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Hollywood has exhausted the vein of superheroes. Now it’s the turn of terror and youtubers

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The film industry is always looking for its new great vein and it seems that, when a formula begins to show signs of exhaustion, a genre appears ready to pick up the baton: the terror. Superheroes are already a model that seems more than worn out and, of course, they are no longer that infallible answer that dominated the box office for a decade (tell that to James Gunn and his ‘Supergirl‘). So the mission is now to find that next great franchise capable of drawing audiences to theaters. In fact, it is not the first time that Hollywood finds some oxygen in horror, since when it needs to reinvent itself it turns to it as a true laboratory of ideas. It happened with him found footagewith the auteur horror that enlightened an entire production company like Blumhouse and, now, it seems that the next revolution comes thanks to a generation of creators who learned to tell stories on YouTube before in a film school. It is true that with the last three leading films (‘Iron Lung’,’Obsession‘ and ‘Backrooms‘), and with the numbers in handit’s easy to draw that conclusion. But what is perhaps worth pointing out is that this is not a phenomenon of this last year nor is it a mere fad. Horror has been a testing ground for the industry for years; experimenting with new technologies, riskier production models and innovative narratives. The difference is that now the gateway is not a festival like ‘Sundance’, a prestigious school or a certain surname. This new generation has learned to edit, create, edit and script from their bedroom. The proper names Curry Baker already pointed out ways with his footage ‘Milk&Serial’a found footage filmed for just $800 and published for free on YouTube, which has more than two million views. But there was nothing to suggest that his next project, ‘Obsession’, would end up becoming one of the phenomena of the year. Its twisted and innovative version of the classic “be careful what you wish for” has not only skyrocketed the popularity of its protagonist, Inde Navarrette (he is already chaining new projects and even stars in the new Sombr video clip along with one of the stars of ‘Off Campus‘), but it has also turned the box office upside down. With 371.2 million dollars raised around the world has already surpassed ‘Sinners‘ becoming the highest-grossing English-language original live-action production of the decade. And, if that were not enough, it has achieved something that has not happened since 1982: increasing its collection during each of its first three weekends. Not far behind ‘Backrooms’ Kane Parsons. The Californian opened his YouTube channel when he was barely ten years old, but it was in 2022, when he was only 16, when he caught the attention of the internet with his short film ‘The Backrooms (Found Footage)‘. Inspired by the popular creepypasta about an infinite labyrinth of offices and alternative dimensions that began to gain traction in a forum like 4Chanended up redefining the analog horror and accumulating tens of millions of views. Four years later, Parsons not only dared to direct ‘Backrooms’, he also signed the script with Roberto Patino and participated in the soundtrack. The result, another resounding success, with 330 million dollars raised, becoming the film highest grossing of A24 with its first version. The third name of this batch is Mark Fischbach“Markiplier”. In this case, his fame does not come from a viral short film, but from one of the largest communities on YouTube, where he has accumulated close to 40 million subscribers. Accustomed to writing, editing and even financing his own projects, he decided to make the leap to feature film with ‘Iron Lung’adaptation of the indie horror video game by David Szymanski published in 2022. And so it was formed another success for this generation of filmmakers that emerged from the Internet, sneaking into second place at the US box office in its first weekend in theaters. Hollywood adapts communities When Hollywood wants to experiment, it does so with terror; but now the studios have an advantage. Betting on Barker, Parsons or Markiplier is not jumping into the void, they all come with a community behind them that has already validated their work. They have learned with Adobe Premiere, and not by taking their first steps in large productions, but they have also perfected a language that connects naturally with a generation that has grown up with the Internet. There, those rhythms inherited from YouTubea found footage taken further, liminal spaces and a more fragmented narrative that young audiences instantly recognize. In the end, you are buying into a different way of telling stories. Fischbach writes, directs, edits, produces, finances and stars in much of his own work. He released ‘Iron Lung’ through his own production and distribution company, Markiplier Studios. It turned its audience into the driving force of distribution, as its 39 million subscriber base undoubtedly had something to do with its $50 million box office success. Parsons, with his 1.7 million subscribers, creates a phenomenon from scratch with a very well-built audience accustomed to what the author had to offer; those found footage evolved and that particular aesthetic. So, despite not having such a huge community when Hollywood knocked on his door, he built it based on a very specific idea. “What has happened here shows that it is possible to create a niche in the network, make it work sustainably, and then scale it when more resources come in. I’m sure there are a lot of people right now trying to figure out how to repeat that phenomenon, how to make lightning strike twice.” Kane Parsons These phenomena are the next great mutation of the genre. What’s more, Hollywood studios are betting on digital assets and are not just limited to Tiktok or YouTube: now their radar points to Reddit. They search the platform for short stories and ideas that can become films after happened this last year; come on, a’blood … Read more

Your body has been regulating temperature on its own for thousands of years. Until the air conditioning arrived and told him “calm down, I’ll take care of it” (it doesn’t turn out well)

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Air conditioning is our best friend in summer. However, just as we are not attached 24/7 to our best friends, We shouldn’t do it with the air conditioning either.. With your friend it is not good because you would run out of gossip to tell him, but with air conditioning the problem is that it can be dangerous for your health. And for your pocket, logically. Thermoregulator, what for? As explained in an article by Meteoredone of the biggest problems with overusing air conditioning is that our natural thermoregulation system becomes a little lazy. Human beings are homeothermic animals. This means that we remain at a stable temperature, around 36.5ºC, regardless of whether it is 0ºC or 42ºC outside. To do this, we have mechanisms such as sweating in the heat or shivering in the cold. However, we usually make these adaptations with natural temperature fluctuations. If we spend the day at 19ºC air conditioning, when we go outside, our body will have a harder time adapting as it normally would. It is something that also seen during sleep. Thanks to circadian rhythms, our body temperature drops little by little during the night to help us fall asleep. However, if we lower it artificially and suddenly, it will be much more difficult for us to rest. dry mucous membranes. Air conditioning not only lowers the temperature. It also dries out the air. And if the air dries out, so do our mucous membranes. We have all noticed that dry nose and throat feeling when we spend a lot of time with the air conditioning. In fact, it is especially noticeable at night. The big problem with this is that one of our protective barriers against the entry of respiratory pathogens is precisely the humidity of the mucous membranes, which allows the movement of structures, called cilia, that keep viruses and bacteria at bay. The cold does not cause colds, it is a widespread myth. Viruses are what cause colds, so if there is none in the environment we will not get sick. However, if the cold of the air conditioning has dried out our mucous membranes and there is a virus lurking around, it will be much more difficult for us to defend ourselves. Muscle pain. When we spend a lot of time under air conditioning, our muscles cool down and tend to shrink to better generate and retain heat, so it is common for us to hurt. No more than 12 ºC difference. Logically, air conditioning is necessary. However, we should neither abuse it nor put it too cold. As explained to EFE Health Dr. Sandra Dorado, coordinator of the area of ​​Respiratory Diseases of Occupational and Environmental Origin (EROM) of the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), more than 12 ºC of difference when moving from one room to another is already considered unhealthy. We must try not to exceed this difference and, if possible, acclimatize before going out suddenly. Furthermore, it is important clean air conditioning filters regularly. This will prevent asthma problems and respiratory infections from breathing poor quality air. That being said, keep using the air conditioning, just like you would hang out with your best friend. But allow time without seeing each other for gossip to arise between you, and when you are together, treat it well. Image | Magnificent In Xataka | These days I’m having a hard time falling asleep because of the heat. But put this device on and sleep soundly

China had been chasing “black gold” for years. Now it has started to turn it into something much bigger

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An almost invisible fiber can end up supporting part of a gigantic wind blade, forming part of the main loading structures of a metro train or protecting several satellites during the ascent of a rocket. That is what we have seen with the carbon fiber: a material that seems modest when we look at it as a simple filament, but that takes on another dimension when thousands of strands become a piece capable of reducing weight without giving up high resistance. Behind these products there is not only advanced chemistry, but a technology that China has been trying to industrialize for decades with its own means. The change is not that the country has now discovered this material, but that it is managing to take it far beyond the laboratory. For years, some of its research centers managed to obtain advanced fibers, but China continued to encounter difficulties to industrialize certain grades with the required stability, uniformity and scale. That barrier began to break with new production lines and today the expansion covers the entire chain, from the precursor to the composite materials and finished parts. That is the real leap: converting a technology pursued for decades into an industry capable of feeding other sectors. To understand why all this matters, it’s worth first looking at what’s inside that black coil. Carbon fiber is not a sheet or a solid piece, but a set of extremely fine filaments grouped in bundles. When we read 3K, 12K or 48K, we talk about of 3,000, 12,000 or 48,000 filaments per bundle. Afterwards, these threads are normally combined with a resin to form a composite: the fiber provides strength and rigidity in the chosen directions, while the matrix holds the whole together, protects it and transmits the forces. From filament to the development of a key industry The advantage appears when we relate its performance to weight. A structure made of a carbon fiber composite can offer high resistance and rigidity using less mass than certain metallic solutions, something that can translate into lower consumption, more autonomy, greater payload or larger components. The Airbus A350 incorporates CFRP in 53% of its structurewhile composite materials represent around 50% of the primary structure of the Boeing 787measured by weight. But it is not a universal solution: the material is still expensive and requires complex processes, while composite structures can suffer internal damage that is difficult to detect and repair. To find the origin of this advance we have to go back several decades. China was researching carbon fiber since the sixties and seventiesbut the obstacle was not only to produce it once, but to repeat the result within a factory. In 2005, the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry received a national mission to industrialize a fiber equivalent to aerospace T300. Three years later, on June 30, 2008, a line in Yangzhou produced the first stable roll of aerospace fiber with performance equivalent to the T300. Since that advance, China has been developing higher performance fibers, first with references equivalent to T700 and T800 and later with T1000. In Datong, a line with about 200 tons per year capacity had completed in November 2025 verification of continuous operation. Numbers, however, can fool us if we read them as a simple ladder. T300, T700, T800 or T1000 come from commercial names developed by Toray and are used as references for certain performances, but they do not form a universal international classification nor do they alone summarize the quality, reliability or final use of the material. The magnitude of the change can also be measured in tons. According to the ATA world reportChina concentrated in 2025 an operational capacity of 171,080 tons annuallys, 52.5% of the 326,080 counted worldwide. The data places the country in the lead by scale, but it does not mean that it produced exactly that percentage or that it dominated all segments. In other words, available capacity does not equate to effective manufacturing, and an industrial fiber intended for wind blades does not require the same controls, intermediate materials and certifications as a product prepared to be incorporated into an airplane. In 2025, China had an operating capacity of 171,080 tons per year, 52.5% of those recorded worldwide. What is truly relevant begins when we stop counting reels and observe everything that happens before and after. To obtain the fiber, the precursor must be prepared, oxidized and carbonized; Then come the fabrics, the prepregs, the compounds and the shaping of the pieces. In Jilin, this sequence already coexists within the same industrial hub. Provincial authorities speak of 190,000 tons of precursor capacity, 70,000 of fiber and 50,000 of composites, in addition to pultrusion, machining and product manufacturing lines. That chain already ends in objects that we can identify. In Jilin, 230 lines make structural plates for wind blades, and the company says its products are used in 95% of the blades on the Chinese market. The CETROVO train entered commercial service in Qingdao in January 2025 with carbon compounds in main load elementswhile the fairings manufactured by Tianjin Aisida had contributed, according to local authorities, to 46 commercial launches that reached orbit until June 2026. On a global scale, the material is also used in hydrogen tanks and systems intended to reinforce bridges. China already leads the way in added capacity, and domestic manufacturers such as Jilin Chemical Fiber and Zhongfu Shenying are expanding their capacity and offering higher-performance fibers. Compared to them, the Japanese company Toray maintains a leading position due to its catalogue, its international presence and its industrial integration; The American Hexcel stands out especially in the aerospace market, while the Japanese Teijin and Mitsubishi Chemical continue to be relevant technological players. What China is building is not just more fiber: it is the ecosystem that allows it to become an industry. Images | Lawless Capture | Vong Vathanak In Xataka | “We chose the wrong technology”: Jensen Huang returns to Japan to acknowledge his debt to Sega 30 years … Read more

The US built a futuristic destroyer that did not turn out as expected. The rescue arrives at hypersonic speed

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He USS Zumwalt was designed to represent what naval warfare of the future would be like, but its story ended up telling something quite different. The US Navy reduced the class from 32 planned units to just three, while costs grew and several of its original capacities were reduced. From the outside, the ship still seemed like a break from everything that had come before; In practice, it accumulated technical problems and systems that were difficult to sustain. That distance between what was promised and what was built is what the US is now trying to correct. The return of the Zumwalt. Of the three units of the class, the immediate novelty affects the first. The US Navy plans rejoin the USS Zumwalt into the fleet by September 2026, equipped with four tubes capable of holding three fast attack missiles each, up to 12 in total. It will be the first ship of the Navy prepared to fire hypersonic weapons. The other two units will receive the same configuration: work on the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson is already underway, while the modernization of the USS Michael Monsoor will arrive later.A destroyer for another war. The original bet was not limited to making it less visible to the radar. The Zumwalt was built around a hybrid electric system that powers both the propulsion and its equipment and can generate approximately 78 megawattsalmost the same as a nuclear aircraft carrier. Even at 20 knots, the Navy attributes 58 megawatts of reserve power. What promised scope for incorporating advanced capabilities also created a dependency on proprietary systems that were complex and expensive to maintain within such a short series. Two cannons without a clear mission. The problem was not only technical, but also operational: the Zumwalt had been surrounded by doubts about what role it could reasonably fulfill within the fleet. Its two 155-millimeter advanced weapons systems have been dismantled to free up space for hypersonic launchers, while other advanced capabilities of the class have already been reduced. Hence, questions about its possible tasks persisted over the years. The new weaponry does not simply add firepower: it attempts to give the ship a more concrete strategic mission. Speed ​​to break through. What the CPS attack system provides is not only speed, but a trajectory that is more difficult to anticipate. A multi-stage rocket propels an unpowered hypersonic glider vehicle to the necessary conditions and, after separation, it advances into the atmosphere while maneuvering towards its target. Compared to a traditional ballistic missile, this combination of speed, relatively straight trajectory and maneuverability poses more detection and interception problems. The design took its toll again. The modernization forced essential systems of the ship to be shut down and restarted for the first time since its delivery to the Navy, an operation during which failures appeared in its complex electrical network. Added to that was another problem:During the installation of the pipes, more wiring was removed than expected and it was necessary to add additional wiring to adapt the new configuration of the boat. In August 2025, the Navy added 230,000 hours of unplanned work to the $20 million contract. Three ships, same delay. What started as a delay in the first unit has spread to the entire program. The GAO estimates that the modernization of the three ships is 24 months behind schedule, despite the fact that the USS Zumwalt had reached 94% progress in January 2026. The first sea launch test has also been postponed, which moved from 2025 to 2027. The schedules of the USS Michael Monsoor and the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson have not been left out either. The bottleneck is on land. The Department of Defense plans to invest more than $50 billion in the various programs necessary to develop, test, produce and deploy this capability, including destroyers, future Virginia-class submarines and the Army land system. However, the contractor’s facility can only produce between six and seven missiles per year, compared to the 12 per year that, according to data collected by the GAO, would be necessary to stabilize production. In April 2026, the estimated average cost per unit was around 67 million. A rescue with conditions. The USS Zumwalt will return with a more defined mission: attacking high-value, heavily defended targets at long range. That does not, however, make modernization a complete solution. What we have seen is a powerful capability, but limited by the scarcity of missiles, their high cost and the difficulties of sustaining such a unique class. The US has found a clearer use for the destroyer, although it has not yet resolved all the problems it has had since its origin. Images | National Museum of the United States Navy In Xataka | Germany wanted to armor its army with a volunteer military. He has encountered a boom of conscientious objectors

In 2019 we discovered fungi that metabolize gold. There are already those who want to turn them into the key to space mining

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The story started more than five years ago in Boddington, south of the Australian city of Perth. Over there, among killer animals and gold mines, a team of researchers from the Australian CSIRO discovered something really strange: that certain strains of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum Not only could they extract gold from their surroundings and integrate it into their structure, but by doing so they managed to spread faster than the rest. It seemed like a curiosity, but in recent years the situation has begun to change. But wait, why is this something so “weird”? Good question. After all, we know for a fact that fungi “play an essential role in the degradation and recycling of all types of organic material (like leaves or bark), but also in the cycle of certain metals such as aluminum, iron, manganese and calcium.” Why would it be different with gold? Because, as Tsing Bohu, researcher in charge of the project, explained, “gold is so inactive (chemically speaking) that these types of interactions are unusual and surprising, I had to see it to believe it.” And he saw it. In fact, it published in Nature Communications. It was the first solid evidence that fungi could play a relevant role in the gold cycle in the Earth’s crust. The “mushroom” of the golden eggs. The mining industry quickly turned its attention to the investigation. Especially right there in Australia. The island continent is the world’s third largest gold producer, but the consensus among analysts was that without new deposits production was going to fall (a lot) in a short time. The direct consequence is that this has made marginal deposits profitable. Initially, the industry thought that the CSIRO investigation could be used to locate these new deposits. As we explained years agoIn Australia it is relatively common to prospect in forests of the aucalyptus family or near termite areas because they have a close relationship with the precious metal. Why not test the soil for those strains of Fusarium oxysporum? But there is one more possibility. As Eduardo Bazo explained to Eugenio Fernández in a very interesting interviewin recent years companies have appeared that work in what we could call “metabolic mining“That is, using organisms to extract gold. “And why do they want that?”, you might ask. “Isn’t it easier to identify where the gold is and extract it with industrial methods?” Yes, here on Earth, yes. But these companies have their sights set a little further: on space mining. For years we have talked about the existence of huge mineral deposits in the Solar System and, during almost the same period, we have fantasized about being able to exploit them. The problem is that, beyond current technological limitationss, to the danger of normal mining, is added the fact that we are talking about processing metal in space. But what if we use ‘metabolic mining’? The idea of ​​sending modified strains of these fungi (or other types of microorganisms) that They will process the mineral for useverything would become simpler. I don’t know if it’s more viable, but it is simpler. It is much less rare than it seems (we use this type of approach to countless products we use regularly), however taking it to the world of mining seems a little more complex for pure efficiency. However, that is ‘now’. Because there are already experiments in this sense generating platinum in microgravity conditions and ‘metabolic’ copper is moving a lot of money. What’s more, while I write (and while the era of cheap materials is over) several research groups They are growing all kinds of microorganisms with the idea of ​​being able to grow gold sooner rather than later. They are getting it. Image | Dominic Vanyi | Jaap Straydo In Xataka | The next richest person in the world will come from space: the future millionaire of space mining

“If it’s hot, turn it off and wait for it to cool. You can get serious burns.”

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Heat. It’s hot. It’s really hot. And our car notices it. Because when the temperature rises, we go to the beach, the town or the mountains and we load the car, our car notices it. First because we demand more from him than we ask of him the rest of the year. Secondly, because adverse weather conditions must be added to these demands, with very extreme temperatures. The combo is perfect for turning our car into a small oven that heats up and heats up until it reaches, metaphorically, boiling. And when that happens, a red light comes on on the instrument panel and it is best that we get out of the car. In that case, these are the precautions to take. The best, prevent “With the arrival of heat, various components of the car can suffer if they are not checked in time. The engine requires special attention, since high temperatures can cause it to overheat if the cooling system is not in good condition,” explains Francisco Javier Fuentes, mechanic and trainer at Midas. Sources point out that with the arrival of high temperatures, it is common for them to suffer brakes, battery and tires But he is clear that the main reason for breakdown is engine overheating and that to achieve this, the most important thing is to check the components carefully before leaving: “it is key to check the coolant level.” And with the increase in temperatures, having coolant in poor condition or a small undetected leak can trigger almost certain overheating of our engine. The signs, he explains, are clear: “If we observe that the engine temperature increases abnormally, a fault warning light appears, we hear strange noises or notice irregular behavior, we must stop in a safe place and evaluate the situation.” But here lies an important part of how we should act. If we are on a road open to traffic and we have had to stop on the shoulder, the DGT is clear: reflective vest, beacon and we just have to get out of the car If there is a safe and remote place. Otherwise we will have to fasten our seat belts and wait inside for assistance. If, on the other hand, we have been able to stop at a gas station, Midas believes that our best ally is patience and, without rushing, seeing what can be done: “In case of overheating, I never recommend opening the coolant tank while the engine is hot, as there is a risk of serious burns. The best thing to do is to turn off the engine, wait for it to cool and request assistance if necessary.” And it must be taken into account that the coolant works because the water in the car works at a very high temperature (above 100 degrees), especially if the car has overheated due to a breakdown. Opening the tank when it is hot to check its level can cause it to evaporate quickly and cause serious burns. Juan José Ebenezer, mechanical expert and content creator, explains in one of his videos how the system works. It points out that the coolant tank acts in a similar way to that of a pressure cooker. To prevent water from evaporating when it exceeds the 100 degreespressure is applied and if there is excess, the car itself decompresses downwards in a controlled manner. When the driver removes the tank cap, it decompresses, the water begins to boil because it is at more than 100 degrees and it is very likely that it will be expelled upwards, releasing a pressurized jet of water that can cause serious injuries. Photo | Jamie Street and windy In Xataka | The problem is not that the car’s air conditioning breaks down more in summer. The problem is that we don’t look at it the rest of the year.

This is Gotion’s plan to turn Valladolid into the battery hub in Europe

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The Ministry of Industry and Tourism gave the green light a few days ago to the million-dollar aid that will allow the Chinese company Gotion High-Tech to build its first battery “gigafactory” outside of Asia in Valladolid. The resolution of the State Society for Industrial Promotion and Business Development (Sepides) confirmed a subsidy of 138 million euros for a project that mobilizes nearly 950 million and that aspires to turn the city into a reference center for the electric vehicle industry. What has happened? The aid is part of the fifth PERTE of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (PERTE VEC V) and gives definitive shape to a preliminary concession that was advanced last May. The idea is that the money will be distributed between two different plants: one dedicated to the recycling of batteries and recovery of critical materials (known as “black mass”), which will receive 82.3 million euros, and another destined to the manufacture of cathodes, which will receive 55.9 million. So confirmed it the Minister of Industry himself, Jordi Hereu. Components. The cathode is one of the parts that adds the most value to batteries. Around 60%, according to has explained the Ministry of Transport itself, and until now no factory in the European Union produced it. Setting up this plant in Valladolid means that Europe can stop depending exclusively on Asia for one of the most expensive and strategic components of the electric car (stop depending, halfway, since Gotion is still a Chinese manufacturer). It was not about “making batteries, which are already done in many places”, but about “opening a new path”, counted the Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puente, during the presentation of the project. How much money is at stake. The Ministry, through Sepides, estimates the budgets of the two plants at 411.5 and 539.1 million euros. The 138 million in public aid represent around 15% of the total investment in this first phase. Who is behind the project. Gotion High-Tech is a Chinese giant that covers the entire battery industrial chain, from the extraction and transformation of raw materials to final recycling, and that already maintains commercial relations with Volkswagen and its own factories in Germany and Slovakia. The facility in Valladolid will receive raw materials from Morocco and, according to has explained The company will also serve as a platform to export to Latin America. The project comes after the Slovak company Inobat, which at the time also obtained public aid to settle in Valladolid, gave up its plan without presenting the necessary guarantees. Employment. According to the data provided by Gotion itself, the construction of the two plants will provide work about 2,500 peoplewhile the operation of the factories, once up and running, will employ around 1,000 workers directly. Works. The project plans to begin building the first phase, the recycling plant, throughout 2027. The facilities will occupy some 700,000 hectares of industrial land, although Gotion’s own project is conditional on the construction of a macro solar plant that guarantees the energy self-sufficiency of the factories, which will require up to a thousand additional hectares of land. To build the factory they will also be required to modify the General Urban Planning Plan of Valladolid, a procedure that, according to picks up El Economistais expected to receive provisional approval on July 27, although the final decision corresponds to the Junta de Castilla y León. Administrations. The Valladolid City Council, governed by PP and Vox, has already signed a letter of intent to transfer the land that the company needs, with an initial surface of 70 hectares that can be expanded to 120 if the project grows, as shared by El Confidencial. The current mayor, Jesús Julio Carnero, assured maintain “permanent contact” with Chinese managers and has committed to facilitating the corresponding procedures. Impulse. Óscar Puente, mayor of Valladolid between 2015 and 2023 and today Minister of Transport, has been the one who has pushed this operation the most since he traveled to Slovakia in 2023 to negotiate with Inobat the first attempt to install a battery factory in the city. Puente has claimed on several occasions the strategic position of Valladolid, with its own airport, high-speed connection one hour from Madrid, proximity to Portugal and a consolidated industrial hub next to Palencia and Burgos. The minister has qualified the operation as the largest industrial investment in the city since the arrival of the Renault factory in 1953. And now what. Industry’s resolution clears up one of the main administrative obstacles, but there are still pending steps, including the presentation of guarantees, the definitive urban planning approval by the Government of Castilla y León and the start of works in 2027. In addition, Gotion proposes this first phase as the start of a much more ambitious plan, which could reach 5,000 million euros of total investment and adding up to eight plants in Valladolid, according to the company itself. Cover image | Ministry of Transport and DAZE In Xataka | From selling safes to manufacturing armored vehicles for NATO: this is how this company operates in a small town in Ciudad Real

18 years ago he went viral for his famous “I’ve messed it up.” Now Antena 3 has paid him 50,000 euros to turn it into a meme

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Spain repeated the phrase “I have messed it up” with an unmistakable Madrid accent for almost two decades, being very clear about the origin (a young lifeguard whose intervention in the Antena 3 news program had gone viral on the Internet), but perhaps without knowing the true scope of the joke. The Provincial Court of Madrid has just set the effects of one of our most famous memes at 50,000 euros. The sentence. The Provincial Court of Madrid sentenced on May 5 Atresmedia to compensate the woman who starred in the video for “La he liado parda” with 50,000 euros. The court raised the amount set in the first instance, which had been 40,000 euros, and rejected the appeal presented by the audiovisual group. The resolution also orders the removal of the recordings from all Atresmedia platforms and prohibits their reuse in similar circumstances. What happened. The origin of the video is in the summer of 2008: an Antena 3 interview with a young lifeguard after an incident with chemicals in a swimming pool in San Sebastián de los Reyes, where she utters the phrase that would become a classic of Spanish humor. The original interview, protected by the right to information, is outside the sentence. What the sentence punishes is subsequent reuse: The condemnation also extends to La Sexta, Onda Cero and Europa FM, stations from the same group that continued to exploit the recording for years in comedy programs and compilations. The demand. The woman filed the lawsuit in 2021, after verifying that her voice and image continued to circulate without her permission. more than a decade later from that afternoon at the pool. There is an episode that gives an idea of ​​the scope and consequences of the video: years after the recording, some police officers, upon identifying her, came to comment among themselves “we are here with the one who has gotten into trouble.” It is just an anecdote that allows us to guess the pernicious reach of a video that went viral without the woman’s permission: it took her several years to return to work, it was an ordeal for her to see her image on television, she found herself wearing t-shirts with her face on it and she even had problems developing her profession almost a decade later, due to anxiety attacks, hospitalizations and medical leave. Who pays for the meme. The ruling does not hold Atresmedia responsible for the original viralization of the video, which attributed to the dynamics of the internet and social networks. The damage is “serious” in moral terms, although it is not entirely attributable to the chain. What he does attribute to him is the decision to continue broadcasting that material for years in his own programs, with massive audiences, when there was no longer any informative justification. Atresmedia is not planned appeal the sentence to the Supreme Court Other victims of memetics. The case of the Madrid lifeguard is, of course, not the first. The Star Wars Kid dates back to 2002, and his fame began when, at the age of 14, he recorded himself imitating a Star Wars lightsaber combat. A colleague found the tape, uploaded it to the Internet and the video became one of the first big virals on the internet. As a result, the boy suffered bullying, had to change schools and received psychiatric treatment. His family sued the colleagues responsible, claiming around $250,000 and reached an out-of-court settlement in 2006. Years later, he explained that a crime would have given him more legal protection than a viral video without his consent, since juvenile laws did not contemplate that scenario at that time, which was not yet known as cyber bullying. Victims in Spain. In Spain, the perhaps best-known case is that of Álvaro Muñoz, the 12-year-old boy who burst into unexpected racist comments when talking about tranquility is what is sought in the summer pools. He suffered his corresponding share of bullying and harassment when his address was made public, he received 17 complaints of racism and spent five years going to juvenile court. Recently has announced that he had regretted the comments and was entering a seminar, closing this circle of Celtiberia Memes. Luckily not all the protagonists of youth memes in Spain are broken toys: Miquel Montoro, the boy from “Host, piles”has become influencer of the rural world with social media accounts that exceed 400,000 subscribers. And José Gómez, who uttered the glorious phrase “You can’t live off petanque” has ended up becoming world champion of the discipline. The meme as a meat grinding machine. Researcher Limor Shifman defines memes, in her book ‘Memes in Digital Culture’as units of digital content created, imitated and transformed with the awareness of belonging to the same shared pattern. This is what explains why “La he liado parda” survived for so long: it stopped being the testimony of a specific person and became a reusable piece, without the need to reference the original event. The ruling recognizes, in some way, this mechanism: the magistrates distinguish between the legitimate informative use of the interview and its subsequent reuse for entertainment purposes, which they consider an interference in the right to one’s own image. Journalist Jon Ronson describe Similar processes occur when digital lynchings take place: the target loses its personal context and begins to function as a symbol of the transgression it represents, almost as if it were a company that has been involved in a public relations disaster and not a person with a life behind it. In this case, that symbol was not just constructed by anonymous users: the network itself that recorded the original interview fueled its circulation for more than a decade. In Xataka | When a town found a dead whale on its beaches, it decided to dynamite it. 55 years later they still celebrate it

The big question in the middle of this terrible heat is whether we leave the air conditioning on or turn it off and turn it on again.

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In Spain, there are about 7.3 million homes with air conditioning and most of them don’t know what kind of voracious and carefree critter they have on their hands. They sense it, of course; They have heard rumors, it is true. But only when summer comes and it is eaten around 30% of the electricity bill It is when they understand the reality behind the ‘fresquito’. That’s when the moral debates also begin. And just when he is going to leave through the door, our protagonist takes control of the air conditioning, directs it towards the split and asks himself… should I turn it off or not? Is it better to turn it off even if when you return the house has become an oven and you have to cool it down again? Or is it true that turning on the device is so expensive that it is better to leave it running all the time? This is the story of how an old piece of advice has become so embedded in people’s consciousness that it continues to operate even though HVAC technology has changed. It is an answer, also, to one of the big questions of the summer. From “don’t turn it off” to inverter… As I say, air conditioners have changed a lot. Old compressors had very high consumption peaks and this is the origin of the idea that turning it off is expensive. But current investors They work in a different way and their speed is modulated so that the starts are smooth. However, this is more of a technical issue. The most important reason to turn off the air is another. Inside and outside. What really rules in all this is the heat outside the house, the heat inside and the insulation that separates it. The first two factors are important because heat enters the house at a rate proportional to that difference. That means, roughly speaking, that if the house is warm, the heat enters more slowly. In this sense, if we are going to go out for a few hours, it is best to turn off the air (or raise the thermostat a lot). He US Department of Energy He says it bluntly: the starting peak lasts seconds and you also have to pay for the machine hours. Is it a good idea to turn it on and off while we are inside? As the OCU recognized, An inverter should be left to regulate only while you are at home. (without constantly turning it on and off by hand) and turning it off “when leaving the room permanently.” In any case, the question that can save us is not so much whether we turn it off or not as how many degrees and how many hours we have it on. The world of air conditioning is full of myths: from those who think that setting the thermostat lower will cool the room faster to those who confuse the legal minimum for public spaces (27 degrees) with what experts recommend (about 24). The last thing to keep in mind is humidity… cooling may have become relatively trivial thanks to inverter technologybut dehumidifying is not so much. So in very humid climates it pays more not to turn off the air because recovering a comfortable environment costs more. But do we turn off or not? It depends on the situation. For a short getaway like picking up bread or running a quick errand, we can leave the air on. The difference is almost non-existent. If we are going to be away for a long time, it is better to turn it off or, at the very least, raise the thermostat. Image | Kien Nguyen In Xataka | Air conditioning in summer has a double standard of measurement: it cools us but gives us torticollis

The US did not turn off Claude Mythos for fear of a jailbreak, it did so because it suspected someone was watching. That someone is China

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Last Saturday, the White House ordered Anthropic to remove access to Fable 5 and Mythos to any foreign person, regardless of whether they were inside or outside the United States. This order supposedly came after a tip that there was a way to jailbreak the model and bypass safeguards, but according to Wired it came at a time when Washington was already uneasy for another reason. South Korea. They tell it in Wired. According to sources close to the government, the notice of the possible jailbreak came at a time when the US government had already raised its eyebrows over another issue. It turns out that one of the large companies that had access to Mythosthe original model without the safeguards, was SK Telecom, the largest telephone operator in South Korea. The concern, according to these sources, arises from the alleged ties of this operator with China. The logic would have been something like: if SK Telecom has access, China has access. Furthermore, they have told us that there are vulnerabilities. Let them turn it off now. Why is it important. Until now it was believed that the reason behind the decision was the warning about a possible jailbreak in Fable, which was the “trimmed” version of Mythos that was released to the public. It was Amazon’s own CEO, Andy Jassy, ​​who called the treasury secretary to warn him that they had found vulnerabilities in Fable. In this version of the story, the government’s concern was that anyone would bypass Fable’s safeguards and use it for evil. However, with this new information things change: it is no longer just any person, but China, its great enemy in the technological war, which could be looking into the guts of Mythos. They already had them in their sights. As we said, SK Telecom was one of the 150 companies chosen to test Mythos within the framework of what is known as Project Glasswing. According to internal sources consulted by Wired, the US government requested that Anthropic revoke their access earlier this month, to which Anthropic agreed. It seemed like the thing was going to stay there, but when Fable was released to the public and learned that it had a vulnerability, the White House reacted. SK Telecom, Anthropic and China. The relationship between Anthropic and SK Telecom dates back to 2023, when They invested 100 million dollars in the AI ​​startup for the development of AI models focused on telecommunications. Currently, SK Telecom barely has a presence in China (They only have seven employees and their billing is testimonial), but in the past they had a very close relationship with China Unicom, creating a joint venture and investing up to $1 billion in the Chinese operator. Although already They sold their shares in 2009SK Telecom is part of the SK Group conglomerate, which has other businesses beyond telecommunications, such as semiconductors and energy, these with alliances in China. SK Telecom has denied maintaining ties with China. Previous tensions. All this happens at a time when the relationship between the US government and Anthropic is not going through its best moment. In March of this year they starred in a whole soap opera Anthropic’s refusal to allow military use of its models without safeguards. They ended up on what is known as the black list.Anthropic took the US to court and now we have a new season of the soap opera with the whole Mythos thing. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | China has two ideas to win the AI ​​race: invest a fortune and leave NVIDIA with almost no margin

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