unusual

Due to the lack of steel, World War II ships began to be built with an unusual material: concrete

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Close your eyes and think about the main material of a boat. Very possibly wood be first that comes to mind, and it’s normal: we have been sailing in wooden boats for millennia, and we continue to do so. But it is also logical that the steel that dominated the 19th and 20th century shipsand the current sea monstersideas haunt you. And most likely you have not thought about another material: the concrete. But yes, for 150 years we were creating concrete boats, and far from being crazy, it was the most logical idea. And they were even used in the First and Second World War. a french. One fine day in the mid-19th century, a French gentleman named Joseph-Louis Lambot It occurred to him to build a boat. Not just any one: a reinforced concrete one. There was one problem: in 1848, they had no idea what reinforced concrete was. This material, basically, is the mixture between concrete and steel. Both combine to create something with much greater structural resistance and have been the basis of the most imposing skyscrapers, dams and almost any construction of the last century since its invention. Well, it was Joseph-Louis who came up with the idea of ​​combining the two materials. At least, it attributes the invention of reinforced concrete to this man. As always, there is controversy over the dates, who patented reinforced concrete, who built the first slab, etc. But anyway: Lambot wanted to test his invention and built a small boat of less than four meters with the aim of exhibiting it at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855. Quite a few advantages. Basically, the interior was wire mesh covered by cement and Lambot’s idea was to completely replace wood. The invention was liked, but it did not really attract the attention of boat manufacturers. Some barges were created for European canals, but little else. Everything changed when the Italian engineer Carlo Gabellini built the Liguria in 1896. It is what we consider to be the first reinforced concrete ship designed to sail on the high seas. And, really, it made sense to create reinforced concrete ships. It is a material that has great resistance to corrosion, so the marine environment does not damage the hull, reducing maintenance (which also has it) and extending its useful life. It offered good thermal insulation, so perishable resources could be transported in better conditions and there were no fire problems. The Namsenfjord In the absence of bread… A few years later, the construction of these concrete ships expanded and other countries began to build them, especially cargo ships. But of course, we are in 1914 and that means that something happened: the World War I. And beyond the advantages of concrete over other materials, the world was forced to create concrete boats for a very simple reason: there was no steel. The militarization and industrialization of the belligerent forces caused a situation of steel shortage. The ships were important, since the naval supremacy It has always been a determining factor in a conflict, but with the steel necessary for a destroyer many other things could be created. And the problem is that they had to continue building ships because there were resources to move worldwide. The First World War. The revolution came with Namsenfjorda Norwegian ship that, in 1917, demonstrated that self-propelled concrete boats could be made. It was 26 meters long and weighed a whopping 400 tons and most importantly: the United States saw that there was potential in these ships beyond serving as freighters powered by an auxiliary ship. Thus, they created the Emergency Fleet Corporation program with the objective of producing 24 concrete vessels. It was a failure: those that were completed were done after the war, so they had to be used for other things. One was the SS Faithwhich was going to serve in the war, but in the end it was left to be used in transportation work in the United States. It was launched in 1919, was in service until 1921 when it was sold to Cuba and had a length of 97.54 meters. A year after Faith, the SS Selmaan enormous mass of reinforced concrete measuring 129.54 meters in length that was launched just the day Germany signed the Treaty of Versaillesending the First World War. It ended up being used as an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico. With sails and a secondary support engine Devastating disadvantages. With the war over, interest in concrete shipbuilding waned. It still had advantages, since building them was much cheaper than making them in steel or iron, but if we mentioned a series of advantages before, it is important to now know the disadvantages (which outweigh them, and by far). To match the strength of a steel hull, a concrete hull is thicker, which has several limitations. On the one hand, it weighs more, so it also has a greater draft, the ship’s movement is slower and more fuel is needed. Being thicker means that there is less interior space for cargo, since the useful volume is reduced. This weight means that the engines must be more powerful and the fuel tanks must also be larger, so the investment in this part is greater. The dam to build it must also be monstrous because parts cannot be welded, as in a steel one, and then there is the impact resistance. Second World War. Metal breaks, yes, but it has greater elasticity than concrete. This material, however, is much more fragile when faced with impacts. A collision causes a crack in the hull, and this in a boat that weighs so much is a condemnation. That is why, after the Great War, the concrete ship project was abandoned, leaving its construction practically limited to cargo barges, but then the Second World War arrived, and the steel needs of the previous one were repeated. However, the US program was not as ambitious as the one they started … Read more

Something unusual happened in Chernobyl when the Russian soldiers arrived. The cameras that monitored the animals have never stopped recording

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In April 1986, just a few days after the Chernobyl accidentSoviet scientists feared that radiation had turned the area into a biological desert for generations. Occurred exactly the opposite. With the disappearance of human activity, the forest recovered the lost ground and the exclusion zone ended up becoming one of the largest wildlife refuges in Europe. The animal cameras that recorded the war. I told it this week in a report The New York Times. When Ukrainian conservationist Svitlana Kudrenko installed dozens of camera traps throughout the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 2020, her goal was much more routine: to study how populations of wolves, lynxes, deer, foxes and other species that had thrived after decades without human presence were evolving. Two years later, Russia invaded Ukraine and turned Chernobyl into an improvised military base. The soldiers arrived, the tanks went through the forests, the explosions began… and the cameras never stopped recording. An unprecedented experiment. The Russian occupation barely lasted a little more than a month, but it left behind a extraordinary scientific opportunity. Because the cameras continued to operate throughout the invasion, the researchers were able to compare the behavior of eleven species before, during and after the passage of the troops. In addition, they crossed these images with testimonies from people who remained in the area and with satellite data capable of detecting fires, building an almost real-time portrait of how fauna responds to a war. The uneven reaction of the animals. One of the most interesting findings was that did not exist a universal answer. Roe deer, especially shy animals linked to the forest, began to appear much less as the intensity of military activity increased. Red deer, on the other hand, were detected more frequently, probably because They fled from open areas where tanks, vehicles and explosions were concentrated, thus increasing the chances of being recorded by cameras. The war changed the forest’s schedules. The differences were not limited to the number of animals observed. red deer They modified their routines and they began to be more active during the day and less at night. Foxes and hares also reduced part of your activity night, although the latter reappeared precisely on the days when the satellites detected fires, an indication that they were trying to escape the fire caused by the fighting. Spaces that did not move. On the contrary, not all the inhabitants of Chernobyl reacted in an obvious way. Researchers found few changes in species like wolves or Eurasian lynxesalthough recognize that the conclusions are more limited because they were photographed much less frequently. They also propose another possibility: The enormous size of the exclusion zone and the scarce human presence accumulated over decades perhaps cushioned part of the impact that a similar conflict would have had on a much more altered ecosystem. The war left another invisible victim: nature. The study, published in Science magazinedoes not aim to measure the total ecological damage of the invasion, but rather to observe how the fauna reacted while everything was happening. Even so, its authors remember that armed conflicts also destroy habitats, cause fires, introduce pollution and increase the mortality of numerous species. As resume ecologist Kaitlyn Gaynor, animals are involuntary spectators of human wars and we still know very little about the consequences that these episodes leave on them. Chernobyl and the paradox. For decades, the exclusion zone symbolized the biggest nuclear disaster of history. Then it became an unexpected refuge for wildlife. Finally, the Russian invasion added a third, equally improbable chapter: a natural laboratory where the very cameras installed to study animals ended up recording one of the few involuntary experiments on how an entire ecosystem responds when war breaks out in the middle of the forest. Image | Ministry of Defense In Xataka | The men who closed the new Chernobyl hole: “Destiny gave us an opportunity to test ourselves to the limit” In Xataka | We had been wondering for years why the Chernobyl wild boars were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident

the unusual “seismic double” that has shaken Venezuela

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The earth has given no respite in the north of Venezuela, where in the last few hours two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5accompanied by more than twenty aftershocks, have generated great chaos in much of the country with a growing number of people dead, injured and missing, and which has led to the activation of the state of emergency. The anatomy of the earthquake. The temporal sequence and data returned by global monitoring systems, such as the United States Geological Survey, reveal a shock that defies usual seismic patterns. In this way, the first earthquake registered a magnitude of 7.2, a level that alone is capable of generating severe damage to critical infrastructure. But the problem came just 39 seconds after the first tremor, when the earth broke again with an even more violent event, reaching a magnitude of 7.5. Two large earthquakes that have been located with an epicenter in the vicinity of Morón and the state of Yaracuy. With doubts. At first, this is what happened with the data that was being generated by the automatic measurement equipment, since there was a possible overlap in the readings. But it was not like that, since confirmation ended up being imposed that the 7.2 tremor acted as an immediate precursor event to the main 7.5 earthquake and that it completely changes the perspective on the amount of mechanical energy that was dissipated in the Earth’s crust. The magnitude of the problem. A ‘normal’ earthquake can basically be explained as a main rupture, which is the main tremor, followed by tens or hundreds of smaller earthquakes, which are known as aftershocks, which occur as the faults reset mechanically. But here in Venezuela we have lived a ‘seismic doublet‘, that is, there have been two earthquakes of large magnitude and comparable size that occur in the same tectonic region with an extremely short time interval, which in this case has been seconds. Thus, when the first 7.2 earthquake fractured the rock, it did not relieve stress in the area, but instead dramatically altered the stress field on a segment of the adjacent fault. That is why a ‘trigger’ acted to push the neighboring fault beyond its rupture point, ‘triggering’ the 7.5 earthquake just 39 seconds later. A problem. This type of chained ruptures subjects architectural structures to extreme punishment, since the buildings, whose bases have already been weakened and put into resonance by the first impact, receive a second blow of greater amplitude before having been able to dissipate the kinetic energy of the first. That is why with this series of earthquakes we have seen major damage to civil constructions, including the main airports, which in some cases have been completely unusable. The energy problem. Northern Venezuela sits on an area of ​​extremely high geodynamic complexity, marked by the interaction and continuous friction between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate. This is why the faults that cross this region accumulate elastic deformation at a constant rate of several millimeters per year. Due to this complex configuration, it was perfectly known that this could happen at any time, and here the civil engineer, Gina Paola Villalobos, in statements for El País, collects these impressions and points out that the problem has been in the fragile constructions of Latin American cities that were not prepared for this. Energy released. With all this information, we can see that literally a century of energy has been released that has been accumulating in the deepest layers of the planet. And this is not simply literary hyperbole, but, in seismological terms, it means that a specific segment of the fault had remained “locked” or mechanically coupled for decades. During all that time, the movement of the tectonic plates continued its course, compressing and deforming the surrounding rock as if it were a gigantic spring. Now, the seismic doublet of 7.2 and 7.5 represents the exact moment in which the friction of the rock was overcome, violently unleashing in a matter of minutes the elastic energy that the Earth took more than 100 years to accumulate. Images | Bona Lee Çağlar Oskay In Xataka | More than 5 million earthquakes spread throughout the Earth, gathered in a very complete map

If the question is whether we can delay aging, Russia has an unusual plan with the “cousin” of the wild boar and humans

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In 1928, a Soviet scientist convinced that young blood could rejuvenate the body exchanged his own with that of a university student. The experiment turned the student into a survivor and the researcher into a of the first victims of the modern pursuit of longevity. The great Russian bet. If the question is whether aging can be delayed, Russia has decided to respond with an initiative of extraordinary dimensions. Under the direct impulse of Vladimir Putin, the weekend counted the wall street journal that the Kremlin has made longevity a national priority through a program valued at about $26 billion that seeks to develop technologies capable of prolonging human life and combating age-related deterioration. What for many Western leaders and businessmen remains a private bet financed by technological fortunes, in Russia has become a state strategy which combines genetic research, organ printing, xenotransplantation and other experimental technologies with the promise of saving hundreds of thousands of lives before the end of the decade. New organs for aging bodies. One of the most ambitious ideas of the project consists of progressively replace the defective parts of the human body as if it were a complex machine. It we have told before and Putin himself even commented publicly on the possibility of achieving a kind of practical immortality through the continuous replacement of damaged organs. To get closer to that goal, Russian scientists are working on two main lines: three-dimensional bioprinting of living tissues and the growth of human organs inside minipigs, a variety of pork considered especially compatible for this type of research. The stated goal is to achieve functional transplants of laboratory-produced organs by 2030, a goal that, if achieved, would represent one of the most important biomedical advances of the century. Genes, tissues and pigs at the service of longevity. The program also includes the development of gene therapies aimed at slowing down cellular aging. According to Russian authorities, these treatments represent some of the most promising tools to combat the biological wear and tear that accompanies the passing of the years. At the same time, researchers they claim having managed to print human cartilage and a mouse thyroid gland using bioprinting techniques, preliminary steps towards much more complex structures. The combination of Genetic engineering, organs grown in animals and the manufacture of artificial tissues paints a vision in which medicine stops limiting itself to repairing damage and begins to replace entire components of the organism. Putin’s daughter and the architects of the project. Behind this strategy appear some of the most influential figures of the presidential circle. Among them stands out Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s daughter and an endocrinologist linked to various state genetics programs, as well as the physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the historic Kurchatov Institute and one of the Kremlin’s main scientific ideologues. Kovalchuk holds that humanity is approaching an era in which organs can be routinely repaired or replaced, prolonging life for increasingly longer periods. For its defenders, aging will no longer be seen as an inevitable destiny and will begin to be treated as a technical problem susceptible to scientific intervention. Between cutting-edge science and community doubts. However, the program’s promises are far from to generate consensus. Many researchers they point out that much of the progress announced by Russia has barely been published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. Some scientists who participated in the early stages of these investigations hold that there is a great distance between the proclaimed objectives and the results actually demonstrated. International sanctions, scientific isolation derived from the war in Ukraine and the difficulty of collaborating with Western centers also limit the capacity Russian to validate many of these projects. For critics, some of the statements made by the authorities should be interpreted more as aspirations for the future than as technologies close to becoming a reality. Personal obsession turned into state policy. Putin’s fascination with longevity it’s not new. For years he has cultivated a public image associated with physical strength through exhibitions Carefully constructed for sporting activity, hunting or outdoor adventures. At the same time, their behavior during the pandemic showed a extreme concern due to illness and physical deterioration, with strict quarantines, disinfection protocols and isolation measures that attracted the attention of the entire world. At 73 years old, also surrounded by an aging political and economic elite, the fight against the passage of time seems to have become more than a personal curiosity: it is part of a strategic vision shared by much of the Russian leadership environment. The long Russian tradition. The current project does not come out of nowhere either. Russia and previously the Soviet Union have historically shown a recurring fascination for research aimed at prolonging human life. Since the experiments with rejuvenating blood transfusions carried out by Alexander Bogdanov in the twenties until the theories of Oleksandr Bogomolets Regarding a life expectancy of 150 years supported by Stalin, different generations of Soviet and Russian leaders have pursued the idea of ​​overcoming aging. Paradoxically, many of those pioneers they died long before to reach the extraordinary ages they defended. A race against an uncomfortable demographic reality. The bet is even more striking because it takes place in a country that continues to suffer some of the worst mortality indicators of the developed world. Male life expectancy in Russia He is currently around 68 years, well below that of the United States or Western Europe. In this context, the gigantic longevity program promoted by Putin it reflects both a scientific ambition and a national need. The question is whether printed organs, genetic treatments and minipigs capable of hosting future transplants will bring Russia closer to that vision of a increasingly longer life or if they will end up joining the long list of projects that promised to defeat aging and ended up crashing into a biological reality much more difficult to defeat. Image | IToldYa, Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation, Picryl In Xataka | We knew that living … Read more

That Iran shot down a US F-15 was something unusual. The problem is that they have opened the missile… and everything points to China

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In 1960, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet UnionWashington initially believed it was facing a military problem. He ended up discovering that the incident had diplomatic consequences much larger and blew up a summit between the two superpowers. Because sometimes a single downed plane reveals a story much bigger than the battle in which it fell. The takedown that changed the conversation. He downing of an F-15E on Iran last month was, in itself, an extraordinary event. It had been decades since a United States fighter had been shot down by enemy fire, and the rescue movie operation later, with one of the crew hiding for two days in the Zagros Mountains, underlined the seriousness of the episode. However, as investigations continue, the incident is shifting from being a story about Iranian military capabilities to something else: a story about China. According to cited sources by NBC News the suspicion that the plane was hit by a portable anti-aircraft missile (MANPADS) of Chinese manufacture has shifted the focus from the battlefield to a much more uncomfortable question for Washington: to what extent Beijing is helping to sustain Tehran’s military capacity. More important than the missile. From a military point of view, a portable anti-aircraft missile is not a revolutionary weapon. Its appeal lies precisely on the contrary: It is relatively cheap, easy to deploy, and capable of threatening even extremely sophisticated platforms if circumstances are favorable. Hence, what has aroused American interest is not so much the type of weapon used as its possible origin. If suspicions are correct, the shootdown would demonstrate that Chinese technology has ended up participatingdirectly or indirectly, in one of the more symbolic hits suffered by American aviation in years. From that perspective, the discussion then stops revolving around how Iran managed to shoot down an F-15 and begins to focus on what role played China to make it possible. The shadow of broader support. Because suspicions are not limited to the missile. US sources also suggest that China may have provided Iran with radar systems capable of detecting stealth aircraft and access to space capabilities that would facilitate the location of targets. So far none of these accusations have been conclusively proven publicly and Beijing categorically rejects them, but together they paint an image that is worrying in Washington: that of a technological support network which, without involving direct military involvement, could significantly increase Iran’s ability to challenge the United States and its allies. In this context, the downed F-15 becomes tangible proof of a broader phenomenon that US officials have been denouncing for some time. The contradiction of American diplomacy. The situation is especially delicate because the United States simultaneously needs to contain Iran and keep channels open with China. Beijing is the main buyer of the iranian oil and one of the few actors with enough influence to put economic pressure on Tehran. During negotiations to reach a ceasefire, the Trump administration sought precisely that collaboration. But every new accusation on Chinese missiles, radars or satellites used by Iran complicates that balance. Washington thus finds itself in an uncomfortable position: it needs China to contribute to stabilizing the region while accusing it of providing tools that strengthen one of its main adversaries in the Middle East. The real message. That’s why the downing of the F-15 It has a relevance that goes far beyond the loss of a plane. What is at stake is not only the effectiveness of Iranian defenses, but the American perception that more and more regional conflicts are connected to global strategic competition. against China. The investigation on the missile seeks to determine how the fighter fell, but also who was behind the technology that made it possible. In a sense, Washington has opened up the missile to examine it piece by piece, and in doing so has discovered that the biggest questions no longer point solely to Tehran. They aim more and more towards Beijingwhere the United States believes is a growing part of the economic, technological and military infrastructure that allows its rivals to challenge its power in different corners of the world. Image | U.S. Force In Xataka | The US has copied its very cheap drone swarms from Iran and Russia. The problem is what Starlink asks for connecting them In Xataka | The war in the East has reached an unexpected agreement: one where the US does not discuss Iran’s missiles, bombs or uranium

In Zambia, gas bubbles in hot springs point to an unusual birth: a new tectonic plate

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In 2005, the floor of the Afar Desert in Ethiopia suddenly opens up along more than 50 kilometers in just a few days after an intense seismic and volcanic sequence. For many geologists, that image was like observing in real time the type of fracture that, in millions of years, could end. creating a new ocean. Zambia has just given the most serious warning. Bubbles as an almost unequivocal sign. In Zambia, simple bubbles emerging from hot springs have begun to reveal something much bigger than a local geothermal phenomenon. Scientists at the University of Oxford believe have found signs that the southern African subsoil could be entering an early phase continental fracturea geological process so slow that it is imperceptible for human life, but so gigantic that it can end up rdrawing entire maps. The key is in the helium detected in the thermal springs of the Kafue Rift: Its isotopic composition contains too much helium-3, a chemical marker directly associated with the Earth’s mantle. Translated into less technical language, it means that fluids from dozens of kilometers beneath the crust are finding ways to ascend to the surface. And that, for geologists, is an extremely serious sign that the African crust could be starting to break down from within. A silent crack beneath the continent. Rifts are not simple faults or isolated earthquakes. They are areas where the lithosphere begins to stretch and weaken until, in some cases, it ends separating into tectonic plates different. Most never make it that far and remain an unfinished geological scar, but the Kafue Rift presents something that changes the scene: a active connection between the mantle and the surface. The researchers analyzed gases from eight wells and hot springs, six within the suspected area and two outside it to compare results. Only within the rift did they appear associated chemical signatures to the deep interior of the Earth. In addition to helium, they also detected carbon dioxide with characteristics typical of mantle fluids. For scientists, this suggests that the fracture is no longer solely superficial and that the system could be entering into a tectonic phase more advanced than previously thought. Location map of the extensional zone within the Central African Plateau of Zambia. The Kafue Rift is connected to the Luano and Luangwa rifts to the northeast, and to the western branch of the EARS in the Rukwa rift (RRB) and the Rungwe Volcanic Province (RVP) The possible birth of a new plate. The hypothesis is especially relevant because the Kafue Rift is part of a huge strip of geological weakness about 2,500 kilometersone that crosses Africa from Tanzania to Namibia. For years, many researchers had considered that the great candidate to divide the continent was the East African Rift, in Kenya and Ethiopia, where volcanic and tectonic activity is much more visible. However, the new study of Oxford researchers suggests that the southwest African system could have important structural advantages. According to Mike Dalythe natural crustal weaknesses in that region are better aligned with the tectonic forces acting around Africa, which would reduce the resistance needed for future continental breakup. In other words, the Zambian bubbles could be signaling the extremely slow birth of a new African tectonic plate. The continent moves, even if you don’t notice it. The investigation It also serves as a reminder that Earth is still a planet geologically alive. Hundreds of millions of years ago, all continents were part of Pangea before slowly breaking up into their current shape. That process never stopped. Beneath our feet, tectonic plates continue to shift, recycling minerals, raising mountain ranges and opening new oceans. Africa is today one of the places where this dynamic can best be observed. From the Afar Depression to the East African Rift, the continent already presents huge tectonic scars visible from space. What is happening in Zambia could be an additional piece of that continental puzzle, although scientists insist that we are talking about time scales of millions of years and not immediate changes. A geological fracture… and economic opportunity. Beyond scientific fascination, the discovery It has very real economic implications. Early rift systems typically offer relatively clean access to geothermal energy and gases valuable substances such as helium and hydrogen, increasingly important for the technology and energy industry. Unlike mature volcanic zones, where fluids appear mixed with more aggressive and difficult to handle gases, in Kafue the material from the mantle still arrives relatively “pure”. In fact, that is precisely the reason why several energy companies already They are funding research in the region. The problem is that the authors of the study themselves they ask for caution: The samples come from only a specific part of the system and it remains to be seen whether these signals are repeated throughout the entire fracture. But even with caution, the idea is so powerful that it is already on the table: in Zambia, the bubbles that silently emerge from a hot spring could be announcing the beginning of a continental separation that will one day change Africa forever. Image | PexelsDaly et al., 2020 7 Legg, 1974; Tamburello et al., 2022 / R. Karolytė et al. 2026 In Xataka | We thought we were clear about how the continents were formed, until researchers found a stone in Australia In Xataka | More than 5 million earthquakes spread throughout the Earth, gathered in a very complete map

The complex of the wide face and the unusual solution that obsesses South Korea: elf ears

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Jung Da-yun was not satisfied with what the mirror returned to her. At 31 years old, this influencer South Korean woman felt she had an unusual defect: her ears were not big enough. According to a report from Wall Street JournalJung went to a clinic in Seoul, paid the equivalent of about $70 and underwent hyaluronic acid injections into his cartilage. The result was immediate: his ears leaned forward, rising above his face. Suddenly, his face looked slimmer, younger, and proportionate. “I was very happy with the results,” she confessed. This scene, which in the West could seem like the script of a satire, is a latent reality in East Asia. While in the United States or Europe, people with prominent ears go to the surgeon to hide them or glue them to their heads — a practice that in Korea is “creepy” in the eyes of some, as explained by the influencer Korean-American Krystal Lee—in Asia, the projection of the ears has become the Holy Grail of aesthetics. The magazine MEGA has baptized him such as “silent retouching”. “When I was in China, one of the dermatologists told me that this is one of the procedures he performs the most, and I couldn’t believe it,” dermatologist Jenny Liu tells the same medium. And the true art of this intervention lies in sculpting the face, hiding the trick in plain sight: behind the ear. Although they have coined it with the name “elf ears”, the goal is not to emulate the sharp and fantastic point of the elves of The Lord of the Rings. The clinical and informal term is closer to the concept of “fairy ear” (fairy ear), a procedure that seeks to alter the natural position of the pinna. According to Dr. Jung Gyu-sik in the studio Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery – Global Openthe technique consists of injecting between 1 and 2 milliliters of hyaluronic acid filler in the most lateral part of the helix and in the auriculocephalic sulcus. The goal is to increase the angle between the skull and the ear. It is fast, non-invasive, almost painless and its effects last between 6 and 12 months. Dr. Jung himself confesses in it Wall Street Journal having performed up to 20 of these injections in a single day. Where did this fever come from? The trend germinated in China about five years ago, where the hashtag “Aesthetic elf ear surgery” today exceeds 780 million views on the social network Weibo. However, the definitive outbreak occurred in South Korea when Mimi, a well-known singer of the K-pop group oh my girlconfessed to using special adhesive tape to simulate this effect. Overnight, searches for “ear filler” exploded 1,200% on BarbieTalka popular South Korean aesthetics platform. Those who don’t want needles turn to these adhesive tapes that cost just $3. The terror of “pancake face” To understand this fashion you have to look away from the ear and focus on the cheek. South Korean researcher and academic Leem So-yeon sums it up perfectly in Wall Street Journal: “It would be reductionist to frame it simply as an obsession with ears. Ultimately, it’s a procedure to make the face appear smaller. The ears are just the middle.” This is an optical illusion trick based on negative space. Dermatologist Danny Guo details in the magazine MEGA Asian patients often have naturally prominent cheekbones (zygomas). Since they do not want to increase the volume of their cheeks, injecting behind the ear creates a “lateral structure” that visually slims the contour of the face. All this is born from a deep cultural complex. In East Asia, wide faces and large heads are heavily penalized. While in China they make fun of what they call “tortia faces”, in South Korea a sharp “V” shaped jaw is idolized, details the WSJ. But it is not a mere narcissistic whim; It is a tool for work and social survival. As John P. DiMoia explainsa professor at Seoul National University, young people do not operate out of ego: “It’s about looking my best for my job interviews.” This pressure It is better understood under logic that, in South Korea, “presenting the best version of oneself is a sign of respect for others.” The “Bai Fu Mei” canon Science supports that although there are universal beauty traits such as facial symmetry, the perception of attractiveness varies dramatically by ethnicity. A study of the medical journal Clinics in Dermatology points out that traditional Asian beauty prefers wider faces but with lower vertical height, an inverted triangle shape and a reduced projection of eyebrows and chins. Hence the obsession with fine-tuning the structure at any cost. But the sociological background is even darker. As we detail in XatakaSouth Korea’s strict standards are a form of “cultural racism.” It is a system that excludes different bodies and skin tones under the protection of neo-Confucian traditions, where whiteness and delicacy symbolized social status (the Chinese concept bai fu mei: white, rich, beautiful). By going global through K-pop and K-dramas, the Korean aesthetic or K-Beauty industry has attempted to impose an exclusive standard on the rest of the world. In fact, Korean brands They had to apologize publicly or drastically expand their makeup palettes (such as the TIRTIR brand, which increased sales by 55,000% by offering 40 shades after complaints from black content creators) because, simply, the most innovative industry in the world did not make products for dark-skinned people. “Elf ears” are not born in a vacuum. They are the symptom of a hypertrophied body modification industry. Seoul hosts the “Belt of Beauty”a neighborhood smaller than Central Park but with more clinics than Los Angeles, Miami and Rio de Janeiro combined. As much of the Korean population has already widened their eyes, raised the bridge of their noses and sharpened their jaws, the industry desperately needs to invent new areas of growth. And foreigners are answering the call. According to data from the Ministry of Health cited by the specialized platform Seoulzin … Read more

Netflix premieres today one of the best dystopian series of all time and breaks a sadly unusual record

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When ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ premiered on Hulu in April 2017, winning the Emmy for Best Drama when it was still a cult series. Now, a year after airing its sixth and final season, the series lands on Netflixbreaking a record that is as pleasant as it is sadly unusual: it is a series with a very specific production company (owned by Disney), but in Spain it can be accessed on practically all platforms. It’s on Netflix, yes, but also on Disney+ (where you can also see – this time, exclusively – its prequel ‘The Testaments’), Prime Video, HBO Max and Movistar Plus+. The weight of the series It is well understood by reviewing its impressive collection of awards: six seasons, 76 nominations and 15 Emmy wins, including the historic award for Best Drama in its first season, the first ever awarded to a streaming platform. streaming. That first season also won for writing, directing, leading actress (Elisabeth Moss), supporting actress (Ann Dowd) and guest actress (Alexis Bledel). For its last season it only received one nomination, but by then it had already made history. In its terrifying dystopian vision, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale tells us how in the near future, the United States government has been overthrown by a theocratic movement that founds the Republic of Gilead. In the face of a global birth crisis, the new regime enslaves the few remaining fertile women (the Handmaids) and assigns them to elite families to father children through ritualized rape. The series follows the awakening, escape and rebellion of one of these maids. Margaret Atwood, author of the original 1985 novel, stated that nothing in the novel was pure invention: everything had already happened. The repressive Taliban system, which since its return to power in 2021 has denied women access to work, education and almost any form of presence, has been repeatedly pointed out as the most direct parallel with the Republic of Gilead. But in the United States, debates about reproductive rights in different states have continued to fuel the political reading of the series. Nobody is spared. For this reason, the Handmaids’ clothing has become a symbol of feminist protest, thanks to a series that remains as shocking and terrifying today as when it premiered. In Xataka | The ambitious adaptation of a literary classic with 70 million copies sold comes to Prime Video

an unusual toll to revolutionize global maritime trade

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In the 16th century, several sultans of the Ottoman Empire came to seriously study the possibility of open an artificial road next to the Bosphorus to better control maritime traffic between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean… the project was canceled again and again for centuries due to wars, lack of money and strategic doubts, but the idea never completely disappeared from Türkiye. The old Turkish obsession. While the Strait of Hormuz has become one of the largest sources of tension of the planet due to the war between Iran, the United States and Israel, an idea that has been around Turkey’s politics and strategy for years has once again gained prominence: building a gigantic artificial canal parallel to the Bosphorus to create a new sea route under Ankara’s direct control. It is not just about decongesting Istanbul’s naval traffic. Behind the project appears a much greater ambition: converting a free natural passage into an alternative corridor capable of generating incomegeopolitical influence and pressure capacity on part of international trade. Precisely now, when Hormuz demonstrates the extent to which a maritime bottleneck can disrupt the world economythat old Turkish idea it rings again with more strength. The Bosphorus and its importance. He Bosphorus It is much more than a strait that divides Istanbul between Europe and Asia. In reality it is the only sea exit towards the Mediterranean for countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria or part of southern Russia, and one of the busiest corridors in the world. Every year, thousands of oil tankers and freighters cross a narrow road, full of curves and surrounded by a gigantic city of millions of inhabitants. Türkiye has been defending for years that this trafficking represents an enormous risk both for maritime security and for Istanbul itself, especially after several accidents of ships occurring next to historic and residential areas. The problem for Ankara is that the Bosphorus is regulated by the Montreux Convention of 1936, which guarantees free transit and greatly limits the possibility of charging direct tolls to ships. The idea that could change the rules. There appears the real core of the project Istanbul Canal. As it is an artificial route and not a natural strait, Türkiye could try apply rates and services transit routes similar to those of Suez or Panama without formally breaking international maritime law. For years, this possibility seemed more like a geopolitical fantasy than a near reality, but the Hormuz crisis aims to restore prominence to an uncomfortable question: what happens when large maritime corridors stop being simple routes and become tools of economic and political pressure. Iran has already hinted at the possibility of demanding payments in Hormuz, something that has alarmed organisms international organizations and the great maritime powers. In this context, the old Turkish project begins to fit within a broader trend: transforming certain strategic steps into infrastructures capable of generate multi-million dollar income and increase the political weight of the countries that control them. Istanbul, Türkiye, divided by the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus Strait. Erdogan’s dream. Yes, because Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned the Istanbul Canal into one of its great symbols politicians. In fact, he has compared it to Suez and Panama, he has described it as a project aimed at transforming the Türkiye’s international role and has presented it as a work capable of turning Istanbul into one of the great logistics centers in the world. On paper, the channel would have 45 kilometers longwould allow the passage of large oil tankers and freighters and would be accompanied by ports, logistics zones, new urbanizations and enormous real estate developments. It would also physically split the European part of Istanbul, creating a kind of gigantic artificial island between the Bosphorus and the new canal. The big question: if anyone would pay to use it. The enormous problem of the project has always been the same. Although Türkiye could charge tolls on the new canal, the Bosphorus would still exist as a free alternative. That doubt has been haunting the plan for years: why a shipping company would agree to pay millions to cross an artificial route when it has another relatively nearby toll-free route. Ankara is confident that congestion, navigation risks and possible delays will push many companies to choose the new corridor, especially for dangerous goods and large tankers. But many economists and maritime experts believe that the real profitability of the project remains uncertain and it would depend on very specific international scenarios, precisely like those that the Hormuz crisis is causing today. Criticism within Türkiye. Furthermore, the Istanbul Canal It has never been solely a discussion about maritime trade. For years it has been accumulating criticism for its ecological impacturban and economic. Scientists and urban planners warn that the canal would cross forests, aquifers, agricultural areas and very sensitive ecosystems in the north of Istanbul. Not only that. There are also fears about how alter the currents between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Marmara, affect marine biodiversity or increase problems related to earthquakes and landslides in an already very seismically vulnerable region. Plus: the projected cost (which different estimates place between 15,000 and more than 60,000 million dollars) continues to generate doubts even among sectors that support strengthening Turkey’s strategic position. Hormuz has reactivated the dream. For years, the Istanbul Canal seemed to move between bombastic announcements, delays, political disputes and financial doubts. but the war around Hormuz has returned to put on the table a much broader issue: the enormous power that certain maritime points have to alter supply chains, energy markets and entire geopolitical balances. Türkiye now watches as the entire world discusses blockades, maritime insurance, tolls and control of strategic routes while your old project appears again, at least in some sectors of the country, as a possible tool to increase your global influence in a century where maritime corridors once again become central pieces of international power. Image | Wikimedia, NASA In Xataka | Neom has stopped being science … Read more

Ukraine is bringing its drones dangerously close to Moscow. And he is doing it with an unusual weapon: Grand Theft Auto V

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In 2002, during a US military exercise known like Millennium Challengea retired general managed to surprise to a technologically superior fleet using unconventional tactics and unexpected means, and did so to the point of virtually “sinking” several ships in a matter of minutes. That simulation left an uncomfortable conclusion For many strategists: in certain scenarios, it is not always whoever has the most means who wins, but whoever best understands how to adapt to new forms of combat. From video games to the real battlefield. The story They told Insider. Apparently, Ukraine has found a totally unexpected way to accelerate the training of drone pilots and perfect its field of action: video gamesand in particular in the environment achieved by Rockstar in Grand Theft Auto Vwhere operators perfect reflexes, coordination and decision-making in simulated scenarios. This practice does not replace military training, rather it complements it, and reveals the extent to which modern warfare is absorbing skills born outside the traditional sphereincorporating a generation accustomed to controls, screens and virtual environments. What begins as a simulation ends up moving to real operations where there is no margin for error, consolidating a combat model in which the line between game and war turns increasingly diffuse. Drones are approaching Moscow. In parallel to this training with GTAV, the range of the Ukrainian drones has been growing steadily until reaching areas ever closer to the political heart of Russia. They remembered in Forbes that deep attacks inside Russian territory, some a few kilometers away of the Kremlin, are breaking the perception of invulnerability that protected Moscow for years. The campaign does not seek only to destroy objectives, but to demonstrate penetration capacity and generate constant pressure that forces us to redistribute defenses and assume that the conflict is no longer far away, but increasingly closer. Victory Day under a new shadow. Yes, because the proximity of May 9, one of the most symbolic events For the Kremlin, it adds a particularly delicate dimension to this development. The parade is not only a military display, but a key piece in Russia’s narrative of power and control, and any alteration, even indirect, would have a disproportionate impact. The fact that it is being contemplated reduce its scale or modify Its format reflects the extent to which the drone threat has changed the strategic calculus, turning a celebration designed to project force into a potential point of vulnerability. A defense saturated and tested. The truth is that although Moscow remains one of the most protected spaces of the world, the accumulation of attacks is straining your systems defensive. Multiple layers of air defense, designed to intercept threats, now face a constant stream of drones seeking to overwhelm them, identify gaps, and wear them down over time. This approach does not depend on a single decisive blow, but on prolonged pressure that forces Russia to defend more and more points at the same time, progressively eroding its response capacity. Putin, more isolated and more protected. In fact, this week they explained in the Financial Times that, in this context, security around Vladimir Putin has visibly tightened, reflecting growing concern about possible attacks, including those carried out with drones. How much? Apparently, the president has reduced their movements, spend more time in bunkers and operate under stricter security protocols, while their environment is subjected to increasingly rigorous controls. This evolution not only responds to physical risks, but also to the need to preserve an image of control at a time when the conflict begins to feel closer to the center of power. The psychological war that accompanies technological warfare. Beyond the material impact, the Ukrainian drone campaign is having a increasing psychological effectboth in the political elite and in Russian society. Each raid that breaks through defenses reinforces the idea that no place is completely safe, weakening a narrative built on distance and control. If you want too, while drones continue to advance and pilots train even in virtual worlds like GTAVthe war enters a phase where the perception of risk it’s so important as the real damage, and where the pressure on Moscow increases just when it most needs to project stability. Image | Wiki In Xataka | Ukraine has just opened the last Russian missile and is still amazed: the real enemy has a “friendly” face In Xataka | Russia has named Ukraine’s most fearsome drone: they call it Zhduns and it doesn’t need to show itself, just wait

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