trains

cars and trains

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At the beginning of June echoes began to arrive from a situation that could now explode. Car manufacturers and their suppliers gave the alarm voice before a gloomy horizon facing the shortage of supplies due to restrictions on Chinese exports of rare, mineral and magnets. In fact, the problem has forced some to suspend the production of certain models. Now everything is complicated a little more, because those minerals are not essential only for cars. They are also for war. Mitigation strategies. When the first alarm voices sounded in June the reaction of the great European manufacturers was disparate. BMW confirmed that part of their supplier network had already been affected, while Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz now assured maintaining a Stable supplythanks to long -term strategies to reduce critical mineral dependence. Mercedes, for example, said to be working on New compositions of materials that allow to dispense with heavy rare earths such as disposium in its electrical propulsion trains. However, most recognized that it was a situation Very volatile. From Japan, Nissan confirmed to be coordinating with his government and the association of car manufacturers in the country to find solutions, while Suzuki had already suspended the production of Your swift model. Rearme and bottlenecks. Everything has been complicated a little more since Europe has confirmed that plan to rearma increasing 5% of GDP In defense. The vertiginous increase in military expenditure in Europe, which provides for a growth of up to 80% between 2024 and 2030, threatens to stress even more an already weakened industrial supply chain. The plan, promoted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and consolidated by countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, will carry the military budget of the current 417,000 million euros to a estimated figure between 650,000 and 750,000 million euros. Collateral effects They counted In Forbes That only one third of these funds will be used for equipment, the accelerated growth of the aerospace and defense sector will have Collateral effects Notable on civil industries, especially those that depend on the same suppliers. For example? Saturation indications have already been detected in the Aeronautical productionas demonstrated by the reduction in the delivery of commercial airplanes, which in 2024 remained a 30% below of the peak achieved in 2018. This mismatch is just an advance of the funnel that can be generated when manufacturers prioritize military contracts (more lucrative and long -term) to the detriment of sectors such as rail, automotive or energy, which depend on shared technical supplies such as sensors, hydraulics, connectors or electronic cards. Vulnerable pieces. An analysis of more than 600 secondary suppliers in the European market has revealed a dangerous overlap between defense needs and value chains of strategic civil industries. In industrial machinery, for example, the availability of fundamental components such as bearings, mechatronics or pneumatic systems could be drastically reduced as suppliers redirect productive capacity towards war applications. Trains and cars. In the railway sector, key pieces such as printed circuit plates, microelectronics or control units also compete for the same origin. The automotive industry, already beaten by the recent scarcity of semiconductorsrun special danger: the growing Military demand It can aggravate the lack of harnesses, cables, sensors and hydraulic systems, delving a production crisis that barely begins to stabilize. Even the energy sector will be affected by the growing wiring shortage Technician, connectors and transmission elements that form the backbone of their critical infrastructure. This transverse tension could trigger a new wave of delays, increase in costs and productivity drop throughout the European economy. Uncertain future. In addition, the Expenditure acceleration military arrives in a context where global supply chains have not fully recovered from a marked decade for chained crises: the pandemicthe War in Ukrainelogistics collapse during the rise of electronic commerce, and more recently, the threat of commercial wars and crossed tariffs. Despite this, most companies continue to manage their value chains reactivelywithout a clear proactive strategy that allows future disruptions to be anticipated. This lack of forecast exposes entire sectors to the risk of productive collapses at a time of fierce international competition, where Logistics agility It is as critical as technological innovation. In fact, we have a clue as a mirror with the most immediate precedent (the world scarcity of semiconductors between 2020 and 2023), which showed that, without anticipatory vision, even the most robust industries can be paralyzed. The new industrial order. Faced with this panorama, analysts point out various strategies Urgent to prevent the rise of rearme dragging with the civil economy. It points to companies diversify Its supplier bases, homologate new supply channels, improve transparency with logistics partners and establish internal monitoring cells that operate in real time for anticipate disruptionsin the style of the mechanisms created during the chips crisis. Plus: Take advantage of the future that is already here, incorporating Predictive analysis and AI tools that allow emerging bottlenecks to be detected and redirect supply flows quickly. As explained The transport expert Sebastian Janssen, the resilience can no longer be a reactive quality, “but a structural asset of the business model.” If you want also, in a Europe where Rearme accelerates And the industry competes for the same gearthe ability to resist shaking Logistics will make the difference between surviving and disappearing and, along the way, of making our lives a little less complicated. Image | BORN, Get Archive, Ken Heaton In Xataka | Spain refuses to spend 5% of GDP on artillery. Because what you really want is to sell it to Europe In Xataka | Spain has decided to rearm and for the moment there is a company that is benefiting from it: Indra

China wanted to be the queen of high -speed trains. So he built all the longest bridges in the world

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Although Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are immersed in a war for have the highest skyscrapers in the worldwhen we talk about megaconstructions, there is no one to have China. It doesn’t matter if we talk about tunnels, Dams, roads and even half -skyscraper. And, when we talk about bridges, there yes There is no rival. From time to time They complete a new pharaonic bridgebut if there is something that shows China’s muscle about it, they are the bridges of the Beijing-Shanghái line. Because it is in it where the three longest bridges are located in the world. Massive and … boring? He Great Danyang-Kunshan bridge It is the longest bridge in the world. It measures just over 164 kilometers and can also be the most boring bridge in the world. The reason is that it is a bridge in which functionality prevailed. It is part of the high -speed network that joins Beijing and Shanghai and in its construction, 10,000 workers used 450,000 tons of steel and 2.3 million m3 of concrete to give life to a structure that had to endure possible ships of ships and the impact of earthquakes. It has 2,000 pillars, 22 tunnels, it has an average altitude of just over 30 meters and trains circulate at a speed of more than 320 km/h. Declaration of intentions. The most striking thing is that it only took four years to complete the work. It is an achievement if we consider that other bridges, such as the Constitution of Cádizthey took more than seven years for about three kilometers. They began in 2006 and the works were completed in 2010, inaugurating both the bridge and the line in 2011. The investment? 8,500 million dollars, and although in later bridges we have seen an aesthetic intention by the engineers, that of Danyang-Kunshan was a declaration of intentions. It became a global reference in rail engineering, but above all in a sample of the Technological advance of the country when undertaking the Infrastructure construction large scale in record time. It is something that has also attracted attention to subsequent works, the speed at which things do, especially, in many occasions of works of great complexity. In dark red, the bridge. In clear red, part of the full line Beijing-Shanghai, a monster. Because although this bridge Have the Guiness record in length and it was an important technical advance, the most imposing thing is that it is only a piece of the puzzle that supposes the high -speed line Between Beijing and Shanghai. It is a connection with a length of 1,318 kilometers and, apart from that of Danyang-Kunshan, there are three other bridges that are on the list of the 10 longest in the world. He Great Bridge of Cangde measures 115.9 kilometers and the Great Tianjin Bridge It “stays” at 113.7 kilometers. The three are the longest in the world, and in the seventh place on the list is the Great Bridge of Beijingwith 48.2 kilometers. The four were completed for the inauguration of the line in 2011, assuming a pharaonic work and, in total, representing a third of the total line length. The artificial island of the Hong-Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, which is a bridge over the water until it becomes a submarine “bridge” It is called obsession. Because, if we look at the list of the longest trains in the world, China is a constant, monopolizing with eight structures the top ten positions. Not only are they very long bridges to house train lines (the Weinan Weije It has 102.7 kilometers, but it is not from the Beijing-Shanghai line), also for roads. The fifth longest bridge in the world is Hong-Kong-Zhuhai-Macaohe longest maritime bridge With 55 kilometers (and, this yes, quite attractive), the eighth of the list is the Quingdao Haiwanwith another 44.5 kilometers of road and the tenth is the bridge of line 1 of the Wuhan Metro with 37.7 kilometers. Within those positions of honor, we only find a 54 -kilometer Thai bridge, the Band Na Expresswayand the Lake Pontchartrain Road in the United States with 38.4 kilometers. Images | Mnxanl(2) Pechristener, Highestbridges In Xataka | Three highways, 20 access ramps: China has the most diabolical exchanger in the world in Huangjuewan

How Microsoft managed to make hospitals, trains and elevators trapped in Windows

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This year 50 years of a historical moment were completed. On April 4, 1975, two young people who responded to the name of Bill Gates and Paul Allen gave life to the one who was going to be one of the greatest software empires in history: Microsoft. We counted for such a marked date that after five decades, the amazing thing was not that it continued to exist, but to continue being so relevant. Well, here is a story that perfectly summarizes what Gates and Allen began … and why they have money for punishment. Digital eternity. The story was recovered this weekend The BBC. The British media told that, despite the unstoppable advance of technology, there is still a surprising portion of the modern planet that continues to work thanks to equipment that execute Microsoft operating systems launched decades ago. From elevators in New York hospitals that still use Windows XP to German trains that They require expert technicians In Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS, the Microsoft software legacy not only survives: it is deeply rooted in the critical infrastructures of the day to day. In other words: although the company has turned its Investments in artificial intelligence Like your new future betthe present is full of echoes of its past, with machines that literally are still starting after 20 or 30 years. A phenomenon that reveals two things: the durability and stability of certain ancient systems … and the enormous cost and complexity of replacing them, especially in sectors where the functional prima on the modern. The paradox of obsolete efficiency. But there is much more, of course. For ATMs, Industrial printersmetropolitan trains or hospital systems, changing operating system is not as simple as clicking “update.” It requires rewriting proprietary software, updating specialized hardware and complying with safety and compatibility regulations. The result is that many institutions continue to depend on officially abandoned technologieslike Windows NT or Windows 2000. Even in government contexts, such as the Department of Venarians of the United States, medical records They are managed About a digital architecture that was born in 1985with textual interfaces that demand commands in capital letters and complete routes of files. This persistence not only reflects a form of institutional inertia, but also a business strategy. Microsoft (Gates and Allen) had a “visionary” thought from the point of view of business: allowing users to continue using existing hardware, but selling licenses Instead of imposing obsolescence, to Difference of, for example, Applewhich promoted total renewal. The invisible trap. The human cost of maintaining these systems is also tangible. The BBC explained it With cases of professionals such as psychiatrist Eric Zabriskie, who recounts whole days conditioned by the start of machines that took 15 minutes to turn on, or artisans such as Scott Carlson, who depend on CNCS that only work with Windows XP (despite the frequent failures). This situation generates a dependency class Sordaone in which systems are still alive not by nostalgia, but by necessity. For many, the most worrying is the structural fragility that implies: critical infrastructure depend on technologies for which they already There is no technical supportneither developers available, nor security patches against cyber threats. In other cases, as in the RSan Francisco Railway Edeach day continues to start inserting a floppy disk To load a two system. Yes, the image is anachronistic, But real. Archeology of the present. Of course, not everyone sees the situation with resignation. Some, such as the researcher Dene Grigar, have assumed the conservation of these systems as an art form and cultural archive. In his Electronic Literature Laboratory At Washington State University, it keeps operational 61 Ancient computersfrom the 70s to the early 2000s, to preserve pioneer digital works that depend on original hardware and software to be experienced as conceived. In his opinion, modern emulators cannot capture the complete experience of interactive and participatory works that defined the beginnings of the digital narrative. Your collection includes From video games until Instagram zinesall kept carefully museum. The only thing missing, counts, is a machine capable of reading five -inch floppy disks. Immortal empire. The summary is that the longevity of Windows systems is not accidental. In the background it is deeply linked to that commercial philosophy focused on customer flexibility: allow large and small organizations to continue using their old computers without forcing them to disruptive technological leaps. Thus, Windows has not only been a productivity tool, but has become a kind of Invisible layer of modern civilization. A paradox too, since while Microsoft looks at the future with His commitment to AIa good part of the world still lives within the ecosystem that the company built decades ago. As summed up in the BBC Developer M. Scott Ford, “Microsoft is simply something you are trapped.” The longevity of their past systems is testimony to their domain and business approach: allowing users to continue using old equipment while paying licenses, a strategy that, decades later, still maintains alive technological ghosts of the past. A kind of Ctrl+Alt+Supr Eternal That, like Lee Vensel saidProfessor of Virginia Tech, “makes Windows the final infrastructure, and that’s why Bill Gates is so rich.” Image | Armartinell, Charis Tsevis In Xataka | 50 years later the amazing thing is not that Microsoft continues to exist. The hallucinating thing is that it remains (Tan) relevant In Xataka | Bill Gates has told how he made Microsoft into the giant that is now: “I focused my life only on a single job”

electric trains, video calls and vacuum robots

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Imagining what the civilization of the future will always be something interesting. In the cinema of the 70s and 80s we saw it a lot, with works such as’ Blade Runner ‘or’Robocop‘imagining a future with Ciborgs and Flying cars. Yes, now we are closer to having Human ‘Improved’ as of the A kind flying cars, But what they didn’t imagine was something like Internet. That is because it is much easier to visualize a future with improved elements of our present or that they solve a problem of the time. For example, if in the 70s they had cars, because in 30 years those cars would be flying. Something similar happened in La France of 1899. The toyr Armand Gervanis commissioned Jean-Marc Côté and other artists a series of illustrated cards for the 1900s World Exhibition of Paris. In them, artists should imagine what life would be like in 2000. It is very curious to see the designs of their creations, the problems of their time they wanted to solve and their mentality. In some designs, they approached reality. In others they did not give abut they are really interesting because they allow us to see the reasoning of the time and, in the end, the known solutions that applied to problems, tasks and the daily life of their time. In some cases it may seem that they were short of sight by not inventing something like the computer and that all designs are intrinsically linked to both the machinery of their time and fashion, but they are still a great sample of Paleofuturo. Mobility and … an electric train The cars in 1899 were more than surpassed. There were motor vehicles for a few years and, although they were not for personal use for the masses, there were … they existed. Mass manufacturing began in 1908 with the assembly chain of Henry Ford and the Ford tbut come on, cars didn’t get so much attention. At least these French artists. What they wanted were both aquatic and aerial buses. Commercial flights were nothing more than a fantasy at that time (The Wright brothers They would not make the first motor flight until 1903 and the flights with passenger planes were unimaginable). What they had more by hand were the airships and the submarines. What did they do? Create a boat with two huge bags to go both by air and by sea and an underwater bus. To go where? We will see it later, since underwater life was something they were passionate about. Also peculiar is the electric train with Paris-Pekín path (there is nothing, only more than 8,000 kilometers in a straight line). Apart from a cabin that looks like that of a rocket, attracts attention that seems not to have wheelsbut an magnetized system like the one we can see in the magnetic levitation maglev. And we can also see personal and electrical skates. It sounds like electric scootersof electric skateboard and even the sandals to walk 250% faster. Text voice system, audio and video call notes Did something like smartphone take off from ingenuity? Well … no, really, but what these French artists had on hand was the phone, the cinematograph of the Lumière brothers Invented a few years before, the phonograph and the gramophone. They were quite recent inventions and were great in these futuristic cards. His combination is also magical. In the designs, we can see how in the first card a person receives a message per roll to listen to him in his gramophone (such as WhatsApp voice notesbut much less snapshots and faces), news heard through the radio (something that was already brewing) on ​​the second card, a man dictating a message to a machine that seems to make text into the third photo and … a video call system in the fourth photo? It seems that the image of a person is being screened on a screen through a projector, the man is listening with the gramophone and is speaking at the same time. It is curious that this process needs an operator that controls machinery. It could not really be intricate, but with the media of the time, imagining something similar to a video call is very striking. Heavy tasks with remote control Two segments that continued to have manual tasks were field and agriculture. Even today, with all the advances we have, they are very physical works, so it is logical that, in 1899 they would imagine futures in which everything was automated. In some cases they were not unchanged, such as that harvester that is controlled at a distance (ours we must handle them from within, but well, it is similar) and something more fanciful is the card that shows an operator inside a cabin controlling a complex robotic system that is raising a house. It is not only the electric crane, but the arms that put the bricks or chisel part of the facade. Something they did not imagine was a GPS -controlled robot cutter Segway Navimowbut something is something. The Roomba, the Robopeluquero and the 3D printer And masons are not the only robots. In these cards we can see other ideas such as robopeluquero, or robobarbero, which really is not something we currently havebut well, there are razor. What is curious is that they invented the Robot vacuum cleaner Century and peak before it existed and popularized with an assistant robot that seems to be plugged in to a remote cable or control that controls the human. It is funny because it has both the brush and the cushion in which the dirt is collecting, but I do not finish seeing that cane as a remote control. And something very ingenious is the machine that takes the measures to make a suit and transfer the information to a machine that expels the garment already made. It is like an early version of a 3D printer. Rare things Now, although all cards are tremendously imaginative, … Read more

How to know the state of trains in real time and what incidents there are

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Let’s tell you How can you have information about trains that circulate in Spain in real time. You can also know What incidents are there in the rail network at all times. For this, we are going to tell you two main methods that you have available. First we will talk about the official adif app to know her and know what you can see with her, and then we will tell you Official information channels for those that Adif informs about incidents and any event. Adif app for traffic traffic The first option you have available is ADIE’s official appavailable In Google Play For Android and In the App Store For iPhone. Do you know those stations information panels with trains arrivals and exits? Well, with this app you can consult them from your mobile anywhere. The first thing you have to do when the installs is to go to the map screen. There, you can Select any station in Spain to access your real -time information. By default you will appear in your town, but you can navigate as far as you want. Once you choose the station you want, you can consult all outputs and arrivalsas well as the combinations of paths. The information is in real time, and you can see Cercanías and Long and Medium Distanceas in the informative panels of the stations. This will allow you to see all the schedules and possible delays that may be. In addition, if you click on one of the trains you can see all its journey and all its arrival schedules. You can also draw routes saying from where and where you want to go to select trains. Web and social networks for information In addition to this application, Adif has A website where it warns of all incidents Throughout the day. There you can check if there are cut stretches or notable and unexpected problems on some paths or with some trains. The address is adif.es/estado-de-la-red. You also have the infoadif profile in X, whose direction is x.com/infoadif. In this account they will also notify in real time of any new incidence and the state of the railway network of Spain. In Xataka Basics | How to use Trainline to get the best and most train tickets in Spain

This is the situation of trains in Spain after the blackout

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Lost trains in the middle of nowhere (No chance of rescue three of them still at night), all completely stopped nearby services and the large cities collapsed in traffic shot at the lack of mobility in the suburban. The blackout that the April 28, 2025 In Spain he left us without trains and still, despite having recovered almost the entire electricity grid, the rail service continues to present some holes. This is what we know, what works, what does not work and how much we hope to return to normal. Half -gas trains With the generalized blackout yesterday, the Spanish rail system was completely stopped. To shelter travelers, the main Spanish train stations remained open at night although even this was not enough since Some people were out of them covered all capacity. Cercanías services With Renfe’s last update at eight in the morning, the situation is as follows. Lines that work normally or partially: The Cercanías de Asturias and Cantabria lines work normally. Madrid Cercanías: 50% planned service in all lines and in the C5 recovered between Humanes and Atocha and the sections between Pinto and Aranjuez and Guadalajara-Alcalá de Henares, which will not circulate from the beginning. Valencia Cercanías: 100% planned service in C2 lines from Valencia to Xàtiva and C6, without tension in the C1 in the section between chair and gandía. Suspended services: Rodalies in Catalonia The nearby Alicante, Zaragoza, Cádiz, Sevilla, Malaga, Bilbao and San Sebastián do not work. Medium and long distance and high speed services The following services do not work: Avant and Media Distance Services in Andalusia Medium distance and Alvia services in Extremadura High performance services of Ourense-Santiago de Compostela-Coruña and Vigo-Santiago de Compostela-Coruña. Avant service from Toledo Connections between Medina del Campo and Salamanca Metric width between Ferrol – Ortigueira and León – Guard. The following high -speed and long distance lines are working since the beginning of the service: Madrid-Barcelona. Madrid-Valencia/Murcia/Alicante. Madrid-País Vasco. Madrid-algeciras. Malaga-Granada Madrid-Asturias Madrid-Santander Madrid-Córdoba Madrid-Seville Lines that should recover normality throughout the day: Lines without service and without forecast to recover them until new notice: Madrid-Huelva. Madrid-Badajoz. Madrid-Cádiz. Madrid-Galicia. Madrid-Salamanca. Madrid-Logroño. Barcelona-Aliante (Euromed). Basque-Barcelona country. Renfe points out that affected travelers can request the return of the ticket or the change without cost in the Renfe sales channels. To make a trip, the passenger will be able to go to the stations and look for a way to comply with one of the available squares. Metro services As for the operation of trains in the Metro network of the big cities, the situation is as follows: Private services Iro has announced that has recovered normality in the services provided in the corridors of Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Barcelona. Photo | Xataka In Xataka | The blackout has caused important smoke in several Spanish refineries: it is a sign that security systems have worked

After the blackout, Adif has a serious problem on its ways: three “lost” trains in remote states of the network

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Although electric service has begun to recover, almost medium Spain continues in the dark and the sequelae of the blackout remain palpable. In the field of transport, 35,000 passengers trapped were rescued by Renfe, Adif and the Military Emergency Unit (UME). However, there are still three trains to recover. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, He explained that these units are in areas especially difficult to access. Rescue equipment deployed throughout the morning. Since the supply cut occurred on Monday after 12:30, ADIF, Renfe rescue teams and the UME work continuously to recover trapped trains in different parts of the rail network. The difficulty does not reside solely in the lack of electricity, but that some convoys were isolated in difficult access areas, which complicates rescue maneuvers. Adif had already warned That the average and long distance services would not operate throughout the day, regardless of the evolution of the supply, and the suspension also extended to the nearby and rhodalies lines. A clear objective: to recover rail mobility. The government has stressed that one of the priority objectives is to restore the trains circulation as soon as possible, starting with the nearby lines. Pedro Sánchez has pointed out that the objective is to restore mobility in vicinity as soon as possible and also in average and long distance throughout Tuesday, the media and long distance services can also be resumed, although he has clarified that the recovery will ultimately depend on how the electric supply evolves. In parallel, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has pointed out That the tension is beginning to stabilize in some areas of the rail network, allowing several trains to resume their march. At the Atocha station, in Madrid, the arrival of at least seven trains that were detained is expected. Click to see the original message in x Open stations as improvised shelters. To mitigate the impact on travelers, Adif has enabled several of its main stations as places of night shelter. Stations such as Atocha, Chamartín, Sants, Valencia, Bilbao, Sevilla, Córdoba, Zaragoza, Valladolid and Malaga will remain open during the night so that those affected can be protected. Besides, The UME has deployed Mantas and basic resources to serve passengers who have been forced to spend the night in the stations. The origin of the blackout, still under investigation. While the recovery work advances, the cause of the blackout remains a source of research. The Government has explained that it occurred The sudden loss of 15 GW of electricity generationa phenomenon that has no precedents in the Spanish energy system. At the moment, no hypothesis about what happened is ruled out. Images | Renfe In Xataka | The fact that illustrates the magnitude that Spain has lived with the blackout: 60% less demand in five seconds

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