underground

spent two months underground

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“I have never buried someone who had been buried before.” Those were the words from the priest who officiated the farewell ceremony Michael Meaney. Irish builder born in 1935, he died in 2003, but as the priest said, he had already been buried before. It was in 1968, when he was 33 years old, and a crowd gathered in the London neighborhood of Kilburn to see what Meaney was like. buried alive. Not by punishment or by accident, but by fashion. The living, to the hole. In a time without TikTok, the fashion was to see how people did strange things in groups and in public spaces. There were dance contests that went on until no one could anymore. People competed to see how many could fit in a telephone booth. And another trend was voluntary burials. A famous name was that of the Texan Bill White, “The Living Corpse”, and it basically consisted of people who isolated themselves in the most extreme way: inside a coffin, with kilos of dirt on top and with food and drink that came to them through a small tube. The idea was to set a record and gain some fame from it, and Michael Meaney sought that fame. “MikeBorn in Tipperary, Ireland, Meaney was a big man. “He had the strength of ten men,” some claimed, and when he emigrated to London looking for opportunities, he took advantage. He became a boxer, but after a work accident, a hand injury prevented him from continuing his career. During recovery, he trained himself not to think about the pain and an idea occurred to him: if he had trained his mind not to be distracted by situations like this, maybe he could last longer than anyone buried underground. More than anyone alive, of course. Logistics. On February 21, 1968, he organized a dinner at The Admiral Lord Nelson pub to which he invited the press and anyone who wanted to attend. They binged as a final ceremony and Meaney was buried alive. There are several red lines here: not only the fact itself, but that he did not tell his wife, who was pregnant and who found out when the news was broadcast on the radio. The coffin measured 1.90 meters long, 76 centimeters wide and 61 centimeters high. It had a hole through which Mick would relieve himself in a container with lime so it wouldn’t smell so much, food could be passed through it and the interior was lined with foam to make it more comfortable. Interview from beyond the grave. It was buried about three meters deep and was intended to last 100 days. Coincidences of life, in Texas Bill White was also doing the same thing at that time (I already said that he made a living like this). What was a test of endurance and a quest for fame had become a competition. Apart from eating, when dawn came he got into the routine of doing some push-ups (as far as space left inside, of course) to stay active, and he also had a light that allowed him to read. He also had his crucifix. Should we remove him by force? On the surface, there were times that were busier than others. There were those who came to chat with Meaney through the telephone line that they deployed, they also told him they went down a camera down the tube so he could take a selfie. But the place wasn’t always guarded (he wasn’t going anywhere either) and on one occasion a passing truck compressed the newly piled earth, threatening Meaney’s integrity. Someone noticed and intervened, but there was some concern about the young man’s condition and the case reached the House of Commons, where it was discussed whether they should take action and remove Meaney against his will. to the surface. In the end, they chose to stay still, but not everyone remained impassive. One of his friends, the one who helped him bury himself, in fact, insisted on removing him when he had been in the hole for 61 days. He had beaten White and he said he wanted to be there for more than 100 days, but they didn’t allow him. After half an hour of digging, the coffin emerged and, to the sound of bagpipes, a procession carried a waving Meany with his dirt-covered hand through the hole to the Admiral Lord Nelson pub. When they opened the cover, a slimmer Mick, wearing sunglasses to avoid glare and with a thick beard, confessed that he felt great and that he had only missed more conversation. Monumental chestnut. The problem is that, if he did all this looking for some immediate fame, it was of no use. No one called the Guinness World Records auditors, so they couldn’t give official recognition. Do you remember that Bill White had reburied himself right at the same time as Mick? Well, if the Irishman left at 61 days, the Texan left at 62 and 22 hours. He also failed to monetize fame. He was promised money for making some appearances, but in July of that year he declared that he didn’t have a penny. Quite an “example”. Still, Mick was considered something of a local hero and having a story to tell won. His “feat”, and that of those who preceded him (with people who they arrived up to 147 days), was a danger to both the physical and mental health of those who undertook the journey, so much so that even the Guinness decided In 1991, they stopped giving importance to these actions with the aim of not promoting competition. Although seeing some challenges on social networksthe thing hasn’t changed much from the fashion in which there were those who buried themselves alive to try to monetize the feat. And if you want to know what it’s like to be buried alive, you always have a simulator. Images | British Pathe In Xataka | Some YouTubers buried a … Read more

There is an extensive system to avoid being cut off in the 48 km underground of the M-30. It’s time to renew it

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Madrid City Council will completely renew the radio communications network of the M-30 tunnels, a system that has been in operation for almost two decades and is vital for coordinating emergency services and keeping drivers informed underground. The tender for the project starts today, Wednesday, with a budget of 4.8 million euros. Why you need a renovation. The 48 kilometers of M-30 tunnels register 488 million users a year, according to advance from The World. The current radio communication system is practically the same with which these underground galleries were inaugurated almost 20 years ago. Like any technology, requires updates to continue providing service and guarantee quick responses to any incident. What systems maintain communication. Just like inform In the middle, the infrastructure has two differentiated networks that allow coordination between security forces. The TETRAPOL system covers the National Police and Civil Guard, while the TETRA connects the Municipal Police, Firefighters and SAMUR. Furthermore, according to collect El Mundo, these systems guarantee the operation of analog emergency channels, Madrid Calle 30 communications and commercial FM stations. All this works thanks to two radiating cables installed on the roof of the tunnels: one exclusively for emergency services and another for the rest of the transmissions. “What makes it possible for this system to respond are radio communications. When there is an incident, the emergency services and the Police have an effective possibility of coordinating between themselves,” explains Antonio Jesús Tocino, managing director of Madrid Calle 30, to El Mundo. When will the works start and what improvements will they bring?. As well as inform In the middle, the work will begin in spring 2026 and will continue for 13 months, until April 2027. The intervention will be carried out in control centers, technical rooms and the more than 200 emergency exits, without affecting traffic except for specific outages to renew amplifiers. Among the notable developments is the increase in FM stations, which now number 48 of the current 12. This will expand the ability of the M-30 Radio system to inform drivers of safety recommendations in the event of an emergency. “We have gone looking for the most modern thing on the market,” assures Bacon. A broader technology plan. This renovation is part of a comprehensive modernization of the facilities that has already mobilized 34 million euros. Recent improvements include bluetooth beacons that allow maintaining the GPS signal inside the tunnels, in addition to a project for centralized management of the control center financed with Next Generation European funds. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | 171 million euros later, Metro de Madrid wants to reopen line 7B. The big question is whether the tenth time will be the charm.

75% of the universe is made of unknown matter. Australia has gone to look for her 1 km underground

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More than a kilometer underground, in an old gold mine in a small Australian town, a group of scientists is building a laboratory that aims to look where no one has been able to look before. Its name is SABER South, and its mission sounds simple but borders on the impossible: detect the particles that make up dark matter, that mysterious component of which, until now, we only sense its existence. The search begins. To understand how we got here, we have to travel back to 1998. That year, an experiment in the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso, in Italy, registered a strange signal which some interpreted as a clue to dark matter. That observation, known as DAMA/NaI, ignited a scientific career that has not stopped since. Now, Australia enters that global race. According to ABC News AustraliaSABER South will be the first dark matter detector in the southern hemisphere and will begin collecting data next year. Its director, physicist Phillip Urquijo, explains that the objective is to reproduce the Italian observations and check whether these signals are real or the product of interference from the environment. Currently, three other teams—in Italy, Spain and South Korea— they are still trying to replicate the original experiment. However, the Australian project has a unique advantage: its location in the southern hemisphere will allow the data to be compared with those from the north and rule out seasonal or local effects. The enigma of the invisible universe. Powered by the University of Melbourne and the ARC Center of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, seeks to understand the nature of a substance that surrounds everything, but that no one has ever seen. The Standard Model of physics accurately describes the particles and forces we know, but it still leaves too many gaps unfilled. One of the biggest is this: why don’t galaxies disintegrate? What holds them together if everything we see—planets, stars, gas, dust—barely adds up to 5% of the universe? The rest is hidden from view. The physicists They estimate that around 27% would be dark matter and another 68% would be dark energy. Physicist Elisabetta Barberio, director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, puts it bluntly: “Between 75% and 80% of the universe is made of something we can’t see or touch. This experiment brings us closer to discovering what most of the cosmos is really made of.” Therefore, if SABER South detects WIMPs —those hypothetical massive particles that interact weakly—, we would be facing a new form of matter and, perhaps, facing a physics that goes beyond the Standard Model. Simply put: it would demonstrate that almost everything that exists has a tangible structure. And every time humanity has understood a new force or particle, technologies that previously seemed like science fiction have appeared: semiconductors, lasers or magnetic resonance. A mine converted into a cosmic laboratory. The experiment is carried out at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), excavated 1,025 meters deep a distance that is equivalent to a protection of almost three kilometers of water, enough to block cosmic rays and natural radiation that could interfere with the measurements. The laboratory is air-conditioned, has filtered air and has data connections linking to the University of Melbourne. At its heart, a room-sized detector houses ultrapure sodium iodide (NaI) crystals. When a WIMP particle collides with an atom in the crystal, it produces a tiny flash of light, so weak that it lasts just a few nanoseconds. These flashes are captured by photomultiplier tubes (PMT), devices capable of transforming light into measurable electrical pulses. The crystals they are submerged in a scintillating liquid—linear alkylbenzene (LAB)—that acts as a “veto”: if the LAB detects light at the same time as the crystal, the event is discarded as background noise. The entire system is sealed inside a low-radioactivity stainless steel tank, surrounded by alternating layers of steel and polyethylene, and monitored from above by a muon detector. A machine that listens to itself. SABER South will operate almost autonomously. According to the technical reports of the projectthe system records in real time the temperature, humidity, detector voltage, nitrogen gas flow and even mine vibrations. If something goes out of normal values, it generates an automatic alert. In addition, human presence will be minimal: scientists will monitor the data remotely and will only access the laboratory for specific maintenance tasks. Even before its construction, the operation of the detector was simulated with the GEANT4 software, a tool also used by NASA and CERN. These simulations allowed us to estimate the background radiation levels and optimize the sensitivity of the system. Each light pulse captured will be analyzed with programs designed to distinguish between noise and possible real signals. Some are not optimistic. In a study by the University of Ottawa, physicist Rajendra P. Gupta poses that what we think we see as dark matter could just be a mathematical effect. Their model suggests that the fundamental constants of the universe could vary with time, and that the so-called “tired light”—the loss of energy of photons as they travel through space—would explain the observations that until now we attribute to an invisible mass. Waiting for the flash. For years to come, SABER South’s crystals will remain in the shadows of the mine, waiting for a flash so faint it could barely illuminate a speck of dust. If that signal is confirmed, it would be the first direct trace of dark matter, the invisible glue that holds galaxies together. But if it doesn’t appear, it will also be an answer: a sign that perhaps the universe works in a way we don’t yet understand. As detailed theoretical physicist Nicole Bellfrom the University of Melbourne: “This project represents the definitive quest to understand the world in which we live.” And perhaps, in that tiny spark beneath the ground, humanity will find the answer to a question it has been pursuing for decades: what is the universe actually made of? Image | … Read more

Ukraine is basically a country made dron. So the war between humans has passed to an unpublished zone: underground

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Of all the realities that war in Ukraine is showing us, there is one that has no discussion: drones are The Trojan horse on which they are going to sustain war conflicts From now on. In Eastern Europe we are Seeing scenarios that until recently they were more typical of Fantastic literature than reality. The prominence is such that the battle between soldiers is no longer getting rid of the ground. It is getting rid underground. The war in the bowels. Yes, Kharkiv’s front is being the scene of an unexpected phenomenon: Russian soldiers tried infiltrate pipes of gas and water, crawling through ducts Underground to overcome the Oskil River and establish positions closer to Kupiansk. It’s about The third time in which this tactic appears since the beginning of the invasion, and is a new defensive challenge for Ukrainian forces, which have reacted flooding, damaging and fortifying several of these passages, aware that the pipes form an extensive and difficult network to control. kyiv’s General Staff officially confirmed that the pipes had been used, although it stressed that the city remains under Ukrainian control and that most accesses have already been closely neutralized or monitored. Pipes such as espionage routes. Kupiank’s case is not isolated. As We count thenlast March, Russian special forces toured almost fifteen kilometers through a gas pipeline in Sudzha to throw a blow against the Ukrainian rear in Kursk, an episode that Moscow celebrated As tactical successalthough it ended with the annihilation of much of the infiltrated team. In Avdiivka, at the beginning of 2024, Russian troops They drained a pipe Water service and adapted it as a underground route, opening exits every hundred meters to facilitate the advance. These maneuvers, which evoke command operations of other warsThey take advantage of the industrial and energy fabric of Ukraine, a country crossed by large gas pipelines that for decades were key to the European supply of Russian gas and that today, to a large extent, are underutilized. The Ukrainian response. Before this Unusual threatUkraine has deployed measures from Creative Military Engineering. In Kupiansk, teams of the 429th regiment of unmanned systems used explosives to damage the point where a pipe crossed with the Oskil, causing its flood. In addition, wire wire have been introduced inside some ducts, with Videos that show Booby-Traped passages designed to catch or dissuade intruders. Although the controls They recognize that Russia could try to repair or reuse these passages, ensure that surveillance is constant and that each attempt will be answered. This deployment reflects how Ukrainian defense is not only fought on the surface, with drones, armored or artillery, but also a subsoil turned into a new front. The expansion underground. Plus: The war in Ukraine had already shown An underground face in the catacombs of Mariupol or in the trenches of Bajmut, but the use of gas pipelines and pipes A different dimension: abandoned industrial corridors that now become improvised military tunnels in fear that drones do not allow surface advances. With a diameter of more than one meter in some cases, they allow the passage of equipped men and even basic supplies. Its extension, designed to transport up to 140,000 million cubic meters of gas per year, constitutes a potential battlefield which multiplies the possibilities of infiltration and forces Ukraine to allocate resources to unexpected land. The paradox is evident: the same infrastructure that once connected Europe with Russian energy today are Combat scenarios where the immediate security of cities and defensive positions is played. Strategic implications. He Use of pipes as penetration routes Confirm two things. On the one hand, that drones have transformed What we understood as a contest so far. On the other, the Russian ability to exploit any loophole in Ukrainian geography, even undergroundtogether with the need for kyiv to develop multilayer defenses that cover from the sky, saturated with drones, to subsoils, now traveled by soldiers crawling into the dark. Beyond the punctual efficacy, These tactics They highlight the plasticity of contemporary war, where each civil infrastructure can be militarized and where combat is fought in secondary dimensions. For military analysts, the battle of pipes in Ukraine anticipates a future in which the defense of a country will depend both on the surface that its population inhabits, plagued with swarms, as well as on the bowels that run through its industrial networks, now turned into unexpected war tunnels. Image | SERGEY KOLYASNIKOV In Xataka | In the Norwegian cold war he devised a plan underground to detain the Soviet. Invasion to Ukraine has reactivated it In Xataka | Russia has crowded a surprising blow to Ukraine: 100 soldiers walking for four days inside a gas pipeline

Madrid had one of the underground labyrinths without more complex GPS. Google and Waze have tamed it with 1,600 Bluetooth beacons

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We are so accustomed to GPS that, when suddenly disappears, a simple journey can become a headache. It is not that we have lost the ability to interpret the signs of a lifetime, but that the way of moving through the big cities has changed so much that this technology has become indispensable. The M-30 is a good example. Their tunnels form one of the most complex systems in Europe and, for many drivers, entering them is a risk of disorientation. Taking a wrong way and ending kilometers from fate is not a rarity, but an experience shared by both Madrid and visitors. The reason was clear: The GPS signal was easily lost underground and sometimes returned absurd data. Aware of this, the Madrid City Council presented in September 2024 a plan to display electronic beacons with Bluetooth technology. Installation works began in April 2025 And, five months later, The system is already underway. The idea is to continue adding new beacons over time, but the current network already allows assisted navigation to work in the M-30 tunnels. For a road that acts as a real ring ring of the capital, the difference is not less: moving through it should no longer be an act of faith. An aid that comes at the right time Moving through the M-30 not only requires dealing with its tunnel framework: works at critical points such as A-5 or the sales zone, together with the usual congestion, make any waste of time weigh more than ever. Being sure that we are not going to mislead in the middle of the curve or to take the wrong exit is not a whim, it is a way to win minutes and avoid dislikes on a day -to -day basis. ⠀ 1,600 devices have been installed along 48 kilometers of tunnels, with an investment of 141,000 euros. The objective is to reach 2,700 beacons at the end of the year, once the installation is completed in the rest of the underground network. They are low consumption devices that work with batteries, with an autonomy between four and six years, and issue a unidirectional signal without collecting user information. When detecting that signal, the smartphone calculates the position of the driver in real time and keeps navigation activates, even without GPS coverage. The impact on the mobile battery is minimal thanks to the use of Bluetooth Low Energy. A huge impact on daily mobility The M-30 supports the passage of More than half a million vehicles. Solving a problem such as low -ground loss means improving the experience of hundreds of thousands of drivers That depend on this route to get to work time, home or any point in the city. Another key aspect is that beacons do not require additional mobile data or complicated configuration: it is enough to have activated bluetooth and grant permission to the application. The project makes Madrid the European city with the largest network of active beacons and in the second in the world after Sydney. It has been possible thanks to the collaboration between the City Council of Madrid, Madrid Calle 30, Waze, Google and Imalesapi, the company in charge of the installation. The challenge was not minor: The M-30 has a large number of tickets and exitsin addition to especially complex sections, such as the one from the Prague bridge to the Toledo bridge, with two parallel but overlapping tunnels. The Paris Network, with the Tunnels of the Défense and La Péripherique, is also equipped with beacons of this type. And outside Europe we find even better examples: the Lincoln tunnel under the Hudson River in New York, Queens-Midtown under the East River or Hugh L. Carey, which connects Brooklyn with Manhattan. Madrid thus adds to a very small list of cities that have decided to bet on this technology, and does so in one of the most demanding scenarios on the continent. How is it activated on Google Maps and Waze The system already works in the two most used navigation applications, although with nuances. Google Maps: In Android, you have to go to Navigation settings and activate the option Bluetooth tunnel beacons. In iOS, for now, it is not available. Waze: Simply have the bluetooth on and the permits granted. If the user has it deactivated, the app itself will show a notification when approaching a tunnel with beacons so that it can activate it at the time. Images | Google | Madrid City Council In Xataka | Spain fined Ryanair to stop collecting hand luggage. I did not count on Ryanair had a more powerful ally

His response was the largest underground nuclear base on the planet

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Talking about the cold war is talking about espionage, secret bases, Advanced weapons to win the opponent in a potential armed conflict and, above all, the Atomic Arsenal Explosion And constant fear of Nuclear Apocalypse. And this implies talking about Russia and the US as protagonists, leaving us in the inkwell to other actors in the conflict. China was another proper name during the Cold War, getting fully into the nuclear race. And they did it big. With the world’s largest nuclear military plant, the mysterious nuclear military plant 816. Bad crumbs with the USSR. The cold war was a tremendously complicated conflict that was played three bands part of time. The US and the USSR were two of the legs, but China entered Liza when the Sino-Soviet conflict. Simplifying history, the Soviet Union And China competed for being the champions of communism and, at a time of 1969, the Soviet Union even considered bombing China with nuclear bombs, including Beijing. However, United States “intervened“, Turning the conflict and relations with China. The position of both approached the subsequent years, but before that, and with a China smelling that the USSR could threaten with its nuclear arsenal, began to build the Nuclear Military Plant 816. Great Nuclear Wall. Zhou enlaiChinese prime minister at that time, he responded to the Sino-Soviet rupture giving the Output gun to a military base in the Chongqing region that would be much more than a bunker: it would become the Nuclear underground installation most important in the country. The goal? Produce plutonium that could be installed in arms, creating nuclear missiles without Soviet help. The works began in 1966 and in process more than 60,000 soldiers of the popular liberation army participated. The objective of the installation was that he was armored against missile attacks, but also against earthquakes of magnitude 8. In addition, he had a great natural wall around him: the Jinzi mountain and his granite. Colossal. Secretism was a constant when building the complex. This is something common and logical in this type of facilities, reaching the extreme that the workers of the workers did not know what their relatives were working or where. In the official records it is indicated that 76 people died during some works that extended over 17 years, but there are sources They point out that the figure would be much greater. Apart, the nuclear military plant 816 has an area of ​​more than 104,000 m² and is the largest tunnel system excavated by the human being. Its 130 galleries total more than 20 kilometers long over 18 United Artificial Cuevas, has more than 13 levels and the height to the deepest point is almost 80 meters, similar to a 25 -story building. In addition, to go from some sites to others inside the plant, cars that circulated on underground roads could be used. That is … it’s huge The control table The reactor room Reverse. During the years of construction, China made Advances in its nuclear program. Although it has been more recent when they officially reached The 500 headsthe first public nuclear test in the country was in 1964, but the complex of the 816 Pedish served little. The reason? After 17 years building that colossal cavernary system and with the advances at 85%, they decided to cancel it. The changes in international relations and the dimensioning tension of the cold war led to a brake on the project. The reactor was never operational and the program was classified in 1984. In 2002, however, it came to light and we could know all these details, even knowing that part of the plant was recycled to become In a fertilizer factory. Tourists, welcome. But with all that excavated, it would be nonsense to have it closed to lime and song. Something like that must have thought of authorities, since, in 2010, they decided open part of the base to the public. Thanks to this we can see photographs like those that accompany these lines and know How would the conditions of a base destined to manufacture nuclear missiles in China 60 years ago. And, in addition to serving as a museum, it is a memorial for the human sacrifices of those who participated in the project, they were official … or those that do not appear in the records. Images | 重庆轨交 18, Iswzo, Lastrik, Pierre Marshall In Xataka | Satellite images leave no doubt: the US has restored the base of the Pacific that launched atomic bombardment over Japan

The great AI companies have declared a underground war to a pillar of education: human teachers

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We would all like to have a Keating Professor In our lives. One that made us get on the desks to see things from a different perspective and that he would teach us that the most important lesson he has for us is summarized in the words “Carpe Diem”. There are very few who approach that image, but all of them, bad or good, threatens them the same future as Other professions: Be replaced by an AI. Professor 24/7. The narrative of several AI companies is clear: the human teacher is a bottleneck. Each of them serves many students, their knowledge is limited and their finite availability. The AI, they assure those companies, proposes a remarkable alternative. Personalized professors 24/7 with infinite patience and access to all the knowledge of the world. There is a clear problem: that message devalues ​​the teacher’s function as a guide, mentor and catalyst for curiosity and reduces it to a mere transmitter of information. Continuous evaluations. Another of the pillars of the educational system – and one of the tasks that most consumes the teaching staff – is Student evaluation. The AI ​​promises to correct efficiently, massively and immediately, releasing the teacher for other tasks. But again in human evaluation there is much more than a mere correction of errors. The effort, the reasoning process, creativity, originality or even the personal context of the student are evaluated. Biases also pose a clear threat to these evaluations, in addition to promoting a model Based on the correct answer and not in the reflexive process. My school is OpenAi. So far schools, universities and other academic institutions are the guarantors of a theoretically coherent and quality curriculum. The approach of the companies of AI would be that of Become them In “Guardians of knowledge” deciding what is important to learn and how. The risk: lead to a fragmented education and dictated by the interests of the market, eroding the role of education as a pillar of society. Threat to humanities. The AI ​​also raises the irrelevance of memorization – it can already respond to all known knowledge – and bet on skills such as “Prompt Engineering“(know how to ask things to AI) or Technical subjects (Stem). That suggests a clear impact to matters of humanities and critical thinking that we do not apply directly. Fields such as philosophy, art or social skills, hardly quantifiable, would go to the background. The objective would not be as much to train and prepare workers for the technology industry. Goodbye to social investment. Companies that bet on that model have a clear objective: climb and be profitable. AI technology applied to education promises a lot of savings (less physical infrastructure, less teachers) and a highly scalable business. But also imposes a worrying revolution to one of the pillars of society. Bill Gates believes in the future of the teachers of AI. Among the experts who outline that idea is the figure of Bill Gates, co -founder of Microsoft. His commitment to the teachers of AI It was early: Chatgpt had been in the market for just five months when he said that “AIs will reach that capacity, to be as good tutors as any human being.” For him, this technology should also be a “leveling” for society. According to Gates “having access to a tutor is too expensive for most students, especially if that tutor adapts and remembers everything you have done and review your work.” Openai and Khan Academy have the same vision. A year ago the presentation of GPT-4O surprised among other things for that capacity offered by this AI model to talk directly to him. One of the OpenAI demos, carried out in collaboration with Khan Academyhe showed Sal Khan, his founder, contemplating how his son used the model to receive a geometry lesson. The interaction was impeccable and pointed to a future full of teachers of ia locked in our tablet, our mobile or our computer. Khan is of course interested, but it doesn’t hurt see your ted talk on “how AI could save (not destroy) education.” Schools converted into nurseries. Luis von ahn, Founder of Duolingothe poular application to learn languages, it also takes time turning towards the AI. A few days ago he participated in the podcast No priorsand there he commented how although there are very good teachers, “there are not many.” For him, education will change radically because “it is much more scalable to teach with which with teachers.” Even so pointed out That does not mean that teachers disappear: “You will continue to need people who take care of students”, but focused on a new role: “I don’t think schools disappear, because you need nurseries.” Image | Buena Vista Pictures In Xataka | Towards the end of duties: how chatgpt has been inserted in the center of the great debate on education

We are increasingly sure that Mars hides a lot of water underground. The last track has been given to us an earthquake

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There was a remote time in which Mars, today desert, had rivers and seas. We know some of the remnants that have remained, such as the Jezero river delta that explores the Rover Perseverance But that water may have been more than mere traces. A lot more. New tests. A geological study conducted thanks to the propagation of seismic waves on the red planet has obtained new evidence of the existence of water on Mars. Although the study itself does not imply a definitive test, it joins the list of studies that indicate that the neighboring planet is not as dry as it seems. A wet past. The Martian oceans had a short duration In geological terms. According to estimates, these would have disappeared between 4,100 and 3,000 million years ago (our solar system has about 4.6 billion years), in periods called Noeic and Hesperic. The lower gravitational attraction and the lack of a magnetic field that protect the Martian seas of the solar wind left Mars without superficial oceans. But from that water there was more than a handful of marks in the geography of the red planet: the water in solid state lasts ice -shaped either Integrated into its minerals. The enigma of the missing water. Some researchers detected a problem, and it is the difficulty that the sum of evaporated water, frozen or embedded in minerals could represent the total water that was once on Mars, they explain In an article for The conversation Hrvoje Tkalčić and Weijia Sun, co -authors of the recent geological study on water on Mars. Insight, to the rescue. In his recent study, the team took advantage of the data captured by the seismometer that the probe Insight He kept operating on Mars during his activity. During this period, Mars suffered an earthquake and received the impact of several meteorites, events whose seismic waves were recorded by the instrument aboard the now deceased probe. Studying the spread of these leads, the team identified an “anomaly” in a layer of the Martian subsoil located between 5.4 and 8 kilometers under the surface. It is a “low speed layer” that, according to the hypothesis proposed by the equipment would correspond to a layer of porous rock stuffed with water, “like a saturated sponge” or “something similar to the aquifers of the earth.” A lot of water. This layer could hide a significant amount of water, enough to house the water that dfalta in the accounts of the experts. “We have calculated that the ‘aquífera’ in Mars could house enough water to cover the planet in a global ocean of a depth of between 520 and 780 m, several times more water that keeps the Antarctic ice layer.” The details of the study will be published In an article In the magazine National Science Reviewbut for now we have to settle for a draft. Tests accumulate. This It is not the first time that we get evidence of the existence of vast amounts of water in the Martian subsoil. A little over a year agoa study conducted from the data of the European probe Mars Express reached a similar conclusion, that of the existence of huge amounts of water, enough to create an ocean of several hundred meters deep, in the Martian subsoil. In Xataka | We had little doubt that Mars was a habitable planet. The Curiosity Rover has just cleared them Image | POT/GSFC

hide your tanks and artillery underground

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In the war that is fought in Ukraine after the invasion of Russia we have seen a large number of unpublished tactics in the front. For example, drones that are precisely looking for They catch themeither unmanned boats capable of knocking fighters. We have also seen using “tricks” from the First World War, such as The optical illusion or the use of shotguns of double cannon. However, what had not been seen so far was literally burying a combat tank. The buzz of a drone. The story comes, in reality, months ago. In the dense forests that surround toletsk, a flame city east of Ukraine, the sound of the war had changed the bell in October: it was no longer only the rumble of the artillery that defined the battlefield, but the constant buzzing of the drones that furrowed the heavens in search of objectives. In Donetsk, the soldiers of the 28th Mechanized Brigade separate awaited instructions with their Modernized T-64although they are no longer the imposing protagonists that used to be. The era of the dominant tank has given way to a new stage: the of the cautious tankforced to adapt to a war dominated by electronic eyes and miniature air attacks. The loss of invulnerability. That scene has been repeated in many other stages of the war in Ukraine. The T-64 is the best example, since it was at the time a symbol of invincible power: that which was said that when the engine felt under his feet, the illusion that nothing could touch him. However, that feeling It has vanished. What was previously a strategic advantage today has become exposure to danger. Tanks, whether Soviet or modern models M1A1 Abrams Americans are being removed from the front, not due to lack of power, but for their vulnerability in front of FPV drones low cost, which for just 500 dollars can destroy machines valued in millions. War has become a technological asymmetries equation where small colossal. Invisible air war. Today is already a war reality: in the extensive line of the Ukrainian front, of more than 1,100 kilometers, the modern war is no longer freed on the ground, but also also in the airwhere those swarms of small explosive drones fly without rest on a lethal flight of Surveillance and destruction. Every month, both the Ukrainian forces and the Russians throw around Two million FPV dronestiny distance guided machines capable of transporting enough explosive loads to destroy vehicles or end a life. Their size, speed and maneuvering capacity make them relentless hunters of mobile or static objectives, especially artillery pieces, tanks and fortified positions. These aerial threats, no doubt, have completely transformed the strategy on the front, displacing the combat from the surface Towards the subsoil in what is already emerging as an era of those cautious armored armored ones that we commented. A Ukrainian tank emerging from Earth The underground artillery is born. Given this scenario, more and more Ukrainian artillery units have begun to excavate deep burrows In the field, hiding not only its crews but also its bulky artillery pieces. There are examples of Widespread videos that show a Ukrainian battery operating a 2S1 GVOZDIKAa self -propelled howbow, hosted underground in An excavated shelter With heavy machinery. The entrance is covered by trunks and a thick network that aims to intercept enemy drones. The depth of the position is such that even the vehicle has a hard time emerging to shoot. There are also Official photographs of the 36th Ukrainian Marine Infantry Regiment that reveal that these underground positions are not isolated cases, but a trend that extends along the front, especially in exposed areas such as the border with the Russian region of Kursk. Trinchera 2.0. The evolution of the conflict has returned to the modern soldier to a form of buried lifebut this time with 21st century technology. The constant threat from heaven has forced a complete redesign of deployment and concealment tactics. From that prism, visual camouflage is no longer enough: layers of land, reinforced structures and one Logistics capacity that allows to bury heavy machinery safely. They counted in Forbes That when they do not shoot, vehicles must remain hidden underground, ready to emerge only the necessary time to execute a fire mission before disappearing again under soil protection. This logic of movement translates into a stealthy, methodical and essentially defensive form, away from the traditional dynamism that characterized the armored ones. Drones and tactical response. While FPV drones They are mortalThey are not invulnerable. Radio controlled can be neutralized by Electronic interferencewhile guided by fiber optic cable They can betray the operator’s position if the cable is tracked. Even so, its proliferation has reached such magnitude that the land no longer offers sufficient protection without intensive mechanical intervention. Networks, armor, traps, improvised structures … in the war in Ukraine nothing seems sufficient in the face of the constant surveillance of those thousands of eyes Flying Hence the earth, thick and silent, offer a truly effective defense. This also explains why so many Ukrainian units have started Collection campaigns To acquire excavators, understanding that their survival no longer depends solely on weapons, but on access to civil machinery capable of opening a refuge under the surface. Adaptation to urgency. Thus, what began as a improvised reaction Given the increase in unmanned air attacks, it has established itself as a New tactical pattern. In a technologically saturated war, where visibility means vulnerability and mobility implies risk, hiding has become a strategy. Artillery, once a symbol of power and visibility on the battlefield, is now buried as a swag endangered. A strange turn, but perhaps inevitable, in a conflict where artificial intelligencethe Technological miniaturization and Asymmetric war They have relegated the human being and their machinery to seek in the subsoil a way of persisting. Image | Ukrainian Defense Ministry, 36th Marine Brigade In Xataka | The last tactic of Ukraine is a drone that seeks to catch him. When Russia opens … Read more

In the Norwegian cold war he devised a plan underground to detain the Soviet. Invasion to Ukraine has reactivated it

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The story took place at some point in The cold war. The plan started from a premise: how to contain a more than likely Soviet naval attack by one of the key maritime corridors in the Arctic Ocean? Thus the Term Bear Gap and a plan that germinated in a series of underground constructions with which Norway would put its grain of sand. Today, and after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, these secret constructions have reactivated. The origin of the bases. As we said, during the Cold War, the strategic location of Norway, close to the then Soviet Union, carried out the country to carry out a plan: build approximately 3,000 underground facilities destined to protect aircraft, submarines and troops both Norwegians and allies before a possible attack by Moscowand thus placate the offensive. Many of these structures, camouflaged in mountains and fjords, remained in secret even for the local population. Among them, the Bardufoss Air Base and the Naval Base of Olavsvernauthentic fortified complexes excavated in rock which had hangars, command centers, maintenance areas, fuel storage and underground exits designed to resist nuclear attacks. The reactivation. As I counted The BBC weekenddecades after the collapse of the USSR, Norway has decided to reactivate Bardufoss and Olavsvern due to the deterioration of regional security after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the increased activity Russian military in the Arctic since the mid -2000s. The Bardufoss Air Base, opened in 1938 and Used by Germans During World War II to protect TIRPITZ battleshipwas adapted in the postwar to protect combat planes against a possible Soviet offensive. Today, modernized and equipped to accommodate F-35 Lightning IIits main function is guarantee survival of these aircraft before threats such as kamikaze drones, whose effectiveness It has been tested In the Ukrainian conflict. Unlike improvised solutions in battlefields, such as networks or tire covers, Bardufoss offers real protection thanks to their hardened shelters under the mountain. One of the underground bases used in the past by the United States Olavsvern and its importance. It We explained recently. The Naval Base of Olavsvern, built from the 50s With strong financial support from NATO, it was conceived to control The so -called Bear Gapa vital maritime step between the Norwegian coast, the island of the bear and Svalbard, where they traditionally travel Russian submarines towards the Atlantic. Olavsvern has an underground port with direct exit to the sea, dry dock, control center and large logistics facilities, protected by thick layers of Gabbro and a monumental anti-explosion door. Although Its closure in 2009 and its subsequent private sale (in A controversial operation that even allowed access to Russian vessels), in 2020 the company Wilnor Governmental Services, linked to the Norwegian Defense Ministry, He regained his control And he began his rehabilitation. Currently, the base has once again received active military presence and, As we countthe United States Navy has shown great interest in using it for its nuclear submarines. Bear Gap. It is of a strategic term used to describe that maritime corridor between the coast of Norway, the Bear Island (Bear Island) and the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. The area is considered a key step or natural strangulation (Chokepoint) where Russian submarines and warships that seek to leave from the base of the fleet of northern Russia, located on the Kola Peninsula, towards the North Atlantic. During the cold war and even today, NATO considers this corridor a Critical point to monitordetect and, if necessary, block Russian naval forces, since it is one of the most accessible routes that connects the Barents Sea with the Atlantic. Hence, bases such as Olavsvern and other Norwegian facilities in the Arctic have so much strategic importance. Controlling or monitoring this step is essential to prevent Russian submarines with strategic (nuclear or conventional) missiles can operate freely in the Atlantic. The Arctic Resurgence. Far from being an isolated phenomenon, the reactivation of these bases is part of a broader trend. Russia He has reopened nearly 50 military facilities Arctic of the Soviet era, while countries like Sweden They have reactivated its underground naval base of Muskö and China has built New underground complexes For submarines and command centers. They will, meanwhile, too has followed this path with his “Missile City” In the Persian Gulf. Norway, aware of the intensification of Russian military exercises in the Arctic and their renewed interest in exploiting natural resources in the region, has resumed its defensive logic of dispersion and protection undergroundnot only for its strength, but also as an essential point of support for NATO. Utility and limitations of bunkers. It is the last of the legs to be treated. Despite their apparent strategic value, experts warn that Reactivate old bunkers presents Important challenges. Many have been dismantled, flooded or present degraded structures, making their modernization expensive and complex. In addition, the truth is that facilities such as Olavsvern have already been identified by satellites as a potential objective for decades, reducing any type of surprise factor. Thus, analysts also agree that underground facilities are still One of the best defenses Faced with modern aerial threats, including guided missiles, provided that their vulnerabilities are correctly updated. Norway seems to bet on resilience and deterrence, accepting that, given strategic uncertainty, underground security remains a prudent and effective option, especially in a region where Russia seems determined to project all its can. Image | Rawpixel, Marine In Xataka | The US plan B in the Arctic is an underwater cave in Norway. The only drawback is that it is not for sale In Xataka | Trump wants to keep Greenland. There are two countries for which it would be a serious problem: China and Russia

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