Predicting a drought six months in advance was a utopia. The UPV has achieved this with a system that uses AI

In recent years drought episodes have intensified in some regions and fear of a global drought flies over the environment. In this scenario, a team of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia have created a system that can predict whether there will be a drought six months in advance. The system. The work has been carried out by the team from the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA) of the UPV and has been published in the journal Earth Systems and Environment. The method integrates predictions from four reference climate systems (ECMWF-SEAS5, Météo-France System8, DWD-GCF2.1 and CMCC-SPSv3.5) and are processed using artificial intelligence techniques. From this data, the team calculated two of the most important international drought indices (the Standardized Precipitation Index and the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index), using data windows of 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. The method has been applied in the Júcar River basin, which usually goes through stages of recurrent and quite intense droughts. Why is it important. The novelty of this system is that it is not limited to using a single climate model or index, but rather it merges three pieces that are usually used separately and adds AI processing to correct biases and adapt the models to a regional scale. This allows the prediction to be more reliable since it does not depend on a single model. Furthermore, all of this has been integrated into an operational web toolintended to be used in water management and not only as an academic exercise. Results. The system is correct with a reliability of 90% when the prediction is made for that same month. If they want to obtain predictions three months in advance, the reliability is 60%, while for longer periods (12, 18 and 24 months) they do not give a percentage, but they affirm that the model is still useful for predicting what will happen up to six months in advance. Héctor Macián, co-author of the study, states that “The results confirm that the system is especially effective in reinforcing early warning of droughts, a fundamental aspect to anticipate management measures, reduce socioeconomic impacts and increase resilience to climate change.” Action window. As we said, the methodology has been developed in the Júcar river basin, which is a semi-arid area with long, dry and very hot summers, although researchers highlight that it is transferable to other drought-prone areas. Being able to foresee these episodes with up to six months of margin opens a window to implement the drought management plans much more in advance and thus be able to mitigate the effects. Image | UPV In Xataka | The remains of an ancient Mayan city leave us lessons for the future: an amazing system against drought

Opening a company in a single visit to the administration sounds like utopia. In China it has been law for years

Bureaucracy is probably one of the few things on which there is almost absolute consensus: everyone hates her. Queuing from window to window, discovering that you are missing a photocopy, returning another day because the official who signs is not there… an administrative ordeal, but it doesn’t have to be like this: years ago, in China they set out to end the labyrinth of procedures with one objective: so that more companies can be created to be more competitive. One visit at most. The ‘one visit at most’ reform It was promoted in the province of Zhejiang in 2016 and today it has spread to more territories in the country. The central objective is to unify all the procedures into one, so that those who want to form a new company only have to go to the administration once, avoiding the “walk” through different windows. It does not only affect the creation of companies, but all types of procedures such as birth certificates, registration records, registrations for health insurance and health cards. In addition, there are many procedures that can be done electronically, it is what they call ‘zero visit’ and the idea is that over time more and more processes will be added to this list. How it was before. Before this reform the process was not only much more tedious, but also much slower. a businessman counted in CGNT To get a permit you had to go through a lot of procedures, the lines were very long and it took several weeks. And if everything went well, if a document was missing or there was an error, you would have to start over. Another businesswoman says that she sent the documentation online and when she went to do the process it took her only 15 minutes to get the permit. Land of entrepreneurship. That this reform has been promoted in Zhejiang is no coincidence. It is the province in which Hangzhou is located, the city that has become the reference technological hub for AI companies. Here you can find Alibaba, DeepSeek, Unitree or Deep Robotics. It is also where the Zhejiang Universitynicknamed “the Stanford of the East”, and where many of those who are today senior executives of technology companies have studied. The streamlining of bureaucracy is one of all the measures that the government has implemented and which also include very advantageous loans for entrepreneurs. One person companies. Recently We were talking about ‘one person companies’ or OCP and how the Chinese government is supporting this new entrepreneurship model. They are startups created by a single person with strong AI support, very much in the style of what he did Peter Steinberger with OpenClawwhich in turn has allowed many entrepreneurs to create their own solo companies. OCP communities are being created in cities like Suzhou, Wuhan offers special loans for ‘solopreneurs’ and in Shanghai they cover up to 300,000 yuan in computing expenses. How is it here? In Spain we also have our own agile business creation system called CIRCE. It works through the DUE (Single Electronic Document) that groups up to 25 administrative forms into one. Through CIRCE you can create or cease a company, whether it is a SL or a self-employed person, and it can take from one to ten days. Of course, for SLs it is still necessary to complete an in-person procedure at a notary office. Image | Studio4rt, Freepik In Xataka | For 60 years, a farmer with no idea about architecture built a cathedral from scratch in Madrid. The bureaucracy has closed it

The Pagani Utopia Roadster is so exclusive, it comes with a €28 million penthouse in Miami “for free”

I’m from the neighborhood, and I see the plays from afar. Once a guy came up to me and told me that if I bought him a pen that cost 300 euros, he would give me two tickets to the Copa del Rey final. It doesn’t bother me, what that smart guy wanted was resell my tickets. Pagani must think that millionaires lack street, because he wants to use the same trick to sell two luxury penthouses in the Pagani Residencesin the area most Miami exclusivefor 30 million dollars. He Pagani Utopia Roadster What it includes is a “gift”. The Italian jewel that only 130 people will be able to have. He Pagani Utopia Roadster It is not just any car and not only in regards to the strictly mechanical aspects. The manufacturer will only produce 130 units worldwide and it will take about three years to manufacture them. All of them are already assigned, so not even being able to pay the 3.1 million euros that this supercar costs could you buy one. The high price is justified by the exclusivity of the production, since this supercar is manufactured by hand in Modena and integrates a 6.0-liter biturbo V12 engine handcrafted by AMG, which delivers 864 HP and 1,100 Nm of torque. Its entire structure is manufactured in carbon fiber which makes it extremely light, stopping the scale at only 1,280 kilos. A missile capable of flying low at 349 km/h. As we have already told you, only with what screws cost that hold the Utopia Roadster together, you can buy a Porsche Macan or a Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The Pagani Residences: luxury to the core. However, just as has announced the supercar manufacturer, there is an exception so that whoever wants to buy the Utopia Roadster and money is not a problem: buy one of the two penthouses that have been put up for sale in the Pagani Residences. The building is located in North Bay Village, an exclusive area overlooking Biscayne Bay. It is about the first architectural project of the Italian brand outside the motor world. In total, it will have 70 residences distributed over 30 floors, designed by Revuelta Architecture International and decorated by the new interior division “Pagani Arte”, founded by Horacio Pagani. A penthouse with a “gift” supercar. The true jewels of the building are the two duplex penthouses that crown the 28th and 29th floors. The first, measuring 995 square meters (427 m2 interior and 567 m2 terrace), costs 26.5 million euros. The house is distributed over two floors with 4-meter ceilings and has 4 bedrooms. For its part, the second penthouse is 1,133 square meters (483 m2 interior and 650 m2 terrace), with 5 bedrooms and a price that amounts to 28 million euros. Both include terraces that surround the entire home, oak wood and travertine marble floors, private elevators, and kitchens equipped with Schiffini Magistretti and exclusive Gaggenau appliances, as well as a wall-mounted wine cellar for 365 bottles. Additionally, the penthouses include private access to the tower’s wellness amenities, including a fitness center, a 29th-floor oceanfront spa, a rooftop pool and recovery lounge, and a panoramic lounge with cabanas and hot and cold pools. “At Pagani, each creation begins with a dialogue. Just as we design a hypercar with the help of its owner, Pagani Residences, in collaboration with Pagani Arte, invites each resident to the adventure of shaping their home,” said Horacio Pagani, founder and CEO of Pagani Automobili. The attic matches the car. Each Pagani Residences penthouse comes accompanied by a Pagani Utopia Roadster “Miami Edition”. This special edition (within how limited it already is in itself), sports a turquoise blue paint inspired by the sea and sky of Florida. Additionally, penthouse buyers who receive the Utopia Roadster “as a gift” are also invited to the Pagani factory in Modena, Italy, for a private tour of the Horacio Pagani Museum and Atelier. The visit will close with a personal meeting with Horacio Pagani and the Pagani Arte team, in which, just as the cars are personalized, they will also be able to finalize the details of their apartments with the company’s CEO. Horacio Pagani himself explained to Bloomberg that their intention with this project is that the owners “feel the same emotion that those who drive one of our hypercars experience.” A trend that redefines luxury. Pagani is not alone in this new real estate stage. Brands like porsche, Mercedes-BenzAston Martin, Bentley or Lamborghini have already transformed their names into architectural symbols in cities like Miami or Dubai. With these projects, manufacturers seek to offer customers who buy their cars an extension of the experience they feel when getting into their supercars, with extreme care of every detail and materials of the highest quality, as well as the same design philosophy used in their cars. In fact, some of these residences even allow park the car in the living roomas if it were just another decorative element. In Xataka | The Magarigawa Club: the private luxury circuit where millionaires drive their supercars Image | Pagani

This literary science fiction utopia advocates the disappearance of millionaires. And Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg love

The saga of ‘the culture’ of Iain M. Banks is one of the series of Science fiction books most important and influential of the history of gender. And among his fans are names as notorious of the Tech sector as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg either Jeff Bezos. What is still curious: the message and background of the saga are in one direction, it could be said, diametrically opposite to the businesses led by these billionaires. So … why do you like so much? The culture of ‘culture’. The saga consists of no less than ten books, the first of them written in 1987 and the last in 2012. In them there is a society in which the pan-human (similar to us in appearance, but without being completely clear what relationship they keep with humanity) coexist with artificial intelligences, having overcome any problem of scarcity of the past. All citizens can careless work: technology takes care of everything. Until death is a problem of the past: diseases have been left behind, and minds can move from one body to another when bodies do not give more. Below the work. ‘Culture ‘is one of the most clearly positioned science fiction works in political terms, already a difference from conservative thought classics such as’ the rebel rebellion’ of Ayn Rand Or allegations of white supremacism not very camouflaged such as ‘The landing’ or ‘Turner’s newspapers’, leans towards the socialist utopia, more in the line of other classications such as ‘Iron heel’ by Jack London. In the Society of ‘Culture’ goals are reached Socialist theory: Post-scarce society, abolition of money and private property, radical equality, voluntary work, collective management, absence of coercive laws, personal freedom … an authentic utopia. Stones to the roof itself. And since there are no inequalities for economic reasons, the same concept of oligarchs is aberrant. Banks hated the idea that a lot of money will concentrate on a few hands. As he exposed This article in Voxthe solution to antisocial behavior in ‘culture’ is not the legal punishment, but to make the offender a social out of theory, cancellation. Something against what they have manifested openly These billionaires. And well, then there is the subject of the genre completely fluid in this utopian society: the rigid genres are completely overcome. And we already know how little they like Musk, Bezos either Zuckerberg LGTBI ideas. What do you see? It is clear What do they like about ‘the culture’ then: The fascinating vision of technology as a solution to all problems. From facilitating the most daily tasks to overcome in space battles, everything is mediated by artificial technology and intelligences. Of course, for Banks technology is not an end in itself, but a tool in search of a more just and equitable society. And without millionaires. But it is easy for these oligarchs of technology to skip that part, because the comfortable is to get carried away by the sissured show that also proposes ‘culture’ (which are adventure novels, not thesis). Of course, it should be noted that there are voices, such as The journalist Max Readwho affirm that perhaps Musk, Bezos or Zuckerberg have not completely misunderstood ‘culture’. Especially if we compare it with the findings of the other utopia par excellence of science fiction, ‘the dispossessed’ of Ursula K. Leguinis of dyes closest to anarchism. Possessing utopias. As technology is more complex, the bridges of understanding between science fiction and innovation are more constant. Science fiction has helped us to imagine the future and carry it out, and therefore the technological elites of Silicon Valley have reinterpreted utopias as inspiration, and even sometimes as Brandingas Musk did Putting Space X ship namesinspiring Neuralink’s own concept and defining itself as an “utopian anarchist of those described by Iain M. Banks.” He is not the only one who appropriates the saga: Bezos will adapt the first book of ‘La Cultura’ In Prime Video. And Zuckerberg promoted the saga in your reading club In 2015. However, this possession of the ideas of Banks or other utopias as a generator of imaginary and technological concepts has very obvious inconveniences when it goes from socialist utopia to business narrative. The critical sense of literary works is diluted and enters a paradox: that of the technocratic utopia. Banks is not here to meet her, but something tells us that he would have produced chills. In Xataka | The groundbreaking world of Chinese science fiction: this is the literature from which ‘the problem of the three bodies “has come out”

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