turning

Psychology knows that we are turning bad education into diagnosis

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A decade ago, if someone behaved selfishly in a relationship, we would clearly say that they were “selfish.” Today, you will most likely hear that that person has an “avoidance bond” or that his or her behavior is a “response to past trauma“. That is why today psychology has come to explain absolutely everything, but there is a problem: we are pathologizing everyday life. A new idea. The psychologist Ángela Fernández recently threw a dart at the center of the debate: “not everything is trauma or anxious attachment; sometimes it is simply a lack of education.” And this phrase is not just an unpopular opinion; is the summary of a growing concern in the scientific literature about how the “trauma culture” is blurring the boundary between pathology and character. “Overpathologization.” The concept is not new, but it has never been so relevant. scientific literature I already warned about the tendency that exists to look for an illness in every action we do inappropriately in daily life. In this way, modern psychology runs the risk of turning normal activities or reactions, such as sadness after a breakup or work stress, into a medical problem. This increase in diagnoses It has a pretty dangerous side effect.: trivializes serious disorders. When we call any emotional wound or inconvenience “trauma,” we are eroding the perception of human resilience, and in the process, downplaying those who truly suffer from PTSD. If everything is trauma, nothing is. In the Anglo-Saxon clinical field, the term “Trauma Culture” has been coined. Publications in Psychology Today warn that this fashion of seeking an explanation clinic for every emotional reaction can be counterproductive. Far from helping, it pushes people towards therapeutic interventions that they don’t fit your real problempreventing grieving or learning processes that are simply part of growing up. This is something that is added to by different psychotherapists who emphasize that considering each conflict that exists in a couple as a “response to trauma” mixes everyday stress with pathological conditions that are truly very complex. All this does is create a generation of people who consider themselves “broken” by default, instead of understanding that frustration and conflict are inherent to human interaction. It is selfishness. One of the most controversial points of Fernández’s criticism is the mention of “lack of education” or maturity, and the bibliography seems to agree with him. Published works in ScienceDirect about the “egoism-altruism spectrum” suggest that certain harmful behaviors are not explained by a “deregulated” nervous system, but by personality traits such as lack of empathy or manipulation. Something that is innate to a person, and that can hardly be treated. In this way, we have subclinical psychopathic traits: people who do not have a mental illness, but who show excessive interest in their own well-being. In these cases, the clinical diagnosis acts as a “cloak of invisibility” that exempts the person who causes some type of harm from personal responsibility. An excuse. That is why if I have had bad behavior, I can create an “invisibility cloak” effect that exempts me from personal responsibility. This way, I can blame this behavior on the parents or my own personal past, as if it were an “attachment trauma.” But the reality is that, often, these are unempathetic patterns that should be treated from ethics and education, not from the psychiatry manual. The danger of labels in infancy. Different scientific reports point because we are labeling normal variations in children’s behavior as mental disorders. This means that what was once a restless child or one who had difficulty following rules, today runs the risk of being quickly diagnosed and medicated. By turning behavioral problems into psychopathologies, we are missing the opportunity to teach discipline, limits, and frustration tolerance. As experts point out Birchwood Clinic, extensive use of these labels increases anxiety and medicalizationcreating a dependency on the health system for problems that, historically, were resolved in the social and family environment. The verdict of science. Social media has created a market of “pocket diagnostics” where selfishness is disguised as “self-care” and rudeness as “emotional limit.” However, clinical psychology insists: for something to be a disorder, there must be significant functional impairment. That is why being inconsiderate towards others does not make a person a psychiatric patient, but sometimes you simply have to grow up. Images | Vitaly Gariev In Xataka | Those born between 1950 and 1970 have a psychological advantage over other generations: they are entering their “peak”

Something is going wrong with AI. The US is turning to energy solutions that it thought were buried to power data centers

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The race to develop and operate increasingly powerful artificial intelligence models comes at a cost that is rarely at the center of the technological narrative. It is not in the chips or the software, but in the huge amount of electricity needed to keep active data centers running around the clock. In the United States, this pressure is already being translated into concrete decisions: polluting power plants that were in retirement are being restarted to cover increasing peaks and tensions on the grid. The paradox is evident, the most ambitious advance in the technology sector depends, for the moment, on energy solutions from another era. The problem is not so much an absolute shortage of electricity as a time lag. The demand for data centers linked to AI it’s growing much faster than the ability to launch new electrical generation, especially renewable, in short terms. Building large energy infrastructures takes years, while these complexes can advance in much shorter time frames. Faced with this temporary shock, network operators and electricity companies are turning to what already exists and can be activated immediately, even if it is more polluting. PJM in context. The clash between electricity demand and supply is perceived with special clarity in the PJM region, the largest electricity market in the United States, which covers 13 states and concentrates a very significant part of the country’s data centers. We can understand it as a large regional electricity exchange that coordinates generation, prices and network stability in real time. There, the growth of data centers linked to AI is putting to the test a system designed for a very different consumption pattern, making PJM the first thermometer of a problem that is beginning to appear in other areas. What is a central peaker. The calls central peakeror peak, are facilities designed to come online only during short periods of peak demand, such as heat waves or winter peaks, when the system needs immediate reinforcement. They are not designed to operate continuously, but to react quickly. According to a report According to the US Government Accountability Office, these facilities generate just 3% of the country’s electricity, but they account for nearly 19% of the installed capacity, a reserve that is now being used much more frequently than expected. South view of the Fisk plant in Chicago The case of the Fisk plant, in the working-class neighborhood of Pilsen, in Chicago, illustrates well how this shift translates on the ground. It is an oil-fueled facility, built decades ago and scheduled to be retired next year, that had been relegated to an almost testimonial role. The arrival of new electrical demands associated with data centers changed that equation. Matt Pistner, senior vice president of generation at NRG Energy, explained to Reuters that the company saw an economic argument to maintain the units and that is why it withdrew the closure notice, a decision that returns activity to a location that many residents believed was in permanent withdrawal. When the price rules. The change is not explained only by technical needs, but also by very clear market signals. In PJM, the prices paid to generators to guarantee supply at times of maximum demand skyrocketed this summer, more than 800% compared to the previous year. An analysis by the aforementioned agency shows that about 60% of oil, gas and coal plants scheduled for retirement in the region postponed or canceled those plans this year, and most of them were units peakerjust the ones that best fit in this new scenario of relative scarcity. The bill for this energy shift is paid above all at a local level. The power plants peaker They tend to be older facilities, with lower chimneys and fewer pollution filters than other plants, which increases the impact on their immediate surroundings when they operate more frequently. Coal is also postponed. The phenomenon is not limited to power plants peaker fueled by oil or gas. On a national scale, several utilities have begun to delay the closure of coal plants that were part of their climate commitments. A DeSmog analysis identified at least 15 retirements postponed from January 2025 alone, facilities that together represent about 1.5% of US energy emissions. Dominion Energy offers a clear example: In 2020 he promised to generate all its electricity with renewables by 2045, but after the company projected that data center demand in Virginia will quadruple by 2038, it is now taking a step back. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | Theodore Kloba In Xataka | A former NASA engineer is clear: data centers in space are a horrible idea

AI has allowed developers to program faster than ever. That’s turning out to be a problem.

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Whoever has tried it knows it. Programming with AI can be wonderful. Especially if you have (almost) no idea about programming. This is where generative AI models have seen their first and probably only revolution. The developers were the first to be able to embrace this new technology. The appearance of GitHub Copilot in 2021 It showed us that it was no longer necessary to chop so much code, because the machine was already doing it for you, and since then the advance of generative AI in the field of programming has been overwhelming. The question is: has it been positive? The answer is not at all clear. It is evident that AI has allowed: That millions of people who were not programmers could turn their ideas for applications and games into a reality. That millions of professionals can save time by not having to write repetitive code (boilerplate) to focus on other more important and productive parts of your work The industry, of course, has been especially insistent with this vision of the transformation of this segment. Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) and Sundar Pichai (CEO of Alphabet/Google) already boasted months ago that about 25% of the code generated by their companies is generated by AI. Meanwhile, Jensen Huang went further and made it clear that At this point no one should learn to program anymore because the AI ​​would do it for us. These are very forceful statements, but behind them lies another reality: that All that glitters is not gold in the world of AI for programmers. At MIT Technology Review they have spoken with more than 30 developers and experts in this field and have reached interesting conclusions. AI is a better programmer than ever. At least, according to the benchmarks In August 2024 OpenAI made a unique launch: presented SWE-bench Verifieda benchmark intended to measure the ability of generative AI models to program. At that time, the best of the models was only capable of solving 33% of the tests proposed by that benchmark. A year later the best models already exceed 70%. Current ranking of the best models according to the SWE-bench Verified benchmark. Several already pass 70% of the tests. Source: SWE-bench. The evolution in this area has been dizzying and we have witnessed the birth of that new modality programming called “vibe coding” and all the big ones have developed powerful programming tools to take advantage of the pull. We have OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, or Claude Code, for example, but they have been added startups like Cursor either Windsurfing who have also known how to take advantage of this fever for programming with AI. All of these tools promise basically the same thing: that you will program more and better. Productivity theoretically skyrockets, and while more code is certainly being written than ever thanks to AI, programmers They have gone from writing their own code to reviewing what machines generate. Recent studies reveal that veteran developers who believed they had been more productive actually they weren’t. Their estimate was that they had been 20% faster by being able to move forward without blockages, but in reality they had taken 19% longer than they would have taken without AI, according to the tests carried out. There is another problem too: code quality is not necessarily goodand as we say, developers must review that code before being able to use it in production. In the latest survey from Stack Overflow, one of the largest developer communities in the world, there was a notable fact: The positive perception of AI tools had decreased: it was 70% in 2024, and 60% in 2025. There are limitations, but even so everything has already changed Those interviewed by MIT Technology Review generally agreed with its conclusions. Generative AI programming tools are great for producing repetitive code, writing tests, fixing bugs, or explaining code to new developers. However, they still have important limitations, and the most notable is his short memory. These models are only capable of handling a fraction of the workload in professional environments: if your code is large, the AI ​​model may not be able to “consume” it and understand it all at once. For small projects, great. For large developments, probably not so much. The problem of hallucinations also affects the code, and in repositories with a multitude of components, AI models can end up getting lost and not understanding the structure and its interconnections. The problems are there, and they can end up accumulating and causing exactly the opposite of what they wanted to avoid. Several experts, however, explained in that text how it is actually difficult to go back. Kyle Daigle, COO of GitHub, explained that “the days of coding every line of code by hand are likely behind us.” Erin Yepis, an analyst at Stack Overflow, indicated that although this unbridled optimism towards AI has fallen somewhat, that is actually a sign of something else: that programmers embrace this technology, but they do so assuming its risks. And then there is another reality. One that is repeated day after day and that seems undeniable. The AI ​​we have today is the worst of all those we will have in the future. It may not be tomorrow or next week, but it is clear that the AI ​​you program will end up getting better and better. And there may come a point when those limitations disappear. Whether they do it or not, what is clear is that AI has changed programming forever. Image | Mohammad Rahmani In Xataka | OpenAI has turned ChatGPT into mainstream AI. In the business world the game is being won by its great rival

Big Tech is turning India into the new darling of its AI expansion

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Microsoft just announced an investment of $17.5 billion in India over the next four years, the technology giant’s largest in Asia. amazon has followed in his footsteps with 35,000 million dollars until 2030. Google already had announced 15,000 million for the same period. The big tech companies They are turning to the Asian subcontinent like never before, and it makes all the sense in the world. Why India has become irresistible. The Asian country brings together three characteristics that make it a strategic target for technology companies: a population of more than 1.4 billion inhabitants with growing access to the internet and smartphones, infrastructure costs significantly lower than in other Asian markets such as Japan or Singapore, and a government that actively promotes digital transformation. According to Ericsson dataan active smartphone in India consumes an average of 36 GB per month, 44% more than in North America and 71% more than the global average. Additionally, the country’s data center capacity has increased 2.5-fold since 2021, reaching 1.5 gigawatts. The perfect time for investments. The race for artificial intelligence has accelerated this trend. Microsoft plans to open its largest cloud region in India, located in Hyderabad, by mid-2026. The company will also expand its three existing data center regions in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. For its part, Google will build an AI hub in Visakhapatnam which will include data centres, power sources and fiber optic networks. These investments seek to stay ahead of the competition in a market where demand for cloud services and AI tools is growing rapidly among companies, startups, and government agencies. Beyond data centers. Investments are not limited to physical infrastructure. Microsoft has committed to train 20 million workers from this country in AI skills by 2030, doubling its initial goal. The company claims to have already trained 5.6 million people since January 2025. Amazon, for its part, claims to have digitized to more than 12 million small businesses and enabled $20 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports. Both companies are integrating their technologies into the Indian government’s digital public platforms, such as the e-Shram and National Career Service systems, which serve more than 310 million uncontracted workers. The battle for digital sovereignty. A key element of this strategy is the proposal of “sovereign” solutions. Microsoft has launched its Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud specifically for customers in India, allowing data and workloads to remain within the country’s borders. As the company announced, Microsoft 365 Copilot will process data within India by the end of 2025, making the country one of the first four global markets to receive this capability. “This investment signals India’s rise as a reliable technology partner for the world,” counted Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology. There are challenges. Despite investment enthusiasm, India presents significant obstacles. Irregular power supply, high energy costs and water shortages in several regions complicate the expansion of resource-intensive data centers. These factors could slow the deployment of AI infrastructure and raise operating expenses for cloud providers. However, New Delhi is deploying incentives for AI and semiconductor projects, it has relaxed some regulatory requirements and fosters alliances with telecommunications operators and local technology companies to continue adding value to the global AI race, from local territory. Capacity or mass consumerism. The interesting thing would be to know if India will obtain real technological capacity of its own in the face of so much investment or if it will simply consolidate itself as another consumer market for Big Tech. The government has approved semiconductor projects worth more than $18 billion under its India Semiconductor Mission, seeking to reduce dependence on imported chips. “India is becoming a hot spot for technology investments,” pointed out Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities. It remains to be seen what all this materializes into. Cover image | İsmail Enes Ayhan and Naveed Ahmed In Xataka | Steve Jobs hated obedient teams: he paid his managers to contradict him, not to obey him

Porsche is approaching a turning point in its history with the electric 718. And they are very clear on who to look at: Hyundai

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In September 2019, Porsche finally presented the Taycanits first fully electric car. Well, we should better say something like “the first electric car of the modern era of Porsche“Be that as it may, the truth is that the car was a meteorite in the sports car industry. With the Porsche Taycan, the Germans had a statement of intent on their hands. With him they showed that their pulse was not going to tremble with that launch an electric car on the market no matter how much tradition and history it had behind it. Furthermore, they showed that they were one step ahead of the competition. With that electric car they could achieve scandalous figures… and dizzying sensations. Although we could expect modest sales, the truth is that the car achieved the embrace of the public and a very high volume of purchases. The cruising pace encouraged the company to think that yes, they had a market to exploit. Together with the strategy of a business group that is governed by European emissions regulations, it seemed clear that the majority of Porsche cars They would end up being electric sooner or later. The question is whether the Porsche Taycan distorted the strategy to be followed. The great success of a flagship model, exotic and far ahead of the rest of the market, did not have to anticipate a generalized embrace of this technology in all the company’s cars. The electric Porsche Macan, that once offered a V6 in one of the brand’s entry cars, it seems a good example of how not all Porsche customers are the same. Because a good part of the customers who opted for the Macan wanted to get closer to the sensations typical of Porsche at the price their pocketbook allows. These sensations have to do, in part, with that V6 heart that we mentioned before. And it is even more pronounced among those looking for a Porsche 718. While the Porsche Macan can be understood as a gateway to the brand, the Porsche 718 is understood as a gateway to “the Porsche experience”. Their customers don’t just want a Porsche, they want to enjoy the sensations that a central engine provides and the sound of a boxer engine. The latter is something that cannot be matched with an electric car, but the brand is convinced that it can simulate or equal the rest of the incentives that the Porsche 718 currently offers. And to achieve this they have looked to Hyundai. Hyundai as a reference Unlike most brands, which have limited themselves to jumping into electric cars by offering more and more powerful versions, Hyundai has done in-depth work with its cars to offer a truly passionate electric car. Or, at least, they have made an attempt to achieve it, which is much more than most brands. This strategy is part of the Hyundai Ioniq 5N. The first “electric N” was already born with a clear sporting vocation. Not only because of the jet of its 650 HP of poweralso for the sound of its soundtrack and a careful simulation of gear changes. The result has been so good that Porsche itself recognizes that the sports car has inspired them in the development of its next electric Porsche 718. a car that should simulate the sensations of a central engine placing the batteries behind the driver and thus shift the weight balance of the car to resemble what it now feels like with a mid-engine combustion engine. But the German company needs to put other incentives on the table. To questions from the Australian media DriveFrank Moser, responsible for the 718 and 911 ranges, has made clear the influence of the South Korean model. “We have learned a lot (talking about the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N). I have driven it several times. They have done it very, very well.” In his statements, Moser assures that the car was “developer”. He says that in one of these tests he notified Andreas Preuninger, responsible for the most radical area of ​​his sports cars, that he would come to pick him up at the controls of the South Korean car. Preuninger’s response was not encouraging, “leave me alone, I don’t want to see any of that.” However, he says that when he pressed the button that unleashes all the power and sportiness of the Ioniq 5 N, his partner was clearly surprised. One of the aspects that most surprised the Germans was the simulation of the sound and the gear change. Hyundai has done a great campaign highlighting the latter since it incorporates a mode that turns the vehicle into a sequential shift car. The idea is that despite being electric, the car does not always have the same thrust, taking away part of the torque that is available in the rev range in which it would supposedly be working. Toyota seems to be working on something similar and Honda incorporates the same mode into the new Prelude. In the absence of testing these innovations, what is certain is that Hyundai’s simulated gear change has received good reviews. In Top Gear They defined it as “quite funny.” “My more cynical disposition wanted to laugh at the Ioniq 5 N and its disguised gearbox. I wanted to say it was stupid and sad, and a waste of time. But in all honesty, I enjoyed it. Me impressed. It’s there if you want it. If you don’t, choose one of the quiet driving modes,” Ollie Kew noted in his article. Photo | Hyundai and Porsche In Xataka | China has turned the electric car market into a crazy race. And Porsche pays for it with billion-dollar losses

AI is turning us into editors of ourselves. We approve what we no longer know how to create

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Some time ago Spark, my email clientintegrated an AI response generator that learns from your style. It works surprisingly well. Since then I follow a simple rule: if the email comes from a human, I respond by typing. If it comes from a bot or mass mailing, I let the AI ​​answer for me. The fact is that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish which is which. And that’s where the real problem begins. Because it’s not about efficiency. It is about we have accepted, without realizing it, that communication can be symmetrical in its mediocrity. You write to me with AI, I respond to you with AI. We all save time. Nobody says anything quite real. I know too many people who have crossed the line: using AI not just for generic emails, but for everything: Tweets that sound like a corporate manual. LinkedIn posts with that unctuous and necessarily inspirational prose that smells of prompt wander from three paragraphs away. Proposals to clients. Reports to the boss. Slack messages that you used to write in seconds and now go through ChatGPT. They have become editors of their own communication. Creative directors of words that they no longer search for. And in a way it works, you have to admit. The report arrives on time. The proposal sounds professional. The tweet, for reasons unknown to me, achieves engagement. If the result is what counts, and it saves you time, what’s the problem? The problem is subtle. So subtle that almost no one notices it. Writing was never just about producing readable text. It was the friction of searching for the exact word, and in that search better understanding what you wanted to say. Writing was thought becoming visible, even to oneself. The effort to articulate was the effort to think clearly. I remember some articles in which I noticed that effort until I reached the result I wanted. An example is this 2019long before ChatGPT. That process matters. Now we delegate that friction. We give the AI ​​a vague idea and it articulates it for us. We just need to recognize if it sounds good, not generate it from scratch. We have gone from being authors to being approvers. Something atrophies when you stop looking for your own words. It’s not just personality or style. It is the ability to think accurately, because thinking well and writing well were always the same thing. When you externalize articulation, you externalize thinking. The worst thing is that it is invisible. There is no dramatic moment in which you stop knowing how to think. You just start to need a little more help each time. A little push to find the words. Then a full draft that you just “revise.” Then you don’t even check carefully because “AI makes it cool.” The argument is always the same: “but the result is good.” And yes, it may be. The report is understood. The proposal convinces. The tweet works. But There is a difference between a text that works and a text that you really thought. The first can get you a client. The second can make you understand something you didn’t know you thought. This is how an entire generation can lose the ability to articulate complex ideas without realizing it. Because each individual step seems reasonable. Every shortcut seems harmless. And the results, indeed, are acceptable. But “acceptable” has become the new standard. And in the process we have forgotten that writing was not just a means to communicate ideas that were already clear to us. It was the very mechanism to keep things clear.. AI is not making us worse writers. It is turning us into non-writers. And without writing, without that struggle to find the right words, pWe also lose the ability to have ideas worth writing down.. We have normalized an existence where we monitor our own communication instead of generating it. Where we approve instead of create. Where language is something that we recognize when we see it, but that we will no longer know how to produce from silence. And we call it productivity. In Xataka | I increasingly like technology that doesn’t want anything from me: the one that has a purpose and leaves you alone Featured image | Xataka

The only thing that Europe’s AI Law has achieved is to leave us lame. The question is whether turning back will do any good.

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December 8 was a fateful day for the European Union, but not many realized it. And it was because that day the AI ​​Act was passedthe European regulation on artificial intelligence. Thierry Breton, European commissioner, he was pleased with a tweet that automatically became a meme. I was bragging about how Europe had tripped itself up. The responses to that tweet They made it clear that the reception of the regulations was very different from what the EU would have expected. The criticism was forceful and very clear: with these regulations the only thing the EU was achieving was to slow down innovation and make it even more difficult to compete in a segment that was defining the world. While the US and China joined the party without asking permission and without asking for forgiveness, Europe stayed at home happily crocheting. That regulation, which came into force in August 2024instantly caused the AI ​​segment out at two speeds: that of Europe, almost at a standstill, and that of the rest of the world, which stepped on the accelerator (without looking too closely at the consequences). We have seen the consequences of that in the last two years. Europe has been relegated to the second (or third) plane, and with honorable exceptions like the Spanish Freepik or the French Mistral, we have very little to talk about in this area. Meanwhile, the US dominates the commercial plane and China is a steamroller both at a training level as in your open model development. Europe wants to turn back: the question is whether it is too late Yesterday the European Commission presented a project for simplify various digital regulationsand the most important modifications actually affect the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPRor GRPD for its acronym in English). The changes proposed by the Commission will make it easier for companies to share sets of anonymised and pseudo-anonymised personal data. That will have a direct impact on the capacity of AI companies, which They will be able to legally use personal data to train their data models as long as that process meets the rest of the GDPR requirements. The proposal also softens one of the key elements of the AI ​​Act, which, as we say, came into force in August 2024 but included several elements that would come into force some time later. Thus, now the “grace period” for the regulations that regulate the high risk AI systems —those that pose a “serious risk” to health, safety or fundamental rights—is widespread. It was supposed to be activated in summer 2016, but now that regulation will only apply when it is confirmed that “the necessary standards and supporting tools are available” for AI companies… whatever those standards and tools are, yet to be defined. Other amendments in that new Digital Omnibus include simplified requirements for the documentation required of SMEsin addition to a unified interface so that companies can report cybersecurity incidents. Henna Virkkunen, vice president of technological sovereignty at the European Commission, explained that: “In the EU we have all the ingredients to be successful. However, our businesses, especially startups and small businesses, are often held back by a set of rigid rules. By reducing bureaucracy, simplifying EU legislation, opening access to data and introducing a common European business portfolio, we are creating space for innovation to be produced and commercialized in Europe. This is being done the European way: by ensuring that users’ fundamental rights remain fully protected.” These amendments to current digital regulations will now have to be approved by the European Parliament and the 27 member states of the European Union — which will need a qualified majority— to approve it. That process could last months, and during it the proposals themselves could see notable changes before being applied. As indicated in The Guardianthis “massive setback” of this regulation has caused concern among groups fighting to continue protecting privacy of European citizens. The European Digital Rights (EDRi), a pan-European network of NGOs, Indian that if the changes to the regulation are accepted, it will become easier for technology companies to collect and use personal data to train AI models without asking for consent. The European agenda seemed to change when former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned last fall of how Europe had fallen worryingly behind in the technology race. That speech was a breath of fresh air for Europeand European business groups have welcomed the proposal with optimism, but believe that they still fall short. A representative of the Computer and Communications Industry Association of which Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta are members indicated that “efforts to simplify digital and technology regulations should not stop there.” One click for cookies This simplification of regulation that affects all types of digital scenarios can have a positive effect. Accepting or rejecting cookies has become a daily torture for millions of Europeansbut the user experience may improve significantly in the coming months. And it may get better because the EU has proposed a modernization of policies related to cookies. To try to improve the browsing experience, it will limit the number of times cookie warning banners appear, but also will make it possible for us to accept or reject cookies with a single click. In fact, the future may be even more promising, because what is intended is that said consent (or denial) of cookies is integrated into our browser so that once we configure it, the websites are not constantly asking us if we accept cookies or not: the browser will know what we want and will answer for us at all times. In that “digital package” it is specified that once we accept or reject cookies with that “single-click“, websites must respect that choice of citizens for six months. Image | Christian Lue In Xataka | For the EU, our privacy has always been more important than AI. Until he understood that he was left behind

Seeking to reduce emissions, ships are turning to cutting-edge technology. Punta in the year 3000 BC, specifically

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Ships long ago stopped sailing with ten guns per side. They don’t do it under full sail either, although there are a couple of companies determined to change that. The thing about the sails, not the cannons, since we have examples of great ships sailing with sails of the 21st century (and cannons are now electromagnetic). Are a bet to row against emissions of the maritime industry, and the truth is that the technology sounds good for the biggest ships that star almost all world trade. The banner is the Pyxis Ocean, an 81,000-ton ship that has been circling the oceans of half the world, showing the viability of returning wind-powered ships to the sea. And the industry is taking note: a few weeks ago the first oil tanker with sails began sailing with promising figures. Ships with state-of-the-art sails to decarbonize the oceans The maritime industry has a major challenge ahead: reducing its emissions to achieve decarbonization goals. We look at hydrogen, to methanol already electrification as ways to achieve those objectives, but the Pyxis Ocean is proving that candles can play a role in all of this too. Owned by the Mitsubishi Corporation, it is a ‘bulk carrier’. In Spanish, a bulk ship focused on the transportation of bulk cargoes such as cereals or minerals. Along with the container ship already the Ro-Roare essential ships in the global trade chainand the fact that it has sails does not prevent it from being a ship of considerable dimensions. 229 meters in length and 32 meters in width, typical for this type of boat. What is not so common are its two huge sails in the front and middle part. Each one is 37.5 meters high and 20 meters wide, and they work as you expect: taking advantage of the force of the wind to propel the boat. However, they do not ‘inflate’ like traditional sailboats. Named WindWingsare a rigid structure of steel and fiberglass that have more to do with the wings of an airplane than with conventional sails. They take advantage of wind energy, adapting in real time and automatically to maximize efficiency in different wind conditions. It works autonomously and does not require additional energy or personnel to handle it. When the Pyxis departed, not everyone was convinced the system would work, qualifying it as “a risky bet.” Two years later, we have some conclusions further. Under favorable conditions, the ship’s two WindWings are estimated to have reduced main engine power consumption by 32% per nautical mile. During the six-month testing process, the ship achieved savings of about three tons of fuel per dayand after those six months, the Pyxis Ocean continues sailing. Mitsubishi is not responsible for these sails, a credit that belongs to BAR Technologiesand the success of the pilot test has led to them expanding the sail catalog with more 20 and 24 meter models aimed at both smaller ships and ships for the chemical industry. The estimate is that each sail saves 0.7 tons of fuel per day and can be easily installed on both new and veteran boats, whenever adaptation work is done. Beyond the curiosity and interest of BAR Technologies in promoting this, it seems that the industry is considering it as an option to both electrification and traditional fossil fuel systems. In June of this year, the Brands Hatcha Union Maritime tanker that has three WindWings and departed from Rotterdam last September. It is estimated that more than a third of its propulsion was thanks to the wind, avoiding 13 tons of CO₂ per WindWing per day. The company has ordered sails for a further 34 new vessels and BAR Technologies has received another order for new LR2 tankers due to be launched in 2027. When the technology was introduced, John Cooper, director of BAR Technologies, commented that “by 2025, half of new ships will be powered by wind.” It is evident that their estimates have not been metbut the good results are encouraging the International Windship Association to calculate that there will be more than 100 large ships with the system by the end of this year and, by 2050, up to 40,000 systems installed. In the end, as has happened more than once, we look again to a technology from the past to achieve objectives in the present. We will see if sails are that agent that once again transforms maritime navigation on a global level, since neither BAR Technologies is alone in this nor are WindWings the only ones. next generation sails that are in development. Images | WindWaves In Xataka | It’s not a ship, it’s a floating “Empire State”: the ONE crush surpassing the record of containers on board

This winter turning on the heating will be less scary. The reason is not so comforting

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Six in the afternoon. Closed night. You arrive in the cold and turn on the heating without thinking. The radiator breathes warmly and, next to it, last winter’s gas bill appears, folded between papers. One glance is enough to bring back the question that opens every coat season: how much will the joke cost this winter? The answer, after three harsh winters, seems somewhat kinder. But only in part. The present offers a respite, while beneath it continues to beat an energy contradiction that Europe has not been able to resolve. A kinder winter. Analysts confirm it: this winter will be more benign than previous ones. In an interview with Xataka, Javier RevueltaSenior Principal at AFRY, sums it up bluntly: “We have much cheaper gas than last winter. Before we were at €50–55/MWh; now we are around €30/MWh.” And that matters, because gas determines a good part of the electricity price in the cold months. According to Revuelta, this drop alone means “about €40/MWh less” in many hours of winter. It is worth remembering that this year has been a record for new solar power —more than 9 gigawatts installed— and everything points because this winter There will be more radiation and less cloudiness than the previous one. The result: more renewables pushing prices down. However, the Spanish system continues to show shadows. As we have already explained on other occasionsAfter the blackout on April 28, Red Eléctrica was forced to reinforce the operation of the synchronous plants—that is, the gas combined cycles—to avoid new surges. Between May and October, its production increased by more than 50%, generating an additional 2.5 million tons of CO₂. An uncomfortable reminder: even in the European country with the most renewables per inhabitant, gas remains the system’s safety net. How will it affect the pocket? The electricity consumer will notice a certain relaxation in their bills. More solar hours, less gas pressure and a more stable market mean a more predictable winter. For one thing, homes with gas heating will also see softer bills this winter. But the good news has a deadline. Starting in 2028, the new European ETS2which will force distribution companies to pay for the final consumer’s emissions. In practice: gas will be more expensive structurally. In fact, Revuelta anticipates it: “In the medium term, operating a boiler will be significantly more expensive,” and the comparison with heat pumps will clearly lean towards the electrification of heat. On the other hand, another adjustment is coming. As Cinco Días points outmarketers are carrying an additional 3.3 billion euros this year due to technical restrictions. They are not fully impacting it, but they will. Iberdrola anticipates that 70% of its free market clients will notice these costs when renewing rates in 2025; in 2027, it will be 90%. In other words, this winter it drops, but the rates in 2026 and 2027 might not be so benign. In search of alternatives. While gas experiences ups and downs and electricity continues to be marked by volatility, solid biomass—pellets, chips, olive pits—continues to be the most economical option in the country. According to the Biomass Price Indices collected by Heat and Cold, The average cost is: Sliver: 3.34 c€/kWh Bone: 4.68 c€/kWh Pellet: 6.95 c€/kWh Facing: TUR2 natural gas: 8.59 c€/kWh Diesel C: 7.98 c€/kWh Electricity (heat pump): > 10 c€/kWh useful Furthermore, prices remain stable and production is national, with more than 60 pellet factories and dozens of olive chip and stone centers. A close, robust market with little exposure to international tensions. There is a more modern alternative. Surely you have heard about it: aerothermal energy. To be honest, it is expensive to install—between 10,000 and 20,000 euros—but extremely efficient: for every unit of electricity it consumes, it provides between 3.5 and 4 units of heat. With more renewables pushing the rate downwards in solar hours and an ETS2 that will make gas more expensive, the heat pump becomes the most profitable option in 10–15 years. According to Revuelta, the economic difference will widen year after year and regulation will push in the same direction. But there is a lot of talk about green hydrogen… True, green hydrogen makes news, but it will not yet heat homes. The last thing that is known is that Enegás has received 285 applications to inject hydrogen into the network by blending. However, the current technical limit is 2% of the volume, insufficient for domestic heating. The first real injections will arrive in spring 2026, but they will be experimental. Hydrogen will not play a real role in residential heating until well into the 2030s. The tension in Europe. Spain arrives more comfortably into winter than northern Europe. But it is not isolated. As far as we know The regasification plants in the Netherlands operate at 90–100%, their technical limit. They are the main LNG gateway for Germany and part of the European industry. Its saturation is “the prelude to higher prices.” Spain could help, but it can’t. Interconnections with France barely allow shipping between 7,000 and 8,500 million m³ per year. Added to this is another structural factor. According to The Economistmore than 57% of the LNG that Europe imports already comes from the United States, which some analysts consider a new dependence comparable to that which existed with Russia. And, furthermore, the European Union enters winter with reserves at 83%, below the target of 90%. A calmer winter… But an uncertain future. This winter the radiators will turn on with less fear. Gas is cheaper, electricity is relaxed and biomass offers an economical way. Heat pumps are consolidated as the great alternative for the future, and hydrogen begins its journey—although without immediate impact for homes. But calm is relative. Spain—and Europe—are still trapped between two models: the one they want —decarbonized, electrified, flexible— and the one that really operates —dependent on gas, LNG and saturated infrastructure. This winter will be kinder, yes. But the underlying question for every Spaniard remains open: how much longer … Read more

When turning 100 doesn’t mean retiring

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For much of this year, Japan has been revealing situations that revealed the extreme situation derived from aging of its population. In fact, the need of many elderly people to continue working after retirement had become the “rent” of grandmothers in a new symbol of the times. The same thing happened with many jobs. that they are going to lose due to lack of young hand. But there is also another side: that of reaching 100 years celebrating it with work. Longevity as a vocation. I was telling it on the weekend the new york times. Japan, country with a centenary population largest in the worldlives a demographic paradox: while its birth rate sinks and the proportion of young people is reduced, an extraordinarily long-lived generation of elderly defies retirement. More than 100,000 people exceed one hundred yearsand among them there is a common thread that goes beyond genetics or diet: work as a reason for being. In a country where a sense of duty and discipline permeate daily life, these centenarians do not conceive of old age as a retirement, but as the natural extension of a useful existence. Their longevity, they say, is born from the balance between an active body, a busy mind and a purpose that does not extinguish. The mechanic that doesn’t close. One of the most palpable cases is 103 years old. Seiichi Ishii He continues fixing bicycles in the same Tokyo neighborhood where he started as an apprentice as a child. His hunched figure under a too-long blue jumpsuit sums up an ethic: that of the artisan who is not measured by age, but by the need to continue doing. The man repairs screws with trembling hands, makes his own miso, sings karaoke and rides a tricycle to his favorite bar, but above all he refuses to leave the job that gives meaning to your days. Your workshop is your world and, as he says calmly, “if I die here, I will die happy.” In a technical JapanIshii represents the persistence of the intimate relationship between manual labor and personal dignity. The cook The Times also remembered the story by Fuku Amakawa102 years old, who it’s been six decades in charge of the family restaurant where he mixes noodles, broth and chives with the naturalness of someone who has not lost the rhythm of work life. The heat of the steam has kept his skin smooth and his spirit strong. She continues to work five or six days a week, convinced that her body remains strong thanks to the routine of effort. Her restaurant, opened with her husband and supported today by her children, has become a domestic temple of perseverance. When the muscle pain scared her, she thought it was her heart. The doctor explained that it was just a consequence of lifting heavy pots. For her, continuing in the kitchen is not resistance: it is gratitude for being able to do it. Cultivating memory. Masafumi Matsuo101 years old, grows rice, eggplants and cucumbers in the mountains of Oita. He works in the sun with measured breaks, sitting on a plastic stool, and brings offerings of rice to the small chapel where he honors his deceased wife. Cancer and covid survivor, clings to the earth like a form of continuity: To till the field is to maintain the link with his past, with his family and with the natural cycle that taught him to resist. He plays with his great-grandson, watches the grasshoppers jump from his heating table and finds in everyday life the serenity of someone who has learned that working is, literally, continuing to breathe. Selling beauty. At 102 years old, Tomoko Horino continue selling cosmeticsas she has been doing since she was 39, when she decided to challenge social conventions that prohibited married women from working. With three children and a reluctant husband, Horino turned her aesthetic intuition into sustenance and pride. Today, widowed and alone, she makes her sales by telephone, sews, feeds the neighborhood cat and continues to feel the same emotion when listening to a client regain her self-esteem. In his story The change of the Japanese woman and the validity of work as a personal affirmation are intertwined: each conversation, each shade of lipstick sold is an act of vital continuity. The narrator. Tomeyo Ono101 years old, sits on a cushion and recites traditional stories (minwa) with an energy that belies his age. She began telling stories in her seventies, in a society where girls of her time did not dream of having a public voice. Since the 2011 tsunami devastated his house in Fukushima, he has mixed old legends with memories of the disasterconvinced that narrating is preserving the memory of those who left. He eats natto between bread, writes his diary, laughs, cries and says he only dreams of the dead. His mission, he says, is to keep talking until he can meet with them. Work is life. If you will, the example of these five portraits condenses a vision of Japan that survives beyond its demographic crisis: that of a society where work is not only a means of subsistence, but moral affirmation and emotional continuity. In all of them, activity maintains health, protects from loneliness and gives purpose. No one idealizes fatigue, but everyone assumes it as a companion. Contrary to the stereotype of the golden retirement, these centenarians embody a form different from fullness: that of the repeated gesture that sustains identity. In a country where the elderly already surpass in spades To young people, his example is not a curiosity, but rather a response: to continue working, in Japan, is to continue being. Image | RawPixel In Xataka | Jeans from Japan have become a luxury good. The problem is that he is running out of hands to knit them. In Xataka | That Japan has 100,000 people over 100 years old explains a problem: they are literally running out of drivers.

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