wrong

We all turn on our emergency lights when we get into a traffic jam. The DGT knows that we are doing it wrong

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It is more than likely that when you got your license They won’t mention it, but get into a traffic jam It is easy to turn on the emergency lights while braking. It is something almost instinctive, a warning for the one that goes 120 km/h behind you realize that you don’t brake for no reason. And if you don’t, you’ve probably seen it. However, the curious thing is that the General Driving Regulations do not contemplate this action. Because we do it to avoid accidents, but with the law in hand, the use of warnings It’s not what we have to do when we get into a traffic jam.. And yet, there are even new cars that activate them automatically if the system notices that we brake repeatedly. The most curious thing is that it is not bad nor is it a fault. Simply put, the law was written for cars from another era. Although current cars have been eliminating more and more buttons, relegating them to the screensthe emergency lights is one that has remained a physical and tactile piece. It is logical because it is a security element and it is one that we have well located in the control panel. When braking in traffic jams, it is almost a reflex for many drivers to use the emergency light button to warn those behind them of the situation. In fact, some new cars activate them automatically if the sensors (the accelerometer or the brake pressure sensor) detect a sudden deceleration or if the ABS comes into play. If the braking is progressive, they are not activated automatically. The use of emergency lights in a traffic jam: yes, but no (and vice versa) But… what does the law say? As our colleagues remember Motorpassionhe section C of article 109 The General Traffic Regulations of 2003 establish that the correct way to notify those behind us about this situation is: “The intention to immobilize the vehicle or to brake its progress considerably, even when such events are imposed by traffic circumstances, must be warned, whenever possible, by repeatedly using the brake lights or by moving the arm alternately up and down with short and quick movements.” The problem is that theory is one thing, but in practice, if we are slamming on the brakes It is difficult to walk by lifting your foot off the brake.. Much less by lowering the window and warning with signs. It is much easier to turn on the emergency lights, and the person in the back will also see them better than if we put our arm out the window. Why does the law say this? Because it is an article written in another era. It is an anachronism resulting from times in which the ABS It was not so present and in which, to avoid the wheels locking and the car skidding, we did have to lift our foot off the brake. In this way, we were automatically alerting the person behind us. Therefore, the law does not say that we put on the emergency lights in a traffic jam, but they are not going to fine us for it because the DGT understands the good intention when it comes to notifying other drivers about an anomaly in traffic. In fact, the fact that the law does not establish it, but the cars do, speaks about the discrepancy between the “strict law” and reality. The DGT itself advertises it: In fact, here comes the technicality of “whenever possible”a legal hole that protects us when turning on the emergency lights. Now, where it is mandatory to give these lights is when we cannot travel at the minimum speed on the road. That is, if we are in a traffic jam on a highway and we do not reach half the speed of the road, we will have to turn on our lights. Section 3 of article 49 says: “When a vehicle cannot reach the minimum required speed and there is a danger of overtaking, direction indicator lights with an emergency signal must be used while driving.” Will the regulations be modified at some point to reflect the current situation in which all cars launched these last 21 years Do they have ABS? It is not known, but since it is a universal code to alert of the situation, I imagine that it will not be one of the Administration’s priorities. Of course, you have probably found someone who has used them excessively, giving you a scare for no reason when you turn them on in a non-critical situation. And that, precisely, is what happened with some models from the 2000s that turned on the emergency lights automatically, even when braking to exit the highway. For example, early models of Citroen C4 either Peugeot 307 who were ahead of the rest with something that wasn’t going entirely well. Images | Kathy, Prithivi Rajan In Xataka | The V-16 beacons are here to stay (whether we like it or not): this is all there is to do in case of a breakdown

There are those who think that the housing crisis can be solved by building. At the Polytechnic University of Catalonia they believe they are wrong

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Spain has a problem with housing. That is an (almost) objective fact. The CIS says so, which places it as the great concern of the Spanish, but a quick review of the newspaper archive arrives to confirm it. During the last months few topics have generated more political debate or have taken out so many people on the street such as difficulties in accessing a home. What is no longer so clear is how to solve this “crisis” residential area recognized by the Government itself. Should we build more houses? Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? Do we need more land to build? Usually the answer to those three questions is a strong ‘yes’. Now a new study signed by two professors of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and published in a magazine linked to the Ministry of Housing points out that perhaps we were wrong. What has happened? That two professors from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), Blanca Arellano-Ramos and Josep Roca-Cladera, have published a study about the problems that Spain is facing in terms of housing. The report in question is titled ‘Five theses about housing policy in Spain’ and is included in a monograph of CyTETa magazine published by the Ministry of Housing. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that the text questions many of the ideas rooted in the real estate sector, such as that our country suffers from a housing deficit or needs more land to build. While the Bank of Spain (BE) estimates 700,000 homes the mismatch between supply and demand, the study questions whether there really is a ‘hole’ in the market or that prices will go down if we build more. Is there a housing deficit? As already indicated in its title, the article is structured around five theses. And the first addresses precisely that point: Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? The question is interesting because it is one of the most deeply rooted ideas in the sector. The Bank of Spain itself has calculated that it would be necessary 700,000 houses to meet residential demand. For Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera the reality is quite different. In his opinion, one cannot talk about a deficit without first taking into account the excess of housing accumulated between 2011 and 2021 and the stock of vacant properties. The researchers remember that between 2011 and 2021 the housing stock exceeded the growth in the number of homes by 959,554 units, generating a considerable pocket. In fact, they assure that in 2021 the “accumulated excess” was close to 8.1 million properties, a “‘cushion’ more than enough to absorb temporary housing deficits such as the one produced during the 2021-2024 period,” recalls the UPC in the statement in which he reports the study. What does that mean? That for researchers it is not so obvious that Spain suffers from a shortage of new housing. In their analysis they also remember that a good part of the excess of houses and apartments corresponds to second homes and empty homes. The INE itself estimates that at least in 2021 there were 3.84 million of uninhabited properties, 14.4% of the real estate stock. That percentage far exceeds what most experts consider “desirable” (5%), but at least in the statement The UPC does not address another fundamental aspect: the distribution of these wasted properties, if they are located in stressed markets, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga, or in centers where demand is minimal or even non-existent, in the case of emptied Spain. What if we build more? That is the second question the researchers address. What if we build more homes? Would prices be reduced? Their response is once again skeptical to say the least: increasing buildings will not lead to greater social equity nor will it serve to soften prices. “On the contrary”, slide the UPC note. “According to the authors of the study, the solution is not to build more new homes so that the laws of the market balance prices. In addition to having serious environmental effects, what favors is the real estate bubble like the one that occurred around 2000.” What happens in other neighboring countries? Among other arguments, Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera recall that the rise in prices is not a problem exclusive to the Spanish market, but rather something widespread on the continent. So the question is obvious: if the increase in prices is due to the imbalance between supply and demand, do the majority of EU countries share that same problem? “Is there simultaneously a restriction of supply in relation to demand occurring throughout Europe in relation to demand that explains the increase in residential prices? It does not seem that this is plausible. Therefore it is not reasonable, prima facieturn to the scarce construction of new housing as the main cause of the price of housing”, they reflect the authors before remembering that Spain has invested a higher percentage of GDP in construction than the European average. Do we need more land? The researchers also question whether in Spain the problem of lack of accessibility to housing can be explained by the scarcity of land. And to prove it, they go to the newspaper archive: between the late 90s and the early 2000s, buildable land was made available in the country, which allowed for “massive construction” of residential housing. This boom was not accompanied, however, by a reduction in the price of the square meter. Quite the opposite: residential prices increased, as in other parts of Europe. If Spain saw housing prices rise between 1996 and 2008, it was not because there was no land on which to build or build new homes. “Spain became more urbanized than ever and the result did not represent a reduction in prices, on the contrary,” underlines the UPC in your statementwhich recalls that between 2000 and 2012 Spain was the European country with the greatest “consumption” of land: more than 2,400 square kilometers (km2), almost as … Read more

We believed that the NVIDIA-killer would be some other chip manufacturer. We were very wrong

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Yesterday NVIDIA had a stumble in the stock market. The shares lost 7% and then recovered part of the fall. Meanwhile, Google grew by about 4%. Both movements had the same origin: the rumor that Meta is considering using Google’s TPU chips in its data centers in 2027. Why is it important. During the last few years NVIDIA has managed to dominate imperially the AI ​​chip segment. Its accelerator GPUs made the difference, but although other traditional manufacturers such as AMD tried to follow in its wake, the dominance of the company led by Jensen Huang was spectacular. That could change, and the surprise is that the one who threatens that position is Google. Google prefers to throw balls out. A Google spokesperson explained on CNBC that “Google Cloud is experiencing accelerated demand for both our custom TPUs and NVIDIA GPUs; we are committed to supporting both, as we have for years.” But they have been preparing the move for a decade. Sundar Pichai’s company has been working on the development of the Tensor Processing Unit since 2015. They launched the first version in 2018 to take advantage of it in its cloud computing business, but little by little these TPUs have been gaining performance and are now promising alternatives for AI loads, both for training and especially inference, as Ironwood demonstrates. Anthropic already uses them, Meta could do it. Google has already reached a circular financing agreement with Anthropicto which it will supply its TPUs for data centers that work with its model, Claude. The rumors pointed out by The Information make it feasible that Meta reach a similar agreement with Google and use those chips in its data centers. The difference, of course, is the size of Meta versus Anthropic. NVIDIA shows off its chest. In a post on It is a message with two faces: on the one hand, congratulations. On the other hand, the declaration of intent. But you already know what’s coming. The CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, already warned at the investor conference when presenting results of the current situation: the rivalry with Google’s TPUs is increasing. However, he also insisted that Google remains his client and Gemini – which has just been renewed with a spectacular Gemini 3— can run on NVIDIA technology. Competition is good. All major technology companies try to avoid dependence on NVIDIA, and almost all of them have their own bets. It’s AMDbut also Intel, Microsoft, amazon and of course the aforementioned Google. But apart from them there are proposals such as those from OpenAI, Broadcom or TSMC that with their XPUs they want to end the reign of NVIDIA. But CUDA is still a lot of CUDA. The development of own chips is promising, but as AMD knows wellNVIDIA continues to have a spectacular wild card with CUDA, the industry standard development platform for AI solutions. The network effect that this technology has generated it’s going to be hard to beatbut Google certainly has resources to try. Image | World Economic Forum | Hilel Steinberg In Xataka | That Qualcomm prepares its own AI chips is good news. Whether it has an opportunity in the market is a very different thing.

We believed that the pyramids of Giza did not hide any more secrets. we believed wrong

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Talk about the pyramids of egypt is to talk about the Great Pyramid of Giza. The one of Cheops is the most colossalthe best preserved, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the only one still standing. However, it is accompanied by two other vestiges of the past: that of Mycerinos and that of Khafre. That of Mycerinos, or Menkaura, is the smallest of the three, and for years we thought it had only one entrance. We couldn’t be more wrong. The hypothesis. It seems incredible that three of the most studied monuments of human history continue to keep secrets, but what the ancient Egyptians did with these three pyramids was colossal. They follow us surprising so much on the outside as insideand from time to time, as exploration technologies advance, we discover something new. However, although the large one attracts all attention, an archaeologist had his sights set on the Mycerinos. The reason is that, on the north side, the stones that represent the entrance are perfectly aligned and appear more polished than those of the rest of the structure. However, the researcher Stijn van den Hoven He noticed that there was another set of exceptionally polished granite blocks on another face of the pyramid. And, in 2019, he hypothesized an additional entrance to the structure. Non-destructive exploration. Since science is not done alone and must be done, an international team of archaeologists from Cairo University and the Technical University of Munich they got to work to investigate Stijn’s idea. This group is part of the project ScanPyramidswho analyze the pyramids with non-destructive measurement techniques. To do this, they use techniques that are also being used in other places in the world (for example, to discover the secrets of the Mayans). Thus, the ScanPyramids team, analyzed the pyramid of Mycerinos with the latest technology non-invasive analysis: ERTor Electrical Resistivity Tomography. This detects subsurface resistivity variations that reveal cavities or materials of different density thanks to electrodes that penetrate the structures and are computed using three-dimensional inversion algorithms. GPR or georadars. Through electromagnetic waves that penetrate materials and are reflected, anomalies can be found. U.S.T. or ultrasounds. They measure the reflections of sound waves to examine the interior of structures without causing damage. Excavations have revealed these much more polished stones Air-filled anomalies. It is not the first time that this combination has been used at the site, since in 2023 a hidden corridor in the Great Pyramid of Cheops was confirmed using these techniques. And in Micerinos it has also worked. Specifically, two air-filled cavities located directly behind the area of ​​polished granite that van den Hoven observed. The Anomaly 1 It is a cavity located 1.4 meters deep from the eastern surface and would have dimensions of 1.5 meters wide by one meter high. The Anomaly 2 It starts at 1.13 meters deep and measures about 0.9 meters wide by 0.7 meters high. From the Technical University of Munich, the archaeologist Christian Grosse has stated that these techniques allow developing “very precise conclusions about the nature of the interior of the pyramid,” affirming that “the hypothesis of another entry is very plausible” and commenting that these results go in the direction of confirming said entry. The alleged cameras Next steps. Independent researchers who were not involved in the study have stated that the entrances to the pyramids from this era are located on the north face, but that further exploration will determine whether these voids are an anomaly, part of a second entrance as the ScanPyramids team suspects, or “something else.” Now, although these techniques allow us to recognize the interior very precisely, they cannot determine the extent of the cavities due to limitations in the penetration capacity of the tools. They have suggested that the next steps should go in the direction of using techniques such as infrared thermography or muon tomography with cosmic rays in order to have more precise information. Implications. In the end, all these works are supervised by the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, very interested in seeing them carried out. these discoveries (due to tourism issues) while complying with the standards of care for heritage research. Grosse comments that technology allows us to make discoveries that were unthinkable not so long ago and, when the analysis is completed and it is determined what those air-filled cavities are inside Mycerinos, it could transform the understanding we had until now of the architectural design of this 4,000-year-old monument. Images | ScienceDirect, TUM In Xataka | Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, there is one that we don’t know where it is. That makes her the most fascinating of all.

We believed that no open model could outperform GPT-5. A Chinese startup proves us wrong

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A Chinese startup called Moonshot just launched Kimi K2 Thinkinga gigantic open model with a trillion parameters that has done something that seemed almost impossible: surpass the best proprietary models from companies like OpenAI, Google or Anthropic. If we thought that “Open Source” models could never compete with GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 Pro or Claude, we were wrong. what has happened. This “AI laboratory” had already announced Kimi K2 in July with that gigantic size of one trillion parameters, but now they have released the “Thinking” version with that same size (32 billion active parameters, Mixture of Experts architecture). According to those responsible, the model is capable of maintaining stable use of agentic tools over between 200 and 300 sequential calls. Or what is the same: it can chain long sequences of actions autonomously and apparently without error. The best of all is not that: it is that it surpasses GPT-5 or Claude Sonnet 4.5 in various tests and costs much less than those models. The benchmarks. Those responsible for Moonshot explained how Kimi K2 Thinking achieves the highest scores in Humanity’s Last Exam (general knowledge, 44.9%) and BrowserComp (agent browsers, 60.2%). He is almost at Claude’s level in the SWE software development test, and is also almost the best in another of those benchmarks, LiveCodeBench v6. It is true that in some tests still slightly behind of its “western” rivals, but the achievement is spectacular. More benchmarks. Those responsible for Artificial Analysis have shown their first conclusions after evaluating it with various tests. Thus, they highlight its behavior in agentic tasks that simulate that the model is acting as a customer service agent. In this test it obtained 93% of the maximum, surpassing all its competitors by far (GPT-5 Codex High obtained 87%, for example). They will do more tests, but for now the prospects are fantastic. And on top of that, cheap. On CNBC indicate that training the model cost $4.6 million, a ridiculous figure considering that training proprietary models like GPT-5 It cost about 500 million dollars according to estimates. Using the Kimi K2 Thinking API is also very affordable: $0.6 per million tokens in and $2.5 per million tokens out. GPT-5 Chat costs $1.25/10 respectively, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3/15 respectively. The details. The model makes use of an INT4 quantization to improve its efficiency without compromising the precision and quality of its responses. Its context window—the “size” of the data we can enter when making prompts—is 256k, a relatively modest figure for large models but still notable. And as a good open model, we can download it to use locally… if we have a real monster at our disposal. The model weighs 594 GB, and for example joining two Mac Studio M3 Ultra It is possible to make it work locally relatively smoothly at about 15 t/s. Alibaba is behindyes. Although the model is developed by an independent startup called Moonshot, this firm has been financially supported by Alibaba, which is becoming an absolute powerhouse in this field. Already not only conforms with developing its own models, which are outstanding (Qwen is the clear example), but is also financing the development of other models such as Kimi K2/Thinking. China and its love for open AI models. During the last few months we have seen how China dominated in the field of open AI models —not “Open Source”—. The Asian giant has adopted an overwhelming philosophy with increasingly better models but which until now seemed to be several steps behind the large proprietary models of OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. This is no longer the case. The race is lively. This achievement represents a new vote of confidence for the open models coming from Chinese companies. It is true that they are huge and that makes it very difficult to use them in practice by end users, but they present an interesting alternative for companies. Image | idnaklss with Midjourney In Xataka | There are many “internal” races within the greater AI race. And Alibaba is winning Open Source

When Facebook launched its own Tinder we didn’t think it could succeed. we were wrong

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It was 2018 when Facebook announced Facebook Datingalthough it was not until 2020 when arrived in Spain. At that time, dating apps like Tinder had experienced a boom caused by the pandemic, but Facebook had been losing users for some time and the idea had already been established that it was a place for older people. Meta recently shared usage data for its dating service and they shut us up. 21.5 million. It is the number of daily active Facebook Dating users in the 52 countries in which the app is available. They count in NYTimeswhich surpasses Hinge in users, a very popular dating app especially in the United States that has 15 million users. It is the first time that Facebook has shared usage data for its dating service since its launch. Popular among young people. A Pew Center study published by TechCrunchconfirmed the exodus of young Facebook users, which went from 71% in 2014 to only 32%. The most surprising thing about Facebook Dating is that it is having success among the youngest people. According to data from Sensor Tower As of last year, Facebook Dating has at least 1.77 million users between the ages of 18 and 29 in the United States, which represented a growth of 24%. Free. Other apps such as Tinder, Bumble or Hinge have adopted subscription models through which users can enjoy advantages such as knowing who liked you before anyone else. This is free on Facebook Dating and is your main asset against your competitors. Tinder is the app that had the most paying users, but for years has been losing subscribers. They don’t need it. That Facebook does not charge us for using its dating service can be interpreted as a generous gesture, but the reality is that Meta’s income is astronomical. In the last quarter they entered 51,240 million, many of them thanks to the advertising they serve in their apps. Image | Gemini/Goal In Xataka | Meta does not have the most advanced AI of all, but it does have something much more important: a business plan

Everyone is developing chips that compete with NVIDIA’s. They are in the wrong race

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Qualcomm advertisement on Monday that it is working on AI accelerator chips, which means there will be new competition for NVIDIA. The company that dominates the AI ​​hardware landscape is seeing a large group of competitors try to erode that position, but the problem for all of these companies is not the chips, but something else. A CUDA call. what has happened. Qualcomm has announced the AI200 chip, which will begin selling in 2026, and the AI250, which will do so in 2027. Both will be able to work in rack-type systems that have liquid cooling. Qualcomm servers may have up to 72 chips based on the Hexagon NPUs of the company’s Snapdragon SoCs. Inference yes, training no. The company has revealed that its chips focus on inference (the execution of AI models) and not training. Their rack-based systems will have lower operating costs than cloud system providers, Qualcomm says. Each rack consumes 160 kW, a figure comparable to the consumption of some racks based on NVIDIA GPUs. There are no details about the price of these chips, the cards or the racks that will integrate them, nor about how many NPUs can be offered in each rack. What we do know is that Qualcomm’s accelerator cards will support up to 768 GB of memory, more than what NVIDIA or AMD offer in their current models. according to CNBC. Chips for third parties. The other important point is that Qualcomm will sell its AI chips and other components separately, allowing large AI companies to “customize” their own racks based on Qualcomm chips. It is an identical philosophy to the one they have adopted in the world of their mobile SoCs. Investors viewed the news with exceptional optimism, and Qualcomm shares rose 11% in Monday’s session. NVIDIA dominates with an iron fist. In the AI ​​chip segment, the king is NVIDIA. The company is the absolute protagonist of this market and according to CNBC it maintains a 90% market share, which has allowed it to skyrocket its valuation to 4.5 trillion dollars. That dominance could now be threatened by the avalanche of chips that are arriving from various manufacturers. All against NVIDIA. AMD has its excellent Instinct, Google has your TPUsAmazon their TrainiumMicrosoft their Maia and Huawei has your Ascend. All of them make really striking proposals for NVIDIA chips, and little by little these solutions are being integrated into more and more data centers. But the real problem is not in the hardware, but in the software. The great challenge is to defeat CUDA. The de facto standard in the AI ​​industry that developers use It’s CUDAa platform that allows you to take full advantage of the capabilities of NVIDIA chips in the field of artificial intelligence. This hardware+software combination is much more mature than that of its competitors, who have the hardware part resolved (or are on the right track) but do not have a platform comparable to CUDA. AMD has ROCmwhich is especially interesting because it is Open Source, but at the moment its features still do not reach those of CUDA. Reinvent the wheel? CUDA has been on the market for almost two decades, which means that the majority of academic research and pioneering models—such as ImageNet—were written for CUDA. It is not a language, it is a vast collection of libraries, optimized frameworks (like cuDNN), debugging tools and a huge community. Developing a competitor is basically like reinventing the wheel, and migrations are expensive and companies and startups will not have an easy time assuming it. China is also in the fight. And of course, if there is another great protagonist in this race, it is China. The Asian giant, previously dependent on NVIDIA, is seeking to get rid of this manufacturer, and along with the development of advanced AI chips they are also trying to have its own AI software to surpass CUDA. In Xataka | AI is the best thing happening to nuclear fusion. The construction of ITER is already accelerating

We thought dinosaurs were on the verge of extinction before the meteorite. we were wrong

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The most emblematic mass extinction in Earth’s history without a doubt occurred up to 66 million years ago. It marked the end of an era like the Cretaceousand with it, the disappearance of dinosaurs that were not birds. But what was that extinction really like? This is the big question that experts have asked themselves and that it is already beginning to have light. For decades the scientific community has debated whether dinosaurs were already in decline before they abruptly went extinct or whether they were wiped out while they were still thriving. This is where the new has had an impact published study in the magazine Science in which the Spanish researcher Jorge García-Girón from the University of León participates, who sheds light on this debate. Simply put, the research refutes the idea of ​​a prolonged decline and suggests that dinosaurs were diverse and divided into distinct ecological regions just before the asteroid impact. The fossils of the south. Much of the uncertainty about this issue comes from a bias in the fossil record. The only well-dated faunas that span the extinction boundary come from northern North America (in the famous Hell Creek Formation). This made it impossible to know whether the extinction pattern observed there was a global or local phenomenon. In this case, the research team focused on a fossil-rich unit much further south, in the San Juan basin of New Mexico, known as the Member Naashoibito. The age of this formation has been a matter of controversy for years and was often considered much older. But now by applying geochronology techniques with Argon dating and magnetostratiography, the study has finally achieved precise dating. The results are conclusive: the Naashoibito Member dates back to the latest Cretaceous, which corresponds to up to 66 million years. This means that the fossils found there, which include a variety of species, preserve some of the last known non-avian dinosaurs. They lived a maximum of 340,000 years before the asteroid impact and were contemporaries of the Hell Creek fauna. Separated by weather. This finding is crucial because, for the first time, it allows us to compare two different faunas from the same end of the Cretaceous. And the result refutes the idea that we had all about decline in our minds. And the study not only dates the fossils, but also uses powerful ecological models to analyze the diversity of terrestrial vertebrates throughout North America. The results show that, far from forming a homogeneous and cosmopolitan fauna, the dinosaurs maintained high diversity and clear endemism until the end. In other words, it can be said that the dinosaurs were “strong” and divided into distinct regional assemblages. In this case, the study identifies two clear bioprovinces in the north and south that remained stable during the late Cretaceous. What separated these faunas? The analysis suggests that the main factor was temperature. More than a simple geographic division, different dinosaur communities were adapted to different climates. For example, the data propose that warmer southern regions may have been more tolerable for sauropods, while colder, more temperate northern regions were more suitable for hadrosaurines. The conclusion. The sum of the evidence points directly to the fact that non-avian dinosaurs were abruptly annihilated at the end of the Cretaceous. They were not in a decline as was thought, so they did not have this factor on top of them that would already condemn them to extinction if the disastrous event on Earth had passed. Instead, it has been seen that its ecosystem was diverse and biogeographically compartmentalized. Extinction in this way was sudden and, as the later fossil record demonstrates, was followed almost immediately by the rapid diversification and rise of mammals. Images | Vaibhav Pixels In Xataka | A museum kept bones for 20 years that they thought were rubble. Now we know that Mexico had its own T-Rex

Something has gone wrong in the European automotive industry. The conflict over Nexperia already threatens to paralyze factories

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The European automotive industry is beginning to tighten. Manufacturers have received a clear signal that something is not right: Nexperia, one of the main chip suppliers, can no longer guarantee deliveries. Sector associations warn that the room for maneuver is very limited. This is not a technical problem or a strike, but rather the chain effect of an international dispute that threatens to affect the very foundations of a key industry for the Old Continent. It was on October 16 when the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) officially warned of possible production stoppages if the Nexperia supply interruption was not resolved immediately. According to ACEA, the affected chips are used in electronic control units and current inventories will only last a few weeks. The turning point: a blacklist. At the end of September there was a movement that many in the sector identify as the trigger for the current crisis. The United States Bureau of Industry and Security updated his List of Entities to extend restrictions to subsidiaries controlled by already sanctioned companies. Nexperia, owned by Wingtech, thus fell under the scope of the measures. Since then, tensions have accelerated: The Dutch Government intervened in the company and China responded by blocking the export of certain components. Now, Nexperia’s role in the automotive industry is less showy than that of the large chip manufacturers, but essential. Its chips are integrated into electronic modules and control units (ECUs) of many of the vehicles produced in Europe. The company, based in the Netherlands and with a strong presence in Asia, is characterized by its volume and reliability. Precisely for this reason, the inability to maintain deliveries has ignited both sides of the supply chain. The impact in Europe. Initial warnings have been transformed into contingency plans. ACEA calls for a coordinated response between European authorities and the affected countries, aware that the supply chain is going through a delicate point. In Germany, CNBC points outVolkswagen has formed a special team to evaluate possible risks and keep communications open with its suppliers. One of Nexperia’s facilities in Guangdong The company tries to gain margin with a new supplier. “We have an alternative supplier that could compensate for Nexperia’s lack of semiconductors,” explained to Handelsblatt Christian Vollmer, responsible for Production of the VW brand. According to the media, conversations with that company have been underway for weeks. Although the discovery gives some oxygen, the transition will not be immediate and the risk of interruptions remains on the table. The group assures that, for now, there is no operational impact, but they admit that the scenario could change in the short term. The echo crosses the Atlantic. Concern has also reached the United States. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which brings together manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen, called for a quick resolution of the conflict. Its CEO, John Bozzella, warned Reuters that if chip shipping “does not resume soon,” auto production “will be affected in the United States and other countries.” Some companies in the group recognize that their plants could notice the impact starting next month. Japan takes positions before the coup. Japan is also bracing for impact. The Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) explained that its members have received notifications from Nexperia warning of supply interruptions. According to the organization, the affected chips are part of the control systems of numerous models and their shortage could have consequences for global production. Mitsubishi Electric, which has had agreements with Nexperia since 2023, assured that it is already studying substitutes. A geopolitical board that is already sneaking onto the assembly line. The Nexperia case is no longer understood only as an industrial problem. The intervention of the Dutch Government and the confrontation with its Chinese subsidiary have turned the company into the new point of friction between Europe, Beijing and Washington. The Netherlands justified its decision by the need to protect the strategic supply of semiconductors, while China defended that its subsidiary acts in accordance with local legislation. At the center of the dispute, Nexperia is trying to maintain its activity under two increasingly opposing regulatory frameworks. The factories are on guard. The next few weeks will be decisive in measuring the real scope of the conflict. Manufacturers adjust their inventories and review alternative suppliers, while sector associations maintain diplomatic pressure to unblock the situation. From Sweden, Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson explained to the Financial Times thatalthough his company, owned by the Chinese group Geely, does not face immediate problems, “there will be some factories that will have to stop.” He believes that the key is to react quickly and apply the lessons learned from the semiconductor crisis during the pandemic. Images | Nexperia | Caesar Salazar In Xataka | I also carried the bike in the car anyway. Until the DGT reminded me that it could fine me 200 euros

In its race to make advanced chips, China has tried to copy ASML. It’s going wrong

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China continues to make extraordinary progress when it comes to manufacturing its own advanced chips, but it still has a big problem: it does not currently have manufacturing equipment. extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) own. Of course is working in the development of this technology, and one of the strategies it is following to overcome this challenge is unique… and almost obvious. Reverse engineering. In his 2010 book ‘Copycats’ Professor Oded Shenkar argued that it is often the case that imitators end up triumphing over innovators. Although in the West the view is the opposite, in China there is a positive view of copying and reverse engineering processes are an important tool to copy technologies. That is what the country has supposedly tried, as indicated in The National Interest (TNI). From producing for the world to producing for themselves. Already we review the conclusions from the book ‘Apple in China’, which is a perfect example of how by delegating production to China, Western companies have ended up contributing to the country’s development and its specialization. The trade war has logically made China now seek its independence in the face of the vetoes it is suffering from developing its own technological solutions. From UVP to UVE. There has already been significant progress in this area, and recently we counted as a Chinese manufacturer already has a prototype of a UVP machine (deep ultraviolet) for the creation of relatively advanced chips. If there is a crucial challenge to be able to create these even more advanced chips, it is power. have UVE photolithography machinesbut having that first problem solved is important to make the leap to EUV technology. And this is where something unique has been discovered. Let’s see how it works inside. As revealed in TNI, it has been revealed that China has been “caught” trying to reverse engineer a machine ASML UVP Photolithography. Not so much to mass produce these machines, sources indicate, but because Chinese technicians are trying to learn how they work in order to replicate them and, from them, develop more advanced machines and chips. It’s not broken just because. However, it seems that when disassembling one of these ASML systems, Chinese technicians damaged it. That made them notify the official ASML technicians to solve the problem. When they arrived, they discovered that the machine had not simply broken, but that the Chinese had tried to dismantle it and then reassemble it. ASML’s de facto monopoly. ASML’s UVE photolithography machines are considered the most complex and advanced in the world, and the truth is that today the Dutch company has a de facto monopoly with such systems. It is these machines that allow access to the production of the most advanced chips – such as those used in NVIDIA’s modern AI accelerators – and have become the true bottleneck of the semiconductor industry. Beyond the damaged machine. The incident reveals two crucial points. The first, Beijing’s extreme urgency to be able to control chip production from start to finish. The second is that the challenge of creating these machines goes beyond mere hardware copying: lithography systems require extraordinary technical mastery of components such as precision optics or materials science. Too many obstacles? China may have brilliant engineers, but ASML machines also have a highly specialized supply chain which undoubtedly makes it difficult for such a machine to be built entirely in China. A good example is Zeiss SMTthe German company that supplies the ultra-precision optical systems and mirrors needed for UVE and advanced UVP photolithography systems. A long way to go. This supposed problem reveals the difficulties that China is going through in order to have machines with advanced photolithographic technologies. At Nikkei Asia They were already talking in July about how complex it is to achieve a “Chinese ASML.” In this analysis they cited Didier Scemama, director of hardware research at BofA Global Research, who estimated that China still has years to achieve something like this. “It may take 5, 10, 15 years, we don’t know. Will it be competitive with what ASML does? It’s highly unlikely, but it will be good enough for China.” Image | Zeiss In Xataka | Holland has just declared war on China in the most important battle of the century: control of semiconductors

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