taking this into account (and that the study is in mice), the answer is both simple and full of uncertainties: to begin with, hair growth is a process that requires constant and balanced nutrition. But researchers believe the problem could go further: It is possible that “the body uses fat reserves instead of glucose and this could trigger the release of chemicals that damage hair cells.” However (and this is important) the research is in a very seminal state and there is still much to investigate. After all, there is no better occasion than this: the occasion they paint her bald. Image | Seika In Xataka | The great promise of science to end baldness is not a transplant or a medicine: it is a vaccine A version of this topic was originally published in February 2025

Einstein told us how to do it, engineering tells us it’s almost impossible

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After the success of Artemis IIscience already has its sights set on the colonization of the Moon or Mars. The problem is that, for this to be possible, it would be necessary to develop technologies that do not exist today. For example, you can spend a short time under the effect of microgravity, but if someone wanted to spend very long stays in space, much longer than those of the International Space Station, they would need artificial gravity generation systems. If not, your health could seriously deteriorate. And how is that gravity generated? Theoretically we know it, the problem is getting it. Einstein gave the first clues. In his Theory of Special RelativityEinstein described something known as the equivalence effect, which stated that gravity and acceleration are indistinguishable effects when they have the same value. That is, since the force of gravity on Earth is 9.8 N, equivalent to an acceleration of 9.8 meters per second squared, if an astronaut traveled in a spacecraft that ascends with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s², he would feel his feet clinging to the ground, even without gravity. For this reason, all theoretical projects to create artificial gravity are based on this principle. Too much fuel. One option would be the example we have seen. A rocket accelerating at 9.8 m/s². The problem is that to maintain this figure constantly unfeasible amounts of fuel would be needed. It is not something feasible. Better spinning. Given the technical impossibility of the first option, all projects aim at centripetal acceleration. That is, the acceleration that a rotating body maintains. If we were inside a ship that rotates with a centripetal acceleration of 9.8 m/s², we could imitate gravity. But there is a problem. Centripetal acceleration is equal to angular velocity squared times the radius of the spin path. As if it were the spoke of a bicycle wheel. Angular velocity is the speed at which that object rotates. If the radius is small, a very high speed is needed to achieve a given acceleration. And of course, the people inside that circular ship would end up very dizzy. On the other hand, in very large ships it would not be necessary to turn so quickly. Therefore, for a small ship it would not be viable, but perhaps something like this could be achieved if a new space station is built in the future. In fact, There is a project to build a luxury hotel in the space that would be shaped like a giant wheel. It would be constantly spinning, with the exact radius and speed to mimic the effect of gravity. Doesn’t anyone think about the Moon? The objective of lunar bases is that their inhabitants can be directly perched on the selenite surface. The same would happen with the Martian bases.. They would have to be on the surface. Therefore, it would not be viable to be inside a flying wheel. On the other hand, a wheel could be built to which the lunar colonizers would go from time to time. Just enough to reverse to a certain extent the harmful effects of microgravity. It would be like a kind of microgravity spa. This is something that a team of scientists from Kyoto University has already designed. They have named it The Glass. The consequences can be very serious. When we are not subjected to gravity, body fluids can travel to the headcausing brain inflammation and vision problems. This also affects the circulatory system, as it can increase pressure in specific vessels, such as the jugular vein. Even the heartbeat would be affected. On the other hand, by not needing to be in a rigid posture, the muscles gradually atrophy and the bones lose density. All this without counting possible neurological, balance or intestinal problems. Long stays in a microgravity situation are unfeasible, so it will be necessary to have a clear project to develop artificial gravity. If we want to live in space, we will really need it. Image | Orbital Assembly Corporation and Kyoto University In Xataka | We knew that Mars has gravity. Now we have just discovered the unexpected effect it has on the Earth’s climate

For decades we have been told that seafood does not feel pain when boiled. We were seriously wrong

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An action that can be quite common in the world of gastronomy and cooking in general is that of literally boil the lobsters and the crabs while they are alive. Something that was quite accepted, since it was thought that these animals were not aware that they were being boiled and did not even feel pain. But this is changing radically, although it does not transfer to kitchens. What we knew. This idea that the animals did not suffer any type of pain is something that could be doubted (a lot), since when you put them in a pot of boiling water they begin to have great shakes. But this is something that was pointed out as a mere reflex, but that did not have any type of awareness of the pain. A new study. A team from the University of Gothenburg has pointed out that this is not the caseand they have done so by focusing on Norwegian crayfish or lobsters. And to demonstrate that this is so, they have simply given him analgesics that humans take, such as aspirin (although it is no longer as prevalent due to its analgesia) and even local anesthetics such as lidocaine that is used in humans, for example, when they are going to give stitches to a wound. In this way, once the lobsters were anesthetized, they were placed in boiling water again and their movements, which were supposedly a reflex, were seen to be drastically reduced. What does it mean? Here logic tells us that if the animal’s behavior were a simple reaction due to the stimulation of a nerve, an analgesic should not affect it and would have to be generated in the same way. But the fact that drugs that block our own pain also work in crayfish suggests that there is more than a simple reflection when it comes to putting them in the boiling water, but they are really suffering. The ethical problem. The fact that it was thought that a crustacean with these characteristics could not be aware of pain was based on the fact that they have a very simple nervous system, so boiling them alive had no influence on animal well-being. But now researchers call for reflection and reopen the debate about whether we really should continue recommending this type of practices within the culinary world. This is not the first time this has been seen, since other studies analyzed the crabs through electric shocks given to them when they passed through a specific area. In this way, the crabs learned that they should not go through the area that gave them an electric shock, demonstrating that they did have awareness of this unpleasant experience and also memory. Now, with evidence of response to painkillers, the lobster’s “insensitivity” argument appears to have its days numbered. The legislation. Today, in many countries it is not considered that these practices are prohibited, as it is punishable, for example, to physically harm a dog or a cat. But the truth is that in some countries they are trying to adapt to the new reality, such as the United Kingdom, which recognizes lobsters, crabs and octopuses as sentient beings. Besides, in New Zealand This includes a requirement that animals going through the pot be declared desensitized through techniques such as extreme cooling or electrical stunning, to prevent them from being alive and conscious before being cooked. But the problem is that in much of the world it is still completely legal to cook them alive. Images | Monika Borys In Xataka | Batch cooking is taking off for a very simple reason: if you want to eat well, you can’t trust yourself.

To rescue the pilot lost in Iran, the US has told a story worthy of Spielberg. Some explosive images tell a very different story

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In military manuals, rescue missions in enemy territory are as rare as they are dangerous: In decades of modern conflicts, only a few have been successfully completed without becoming a complete disaster. Some have marked history for their failuresothers for their execution to the limit, but most share something in common: the margin of error It is practically non-existent. Two stories for the same mission. When explaining the rescue mission of an American pilot on Iranian territory, Washington has told a story that Spielberg himself would sign: a wounded airman, alone and hiding in a mountain crevice, resisting for almost two days while the enemy searches for him and an elite force that bursts in between explosions to get him out alive. Of course, there is another version that is not narrated by American communiqués, but by some explosive images launched from the Iranian side: destroyed aircraft, improvisation on the ground and an operation that, although successful in its end, seems much more chaotic than what was intended to be conveyed. Between the two, a story full of chiaroscuros is built where epic and uncertainty coexist. The demolition and the race against time. lThe story started several days ago with the downing of an F-15E in Iranian territory, an already exceptional fact as it was the first American fighter lost in combat in years. The two crew members eject, but only the pilot is quickly rescued, while the weapons systems officer is isolated in a hostile mountainous area. From there a race against time: The wounded airman climbs a ridge, hides in a crevice and emits intermittent signals so as not to give away their position, while Iranian forces, militias and even civilians motivated by rewards search the area. For hours, not even Washington is clear if he is still alive. The perfect official version. The American narrative presents the mission as an impeccable display of power and coordination, with special forces, bombers, drones and massive air cover executing one of the most complex rescue operations in its history. There is talk of surgical precision, absolute control of airspace and clean extraction no American casualtiesculminated with a triumphalist message that elevates the operation to a symbol of military superiority. The CIA involvement adds an almost cinematic component, with an apparent deception campaign that confuses the Iranian forces as they locate the pilot “like a needle in a haystack.” A US Army AH-6 Little Bird helicopter The “other” details. However, upon delving into all the data that has been appearing, important cracks appear in the story. The first rescue attempt fails under enemy fireseveral helicopters are damaged and at least one A-10 falls during the operation, which already calls into question the idea of ​​total control. It happens that the final extraction is not goes as planned. How much? Apparently, two special operations planes were trapped on the ground after their wheels sank on a makeshift runway, forcing emergency reinforcements to be sent and, attention, to destroy them later to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands. The images of the place They show charred remains of aircraft and helicopters, evidencing a much more eventful and risky operation than the official story suggests. The ambiguity of combat. Because another key point is the nature of the confrontation. While some versions speak of a “mass shooting”other more detailed sources indicate that there was no direct combat sustained on the ground, but rather air strikes against approaching Iranian forces. This difference is neither trivial nor minor, because it actually transforms a narrative of heroic confrontation in a very different where technological and aerial superiority was the truly decisive factor, reducing the drama of hand-to-hand combat, but increasing the feeling of distance between what was told and what happened. Propaganda, perception and war of stories. If you like, everything indicates that the rescue was not only a simple military operation, but a narrative battle in the middle of war. From the sidewalk in Washington, the story became a kind of “Easter miracle” useful for bolstering domestic support and projecting strength. However, from the sidewalk of Tehran, the simple fact of having shot down the plane It already served as proof that he could challenge the United States. In that context, every detail counts the same that every omissionbecause control of the story is almost as important as the tactical result. Success with many shadows. The pilot seems to have been finally rescued and that, in military terms, marks the success of the operation. However, the path to achieve it reveals something more complex: a mission on the edge, with failures, improvisation, extreme risks and decisions made on the fly that contradict the image of perfect execution. Perhaps for this reason, between the story that seems written for the cinema and the one revealed by the smoking remains on the ground, it remains a conclusion most uncomfortable: even the most successful operations can hide a reality much more fragile than one wants to admit. Image | US MARINE In Xataka | The US is going to end its war in the Middle East with a very uncomfortable reality: Iran had years of advantage underground In Xataka | If the question is “how close are we to an escalation in Iran,” the answer is US A-10s flying there

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