work

The surprising thing is not its pieces, but how they work

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It was in the middle of the Cold War when Western engineers who managed to examine captured Soviet equipment they were surprised finding surprisingly simple circuits and unrefined finishes, but yes, designed to continue working even in extreme conditions where more advanced systems would have failed. That scenario halfway between simplicity and effectiveness left a lesson that decades later makes sense again. Open a missile and understand war. Analysis of remains of North Korean missiles used in Ukraine has offered (one more time) an image as unexpected as it is revealing about the evolution of modern war, by showing that apparently sophisticated systems hide a reality much more hybrid. Just like have reported Since the kyiv government, Ukrainian engineers and scientists have disassembled and studied these projectiles after their use in combat, finding a surprising combination of elements that don’t fit with the classic idea of ​​advanced weaponry. That contrast, between what it seems and what it really is, has become a key clue to understanding how current military balances are changing. Technology from another era in the midst of globalization. To be more exact, the missiles analyzed, mainly the KN-23 and the KN-24reveal a very clear pattern: they are built with manufacturing methods reminiscent half a century ago at the very least, with rudimentary welding, basic materials and simple technical solutions such as the use of graphite to withstand heat. However, inside it appears a completely different element, with commercial electronics from multiple countries, integrated into its control systems to make up for the lack of its own technology. The result is a weapon that mixes the old and the modern in a way that is as unexpected as it is functional. Bigger, less efficient. According to has explained the Ukrainian ministry, technical limitations are evident, since these missiles use less efficient fuels and require significantly larger motors to reach distances comparable to more advanced systems. This lack of sophistication also translates in reliability problemswith failures in flight and premature explosions detected on multiple occasions. Even so, all these shortcomings do not make them irrelevant, but rather an example of how less refined engineering can remain useful if it fulfills its basic objective on the battlefield. The real problem. Be that as it may, and despite their apparent low quality, these missiles continue representing a danger more than significant, since their ballistic nature makes them difficult to intercept and requires the use of advanced air defense systems like the patriot. In turn, this creates a strategic paradox in which relatively simple weapons force the use of resources much more expensive to neutralize them, replicating the same economic imbalance that is already observed in drone warfare. In other words, they don’t have to be perfect to be effective. Adaptation on the ground. Furthermore, they said in kyiv that the use of these systems is also linked to a tactical evolution on the ground that we have been countingone where North Korean forces deployed alongside Russia have been adjusting their way of fighting after suffering significant losses. In this way, they have gone from massive attacks to operations smaller and more flexiblesupported by drones and better coordinated with artillery, in a process of direct learning from the battlefield. If you will, this adaptation also reinforces the idea that the current war not only transforms technology, obviously, but also the way in which it is being used. The new norm. Ultimately, the last unboxing of missiles illustrates a deeper change where war no longer depends solely on the most advanced technology, but on the ability to combine resources available effectively. Blending ancient manufacturing methods with accessible global electronics proves that innovation doesn’t always mean sophistication, but intelligent adaptation. In that context, what Ukraine has found inside these North Korean missiles is not only a technical curiosity, but a clear sign of where modern warfare and its resources are heading, one where imperfect systems coexist, but sufficient and capable of generating real strategic effects. Image | Ukrainian M., Lightrocket In Xataka | A disturbing idea has begun to take hold in Europe: Ukraine has turned Russia into a fearsome air force In Xataka | Cities such as London or Madrid appear on Russia’s new objective map. The reason: drone production

that talent has to pay to work

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Japan needs foreign workers. The really need and urgently. But its hiring system for foreigners experiences a curious paradox: the country needs these foreigners, but charges them a fortune and places innumerable obstacles for them to go to work. Well, to be exact, it’s not actually the government that charges them to work, but a network of intermediary agencies in recruitment who take a good commission before the worker even sets foot on Japanese soil. According to the second edition of the survey on foreign workers in Japan85% of foreign workers who arrive in Japan do so through some type of intermediary. The majority pays a bill for this service that can exceed 6,000 euros. Import workers due to low birth rate. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfarethe number of foreign workers in the country reached 2.57 million at the end of 2025, 11.7% more than the previous year, and the thirteenth all-time record consecutive. That is, in 2025, that figure was almost three times higher than that recorded a decade earlier. The manufacturing industry accounts for 24.7% of the total foreign employees, followed by the services sector with 15.2% and wholesale and retail trade with 13.3%. By city, Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka host more than 43% of all these workers. These data show that there are entire sectors that cannot fill the majority of their vacancies with local workers and need this foreign workforce to fill them. They pay to go to work in Japan. According to the data collected According to the Japanese Ministry of Labor, the vast majority of these workers arrive through a recruitment agency at origin that charges them a fee of between 200,000 and 400,000 yen (the equivalent of between 1,200 and 2,400 euros), while 13.2% of foreigners paid up to 6,000 euros just to have the opportunity to go to work in Japan. Of the 10.9% of workers who reported having had labor disputes in Japan, 18.6% indicated that the cost of agencies was excessive, and 14.9% admitted not having known who to turn to when difficulties arose. Meanwhile, 69% of companies cited labor shortages as the main reason for hiring foreign staff, up from 64.8% a year earlier. The end of the system that allowed it. Much of this friction has its origin in how the Japanese immigration system itself was designed. For more than thirty years, the Technical Internship Program (TITP), launched in 1993 with the stated objective of training workers from developing countries. In practicethis program functioned as a way to obtain cheap labor that, once in the country, had very little capacity for maneuver, denouncing marathon days, salary failures and the impossibility of freely changing sectors or jobs. In June 2024, the Japanese Parliament approved its replacement by the system Ikusei Shuro Seidowith entry into force scheduled for June 2027. For the first time, the Japanese government officially recognizes that the goal of the new program It is to train and retain foreign labor to cover the talent shortage, something that the previous regulations did not allow. Unlike the TITP, the new model does allow changing companies within the same sector under certain conditions, and sets a limit on commissions from recruitment agencies equivalent to two months of the worker’s salary. More visas, more sectors, more talent. The Japanese government has opened new entry ways to foreign labor. In March 2024, the Specific Skilled Worker (SSW) visa program incorporated new sectors in which foreigners can work, raising to 17 the total number of sectors covered. Those who arrive with a university degree can benefit from the J-Find visaaimed at graduates from the top 100 universities in the world. This visa allows you to reside up to two years in Japan to look for work or prepare a business project without having to have an employer to guarantee your arrival. Unlike the SSW or the TITP, the J-Find is a commitment that goes beyond filling vacant positions, and what it seeks is to compete for highly qualified talent at a global level and encourage the creation of startups and innovation projects in Japan. Companies also have their share of the problem. In addition to demographic pressurethe companies themselves have spent years unable to fill vacancies with local workers. According to the MHLW survey30% of the establishments declared having difficulties and “linguistic and cultural barriers” with their employees, and “complexity of the procedures to manage their residency status.” That is to say, not only is it a complex bureaucracy for workers, but Japanese companies are also having problems with this hiring system. The reforms underway aim to correct the most problematic points of the system, from agency abuses to the rigidity that tied workers to a single employer. The reforms will not be completed until 2027, so until that time comes, the paradox that Japan is experiencing still the same: a country that urgently needs foreign workers, in which those same workers have to pay a high sum to be able to work. In Xataka | Japan is being the canary in the mine of the labor market in Spain: reversible retirement is the proof Image | Unsplash (Il Vagabiondo)

Europe has grown tired of being NASA’s “supporting actor.” And that is why it is starting to work with China

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The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have teamed up to launch an ambitious mission, aimed at studying the mechanisms used by the Earth to protect itself from solar inclement weather. The SMILE mission was scheduled to launch this April 9, but a small technical problem has forced it to be postponed until a date that is still unclear. In any case, it is just a small stone on the road for a mission that reinforces Europe’s intention to join forces with the Today it is considered the direct competition of NASA on many space issues. Given the ups and downs that the United States faces in scientific matters, it could be an interesting idea. The terrestrial sunscreen under a magnifying glass. The SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission has four instruments aimed at analyzing the interaction of solar winds with the magnetosphere that acts as the Earth’s shield. It is a necessary mission for many reasons. On the one hand, because many of the mechanisms used by the Earth to protect itself from solar radiation remain partly a mystery. And, on the other hand, because data analysis could help predict solar storms more accurately. Currently it is possible to know with high probability whether they will occur, but the situation is far from being exact. Since these types of events affect terrestrial communications systems, forecasting would be a key point. Four instruments. The instruments that SMILE has They are the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), the Light Ion Analyzer (LIA), the Detector Plane Assembly (DPA) and the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI). The SXI is responsible for taking X-ray images to study the boundaries of the magnetosphere, while the DPA provides mechanical and thermal support. That is, it helps keep the imaging systems at a stable temperature, something essential given the proximity to the Sun. As for LIA, its function is to analyze ionized particles. Solar winds consist of a flow of ionized particles that form in the Sun’s corona and are released into space. They are directly related to the harmful effects of solar storms, so it is important to analyze them. For its part, UVI is responsible for taking images in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum. Above all, they will take images of auroras, closely linked to peaks in solar activity. European and Chinese contribution. The European Union has provided the SXI and DPA instruments, in addition to the Vega rocket that will propel the satellite and all its instruments into space. For its part, China has developed the UVI and LIA instruments, as well as the SMILE suite satellite platform. Spain is not missing either. One of SMILE’s instruments, the DPA, It has been developed at the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Little recognition. NASA has given Canada a seat on the Orion capsule to travel to the Moon. Canadian Jeremy Hansen is one of the crew members of Artemis II, despite having never traveled to space. Canada has not participated in the technological development of the mission. Europe, on the other hand, has provided the engine system that has propelled the four astronauts towards our satellite. Even so, little mention has been made of ESA’s important contribution during the development of Artemis II. Why China. A long time ago, China stopped being an emerging space power and became one of the most consolidated on the current scene. With its Tiangong Space Station Located in low orbit, it is the only facility of its kind besides the International Space Station. Its lunar mission has great relevance thanks to the exploration of the Chang’e unmanned missions. Besides, hopes to take its own taikonauts (as Chinese astronauts are known) to the satellite in 2030. Its exploration on Mars is also important thanks to rovers like Zhurong. Tiangong Low hours for NASA? Donald Trump’s government wants to make drastic cuts to science with public investment in the United States and possibly NASA will not escape. Therefore, it may be a good time to seek other support in the space race, as ESA is already doing with SMILE. That does not mean that it will stop collaborating with NASA, but it is true that it is open to exploring new partners. If there is one thing that history has taught us, it is that the best way to advance in the space race is to put egos aside and move forward as a team. Closing yourself off only to a traveling companion can end up being counterproductive. Images | ESA | Shujianyang In Xataka | Astronauts’ food is not appetizing at first, especially in China

one in four doesn’t work

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Whether the electric car continues to advance depends largely on the charging infrastructure and Spain is doing its homework on that. In October of last year we had 52,000 charging points spread throughout the peninsula and during the first quarter of 2026 there have already been more than 55,000 operating points. The expansion of the network is advancing, but it has a burden: many are out of service. One in four. The Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC), which collects data on the electromobility sector, has published the data corresponding to the first quarter of the year and there is a worrying figure. More than 17,000 charging points are out of service, which represents 24% of the total. In other words: one in four charging points does not work. If they were operational, the network would have more than 72,000 points in total. The reasons. According to ANFAC, the fact that there are charging points without service responds to several factors. On the one hand, the poor condition and breakdowns, but there are also many that are installed but have not yet been connected to the network. To prepare this breakdown map, the ANFAC uses information that users provide through Electromaps, so the actual figure may vary. Percentages by communities. The ANFAC breaks down the data by communities, so we can know which ones have the most points out of service. The crown goes to the Balearic Islands, which of the 1,828 points have 832 that do not work, 45.5%. Galicia follows with 39.5%, La Rioja with 37.5% and Valencia with 35.5%. Among those with the most reliable infrastructure are Aragón with 22.4%, Castilla y León with 22.4% and Extremadura with 26.1%. The status of fast charging. The absence of high-power chargers is one of the shortcomings that Spain has compared to other countries. According to the data in the report, 69% of the network is made up of slow charging points of up to 22 kW, while the remaining 31% are higher power points. This is the current panorama: 2,253 charging points between 22 and 50kW. 9,015 charging points between 50 and 150 kW. 3,206 charging points between 150 and 250 kW. 2,469 points of 250kW or more. A long way to go. Slow charging points can be useful for private use in homes or for long stays, since we can leave the car charging all night. If we go on a trip and want to make a quick stop, we must use a charger of at least 150kW or more, to be able to “refuel” in half an hour and not have to make long stops. Of the more than 2,000 points that have been added so far this year, half are quick recharge. Things are moving forward, but Spain is still far behind other European countries Image | Reve, own edition In Xataka | Spain has been filled with charging points for electric cars. The problem is that we are not using them

Generation Z is uploading videos of their work routines to TikTok and Instagram, and it is already a phenomenon

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If we have learned anything from social networks, it is that everything can be contained, including boring office work. After all there are people hooked on toilet cleaning videosso it’s not that strange. Worktok. It’s how these creators, most of them very young, tag the content they publish about their work. Browsing the hashtag we found mostly humorous gags about work life, but digging a little deeper we found all kinds of videos. There are those who tell their routine, those who use it as a space to vent to complain about their bosses and even those who broadcast his dismissal live. There is a subcategory within this trend and it is the ‘Quittok’, that is, young people who tell why they want to resign from their jobs. Some they even record themselves doing it. Viral. It is not an anecdotal phenomenon, the hashtag #worktok It has already accumulated almost 300,000 publications and the total views amount to 1.8 billion. What has led so many people to share details about their work life? The label began to become popular in 2020 during the pandemic. At a time when teleworking was imposed throughout the world, many people began to share their daily lives on TikTok and that also included work. Why is it important. In statements to the BBCAccording to Sara McCorquodale, head of an influencer firm in the United Kingdom, the fact that it has been maintained over time responds to a need to create a community and seek validation online. It’s like looking for that “coffee machine moment” that for many young people does not exist either because they work remotely or because they do not have that connection with their office colleagues. A space of identity. According to McCorquodale, sharing with the world the day-to-day life of work – with its achievements and its dramas – is also a way of reaffirming one’s identity and taking control of the narrative. It is a way of saying that my work life belongs to me and I am going to narrate it as I want, not as the company dictates. It is also a symptom of a broader trend, that of a generation that prioritizes their mental health and well-being over promotions or working hard. They are the opposite of workaholics. Yes, but. Sharing certain company details or recording videos during working hours can cause problems. It’s what It happened to a paint store worker who started recording videos of how he mixed different colors of paint. The company saw the videos and fired him for recording during work hours and using store materials. Primark also fired an employee in the United Kingdom for having recorded TikToks. It doesn’t seem like ‘worktok’ is going to disappear, so both companies and employees will have to adapt and navigate without crossing boundaries. In Xataka | A generation totally disconnected from their work: 80% of “genzers” want to change jobs Image | Vitaly Gariev in Unsplash

more job offers but it is more difficult to find work

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The technology sector has never had so many open vacancies and yet finding a job there has become a task harder than ever. This apparent contradiction is not just a feeling: the data confirms it, and it has everything to do with how AI is redrawing the map of who has a place and who does not in technology companies. A detailed analysis by Lenny Rachitsky, expert in the technological labor market and host of the popular Lenny’s Podcastoffers an image that invites reflection. The figures are the most optimistic that has been recorded in its four editions of the report on the state of employment in the technological product sector, but the reality of many professionals who looking for a new job contradicts that optimism on paper. Numbers are deceiving (or at least, they don’t tell everything). According to the collected data by Rachitsky through TrueUp, a platform that tracks job offers in more than 9,000 technology companies in the world, there are more than 7,300 vacancies open for profiles Product Manager At a global level, 75% above that recorded at the beginning of 2023 and almost 20% more than at the beginning of this same year. In engineering, the figure is even more striking, with more than 67,000 active offers worldwide and 26,000 in the US alone. However, more vacancies do not automatically equal easier finding a job. Rachitsky himself acknowledges in his report that there are many people having a hard time searching, and that this does not change because the overall numbers are good. He labor market growsYes, but it doesn’t do it at the same rate for everyone. not even for all profiles. The boom in roles linked to AI. The great catalyst for this growth is AI. Jobs related to its development and implementation are skyrocketing compared to other technology roles, something Rachitsky describes as a hockey stick-shaped growth curve. This profile demand of software engineering reaches both native AI companies (such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Cursor) and non-technology companies, which looking for product managers specialized in integrating these technologies into their processes. a report of the London School of Economics confirms that more than 76% of product managers expect to expand their investment in AI in 2026, which has triggered demand for managers capable of translating the capabilities of AI models into concrete products. The profile that companies are looking for, however, is very specific and not just any candidate with AI on the resume is worth it, but experienced professionals in implementation and with the ability to make decisions in environments where AI is already part of the development process. Side B: junior profiles are left out. This is where the other side of the paradox comes in. The report by Anthropic ‘Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence’reveals that overall unemployment among workers most exposed to AI has not increased significantly since the arrival of ChatGPT, but there is a worrying sign in the data from hiring the youngest. Specifically, the study detects that, since 2024, workers between 22 and 25 years old have increasingly less likely to be hired in jobs most exposed to automation. The incorporation rate for these positions has fallen approximately half a percentage point, reducing by up to 14% the probability that a young man finds a job in those occupations, relative to levels prior to the launch of ChatGPT. For workers over 25 years of age, however, that same drop is not observed. Design, the great forgotten of the recovery. There is another profile that the recovery of employment in the technological labor market seems to have left aside: the design one. While product and engineering roles have been growing for two years, vacancies for designers have practically stagnated since the beginning of 2023, with around 5,700 global offers compared to more than 7,300 for product. The analysis firm Humbl Design confirms in its January 2026 report that design roles oriented toward routine execution will barely grow between 2% and 3% until 2034, while profiles specialized in strategy and problem solving project an increase of 16% in the same period. AI has a lot to do with this stagnation. Its ability to accelerate the work of engineers has reduced dependence on traditional design processes, especially in the prototyping and generation of visual variants phases. That is, AI has assumed that role and is now executed from the development departments, so companies They don’t need so many designers anymore.. In Xataka | “The world is in danger”: Anthropic’s security manager leaves the company to write poetry Image | Unsplash (Mimi Thian)

This is how the most brutal engineering work in urban history was born

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London Underground, known in our language as the London Undergroundis one of the most famous public transportation networks in the world. With more than 543 units, 408 kilometers long and 274 stations, this precious piece of the United Kingdom capital is capable of handling up to five million passengers a day. Now, this service did not become what it is today overnight. London Underground has a fascinating history, a history that, by the way, began more than 160 years ago with a completely innovative project for the time: the construction of an underground railway. Let’s go back in time. In the 1830s, London was the largest city in the world. It was a rapidly growing global economic epicenter that needed to decongest its streetsso the idea arose that trains They will begin to move underground. The problem was that until then nothing similar had been implemented. After many years of being just a proposal on paper, a test tunnel was built in 1855 at Kibblesworth. After this step, which turned out to be a success, work began on the world’s first underground railway, a circuit between Paddington (then Bishop’s Road) and Farringdon that entered service on January 10, 1863. The locomotives ran on steam engines and the carriages were lit with gas. It was basically like putting up a traditional railway system in a closed placewhich translated into inconvenience for passengers, who often had to travel in a polluted environment with high temperatures. In any case, the metropolis continued to grow and there were more and more transportation initiatives with private investment. Therefore, in 1868 the first section of the Metropolitan District Railway was inaugurated. This was a service that ran between South Kensington and Westminster (now part of the District and Circle lines). Electricity reaches trains Both services continued to expand as tunnel construction techniques improved. On December 18, 1890, The City and South London Railway launched the first electric railway. This was a very important advance because it allowed us to solve some of the main drawbacks of the service. In 1905, electrification came to the District and Circle lines, but the London Underground network operated as separate systems. This changed after 1906, when companies began to make their way deep into the city to unify. In all this, the name ‘Underground’ did not yet exist. Artist’s representation of a platform on Baker Street London in 1906 The companies that had come together for the project proposed different names, including ‘Tube,’ ‘Electric,’ and ‘Underground,’ but the latter was the winner. In this way, in 1908 it appeared for the first time the name ‘Underground’ in the seasons, and he did it with the roundel symbol that we know today. The technological progress of the London Underground seemed unstoppable. That same year, electronic ticket-issuing machines arrived and in 1911 the first escalators were installed. In 1929, manually operated doors began to become extinct. These were updated with pneumatic systems. Until this point, the service was operated by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL). In 1933, however, underground transportation services merged with the railroads and bus services under the London Transport brand, which was overseen by the London Passenger Transport Board. That same year Harry Beck’s map appearedan element intended to guide users. The system had grown so large that some stations were just meters away, while others were kilometers away. It is a cartography that was received with skepticism, but ended up triumphing. Aldwych tube station, in 1940 For the first time, decisions about London’s public transport services were perfectly coordinated. This allowed us to improve the service and outline an ambitious improvement plan. However, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 meant that the plan could not be completed as originally envisioned. The underground transport service was converted into a huge air raid shelter between September 1940 and May 1945. Some stations were also used during the war as a warehouse to keep valuable historical items safe, for example pieces from the British Museum. After the war, in 1948, the London Passenger Transport Board acquired a public role. HE nationalized and became the London Transport Executive, years later being renamed the London Transport Board and operating under the orbit of the Ministry of Transport. The system also suffered several tragedies. In 1975 a train heading south did not stop at the final terminal and crashed at the end of the shift. 43 people died and 74 were injured. In 1987, a fire claimed 31 lives at King’s Cross station. Later, in 2005, an attack on the London transport system It caused 52 people to lose their lives. Nails contactless cards called Oyster They were implemented on the London Underground in 2003, but by 2014 you could already pay directly with contactless bank cards. By 2016, some lines provided evening service on weekends. Currently the service is run by an organization called Transport for London (TfL) which comprehensively manages the city’s state transportation strategy. Images | Joel de Vriend | Nelson Ndongala | Tomas Anton Escobar | Tom Parsons | Will H McMahan | The Graphic (Wikimedia Commons) | John Jackson In Xataka | The unfinished dream of the Roman Empire: a 125-kilometer train to link Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus In Xataka | France has been torpedoing the possibility of AVE reaching Paris for years: Renfe’s plan is now regional ones In Xataka | In 2007, Japan made a cat the station master of a dying train line. Today that line is saved

Paying more for a very fast NVMe SSD is wasting money if you only save PDFs, but it is the only option if you are also going to work from it

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Like me, you have probably also at some point faced the purchase of a new storage unit, internal or external, for your desktop PC or portable. Something that, until a few years ago, was quite simplified: either you chose a 5,400 rpm HDD (revolutions per minute), or you chose one of 7,200 rpm. End of story. To something else. But since SSDs came onto the scene, purchasing (and usage) possibilities have changed a lot, making opting for one type or another is not so simple. Today, taking into account the price differences between HDDs (the “old” mechanical disks) and SSDs (the “modern” solid state drives), the choice is clear: SSDs win by a landslide, offering wide capacities and much, much higher speeds. Although well, the current context of AI surcharges It changes the film a little and, whatever purchase we make now, it will entail a greater outlay. But this shouldn’t last forever and, under normal conditions, SSDs are still the best value for money purchase option for general use. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links So, well, you already have one thing clear: to expand capacity, in general terms, the ideal in 2026 is to go for an SSD. However, the choice is not so simple because different technologies and different models come into the field of SSDs, each with a series of advantages and disadvantages. All of them, valid for any use you plan to give them, be careful. But not all of them cost the same and, depending on what you need your new unit for, Smart purchasing will tip the balance on one side or the other. And your pocket, of course, will thank you for choosing carefully. In other words and to give them first and last names: in a scenario in which you need more space for your PC or portable and you have to go through the checkout to expand it using an SSD, you will have to choose between an NVMe SSD or a SATA SSD (which are the main types of SSD that are generally sold). The first, more expensive and faster. The second, cheaper and slower. AND each one, in its proper context, shines with its own light. Next we are going to see how they differ and why they are a better purchase option compared to their rival, depending on the context. And thus pay more if the situation requires it or save as much as possible if you are not going to take advantage of its full potential. SATA SSD: not as fast but cheaper When SSDs burst onto the scene, they did so in a format we know as SATA. In units of different sizes (although also ostensibly more compact than mechanical HDDs) that are still commonly marketed in 2.5-inch models. If you have a laptop or desktop PC from a couple of decades ago, probably contains one of these. These SSD units were, at the time, night and day compared to mechanical HDDs. What used to take you half an hour to wait was suddenly completed in minutes. And also, without noise. The “problem” is that today, with much more modern and faster units (spoiler: NVMe), this type of SSD have been relegated more to pure storage than as devices for daily work. That is to say: what we once stored on HDDs, we now do on these SSDs. A digital storage room that, in any case, is much faster and makes it easier (and faster) to move large amounts of data and copy and paste files. In addition, the SATA SSD is probably the only option when it comes to somewhat “old” laptops: today, practically all models come with an M.2 connector (where the NVMe are installed), but if you have a laptop that is a few years old (around 2018 or earlier) it will probably not have said connector and the 2.5-inch SATA SSD is the one you will have to use. If you are also using a mechanical HDD, the change will be spectacular. Does this mean they are a bad choice? Not at all, they’re still great in 2026… but especially for what I’m doing: storing. Because if what you need is a “hard drive” on which to install the operating system, applications and games, or on which work intensively on tasks that require constant writing and reading of data (such as video editing), then you will be limited. This leads us to the next model: NVMe SSD. NVMe SSDs: faster and more expensive While SATA SSDs are somewhat larger and slower (but cheaper), NVMe SSDs are a rocket. The quickest and most direct way to describe them is: speed, speed, speed. While the former would become a one-lane national highway, the latter become a highway with eight lanes in each direction. This means that if a sporadic car (some file, such as PDFs) is going to pass through these “roads”, SATA is enough for you; If you need several heavy trucks moving at the same time (video editing, for example, with thousands of MB of data moving at full speed) then That national highway will collapse and there is no choice but to drive on the highway.. NVMe SSDs also stand out in design: they are compact, stylish and very small. The inseparable companion of any current desktop or laptop PCbut also in video game consoles by offering better performance in all types of tasks and taking up less space (something vital, for example, in the case of consoles). In fact, this is the type of SSD that the PlayStation 5, the Steam Deck… come with in the M.2 connectors that they incorporate. Connector that, by the way, has been present on practically any desktop or laptop motherboard for a few years now. This type of SSD is more expensive than its SATA relatives, but that extra financial effort is worth it if, in addition to storing data as such, you plan to work on them. … Read more

live in one city and work in another

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Leaving home at five in the morning to travel 200 kilometers before arriving at work and repeating the same route back is, in fact, the daily routine of thousands of Spaniards who live and work not already in different citiesbut in different autonomous communities. The housing market has turned cities like Madrid or Barcelona into places where living is economically unviable for many working families. This phenomenon already has a name: pendulum travelers. And their number does not stop growing. Housing as a driving force of the exodus. According to data From the Tax Agency’s Labor Market Mobility survey, in 2019, 166,000 workers changed autonomous communities or provinces. In 2024, there were 236,848, which represents an increase of 30%. The reason why so many people choose to move between communities every day fits into one fact. In 2024 alone, 54,500 employees left the province of Madrid and 30,475 did the same from Barcelona. The sociologist Sara Porras, doctor in Applied Sociology at the Complutense University, confirmed in statements to The Newspaper What was the reason for that migration? outside the big cities. These are “expulsion processes caused by the overheating of housing prices, which have made rents unpayable,” said the sociologist. A life of early mornings and packed trains. As and how I collected The Spanish NewspaperMiguel Ángel García has spent years with one foot in Valladolid and another in Madrid, where he works in the financial sector. Miguel Ángel leaves the Campo Grande station at 6:45 and returns at 3:40 p.m. “Distance is not measured in kilometers, but in time: it is 170 kilometers, but it took an hour“, just as if I lived in Leganés,” he says. In his company there are 55 people who travel daily from Valladolid or Segovia, and they attribute their situation to the flexibility it has provided. the arrival of teleworking and hybrid days, which have reduced the days of mandatory presence in the office. The economic key is given by Elena Parreño, a journalist who moved from Barcelona to a town ten minutes from Gerona, that declared to The Newspaperthat “before, a round-trip ticket Gerona-Barcelona cost 27 euros; now, with the discounted passes, it is just over eight.” Begoña, a 40-year-old civil servant, made the same calculation on the other side of the map, and bought a house in Valladolid (something she describes as “impossible in Madrid”) and makes the daily journey to the capital in just over an hour on Avant trains. How much does it cost to leave and how much does it cost to stay?. The numbers explain a good part of the exodus that Madrid or Barcelona suffer towards other provinces with more affordable housing prices. The gap between housing prices in large urban centers and nearby provinces largely explains this exodus. Madrid closed 2025 with an average purchase price of 5,914 euros/m2while in Valladolid the average was around at 2,006 euros/m2. The contrast of the example in Catalonia is just as striking. Barcelona reached prices of 5,144 euros/m2in front of 2,667 euros/m2 which the province of Gerona recorded on average. The AVE factor. Another decisive factor in this migratory movement towards territories with a more affordable housing price is railway vertebrationwhich makes it possible to connect cities far enough away to reduce real estate tension, but not so far away that covering that distance requires investing a good part of the day. At that point, the train has become the only possible alternative. He Renfe Single Passvalid since January 2025, allows unlimited use of Cercanías and medium-distance trains throughout Spain for 60 euros per month (30 for those under 26 years of age). This savings has caused an increase in the use of the train to reach the big cities that, according to data From the last Railway Observatory in Spain in 2023, the Gerona-Barcelona line will register a total of 2,436,098 passengers, 44.7% more than the previous year, while the Madrid-Valladolid line reached 2,264,882, an increase of 64% compared to 2022. In 2024, the trend continued to rise, and only on the line Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid exceeded 2.7 million annual travelers. In Xataka | A silent phenomenon is brewing in Madrid: people who go to live in Valladolid and return to work by train Image | Unsplash (Yunming Wang)

The IOC has a new method to exclude trans athletes from the Olympic Games. The problem is that biology doesn’t work like that.

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At the end of March, the International Olympic Committee announced undoubtedly one of the most controversial decisions in its recent history: starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, no transgender athlete will be able to compete in the women’s category. But beyond the social and political debate that can be generated, we must also focus on the method chosen to determine this exclusion: a simple genetic analysis where a single gene is searched. And this is something highly discussed among science. His discoverer. The gene in question, which will be analyzed in athletes who want to participate in the female category, will be SRYwhich is nothing more than the “Sex Determining Region Y”. A gene that was discovered in 1990 by molecular biologist Andrew Sinclair and who pointed out that its presence is a determining factor in male sexual development. It is, literally, the scientific father of the test that the IOC has chosen to integrate into its Olympic requirements. But the thing is that he himself is against using it for this. Your disagreement. This decision is not a big news, since if we look back, the body that governs world athletics, World Athletics, adopted this same test in September 2025 to participate in their competitions. Here is Sinclair himself He did not hesitate to publish an opinion article where he made it clear that the result is not definitive, since the only thing the analysis can say is whether the gene is present or not. Because. In this way, it must be detailed that being positive in SRY does not give us information about whether it is working to form a testicle, if it stimulates the production of testosterone or even if it expresses the necessary receptors so that testosterone can be used. Put another way: knowing that an athlete has the SRY gene does not tell you anything conclusive about her physiology, her hormonal levels or, by extension, about her supposed competitive advantages from having testosterone. The biology of sexual development is infinitely more complex than the presence or absence of a genetic marker, which will now mark the ‘everything’ before the IOC. There is more evidence. This researcher is not the only one who opposes this decision, since at the beginning of March it was published an article signed by 34 academics to respond to the decision of World Athletics. Here they pointed to the same thing: we are facing a test that reduces everything to a single gene when biology is much more complex. And biological sex is the result of a very complex interaction of human genetics, hormones, receptors, tissues… Furthermore, the IOC’s argument suggests that this test protects against competitive equity, but for academics, they point out that there is no solid scientific evidence to demonstrate that the presence of the SRY gene is directly related to having a greater sporting advantage. It’s not something new. Although we now see a big scandal in the sports world over this decision, the reality is that if we look at the newspaper archive, something similar was already being done in the 90s. 30 years ago The IOC decided to require women to verify their sex through chromosomal testing and also by determining the SRY gene. But finally the tests were withdrawn due to technical limitations, the absence of medical evidence and also because of the legal problems it could have. A Spanish case. Due to these tests, the Spanish athlete María José Martínez Patiño was disqualified in 1985 after testing positive in the chromosome test despite not having any physiological advantage over her peers. In this way, her career was practically doomed, but she was able to recover it thanks to the help of a geneticist who was able to document her case with scientific evidence that showed that it was not giving her an advantage over the rest of her competitors. The debate. If the basis for requiring genetic testing is to protect competitive fairness, we must ask what science says about the real advantages of transgender athletes. And at this point much less is known than the general population believes. One of the most important studies It was made in 2015 by a transgender researcher who analyzed the running times of eight athletes before and after their transition. In this case, the brands slowed down and their relative performance compared to runners of the same sex remained quite stable. An IOC study. Published in 2024 and partially financed by the committee itself, produced results that do not fit with the discourse we keep hearing: transgender women showed worse results than cisgender women in lower body strength and lung function. But logically it does not mean that there cannot be residual advantages in certain sports, which is something that to this day remains a question that needs an answer. And now what? We are undoubtedly facing a dispute about which tools are valid to solve a genuinely complex problem. Right now, science suggests that the SRY gene test is not the best tool, but because it does not give us a complete answer, since the SRY gene may be present and the body may not respond to testosterone. But this is something that today must continue to be investigated to obtain evidence that can guarantee this equity, but always with a scientific basis behind it. Images | Umanoid Erik van Leeuwen In Xataka | We have accepted that sport is “medicine” for the body. Now science is discovering its side effects

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