wrong

For centuries the Christians pilgrimage to a remote cave to venerate Salome. Problem: They were wrong with Salome

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There was a time, many centuries ago, in which Christians went to an old cave located in the Judea Lowlandsnear the village of Eliav, in search of inspiration. Over the years even a Sacred place For Islam. There (the remains of Salome were supposed to be, a biblical figure with echoes in the origins of Christianity. Some versions identified it as the midwife that attended the birth of Jesus. Others as one of his disciples and witness of the crucifixion. It is even said that she was Maria’s little sister. Now a group of Israeli archaeologists has reached a fascinating conclusion that relies on vestiges located years ago In the cave: I probably Salome that rested in his day in the crypt was neither the midwife nor disciple of Jesus, but an opulent and powerful aristocrat related to Herod. In a place of Judea … The Salomé cave is a wide sepulcher located in Sefeláthe lowlands of Judea, with an exceptional archaeological value. In fact there are those who consider it one of the funeral caves “More impressive” discovered in Israel and “More elaborate” of his time, the known as period of the Second templewhich extended between the centuries VI AC and I DC Specifically, experts believe that the crypt built between the I AC and I DC The cave itself is no novelty. The archaeologists excavated it decades ago, in the mid -80s, after they were located. Throughout the last years, however, they have expanded our knowledge about the grave. By 2022 A group of experts from Israel Antiquies Authority (IAA) made an excavation in part of the enclosure that revealed new data on its architecture and history. He also confirmed that for several centuries that remote Cave of Sefelá was used as a veneration space. And how is it? Wide. Elaborate. And fascinating. The archaeological set includes a lobby, a large patio surrounded by silry stone walls and a funeral cave with several cameras in which they were preserved Kokhimfuneral niches excavated in the rock, in addition to ossuaries. Although archaeologists studied the thorough crypt in the 80s, a few years ago they wanted to go further, analyzing in depth The 350 m2 courtyard and cleaning the inside of the cave. “The patio turned out to be one of the most elaborate of its kind compared to other cemeteries of the same period,” he says An article Posted by the IAA. Among other things, experts met stones with Jewish motifs and “delicate plant designs,” such as rosettes, grenades and acanthus vases. Nothing to do with most access courtyards to funeral caves found by archaeologists, who are usually excavated, not raised with masonry. Cave … and pilgrimage place. If the grave is so relevant, it is not only because of its size, architectural characteristics or decoration. There is another equal or even more relevant factor. For a while the cave was a pilgrimage place. During their excavations of 2022 and 2023 in the front courtyard, archaeologists discovered a row of positions in which clay lamps were sold and rented. “We find hundreds, complete and broken, dating from the eighth centuries and IX DC”, They explain Nir Shimshon-Paran and Zvi-Fire, directors of the excavation. “The lamps may have served to illuminate the cave or as part of religious ceremonies, similar to the candles that are distributed today in the tombs and churches,” They add. In the cave, Greek, Syriac and Arab inscriptions, recorded crosses and indications that reveal that the funeral space remained in use during the Byzantine and Islamic periods were also located. “The excavations show that, in the Byzantine period, the site had become a place of Christian pilgrimage,” experts say, which tells us about a wide period of worship that covers from the 5th century to the IX DC DC The cave of Salome. The question was obvious … Who belonged to the funeral cave? Who rested in his day in the crypt? And why the archaeologists found crosses and dozens of inscriptions recorded directly on the rocks of the walls? The answer is both simple and complex: the Sefelá cave was the resting place of ‘Salomé’. Among the inscriptions in different languages, archaeologists identified several in Greek that mention that same name, ‘Salomé’, supposedly a religious figure relevant to Christians. In An article Published this year on the sepulcher, IAA experts remember that, in the 1090s, the scholars that analyzed the inscriptions have already concluded that the first monks who arrived in the cave in the Byzantine period discovered an ossary with the inscription ‘Salomé’, a relatively frequent name in the Judea of the beginning of the beginning of Christianity. “During the second temple period it was not common Explain Paran to The Times of Israel. “It is possible that the cave contained an ossuary with the name of Salome, although we did not find it. It could have been looted.” So … who was the famous Salome? The midwife of Jesus? A tradition attributes that name to a figure that appears in it Protoevangelio de Santiagoapocryphal text in which a Salomé is cited as a midwife that doubted the virginity of Mary. The story tells that his disbelief earned him a punishment that ended up turning it into a symbol. “According to the Christian tradition, Salome was the midwife of Bethlehem who was called to attend the birth of Jesus. He could not believe that they asked him to participate in the birth of a virgin and his hand dried. He only healed when he held the baby’s crib,” Remember From the IAA. Other versions They place Salome as a disciple of Jesus, Mary’s sister or has even confused her with the mother of Santiago and Juan. “The cult of Salomé, sanctified by Christianity, belongs to a broader phenomenon: the Christian pilgrims of the 5th century found and sanctified Jewish places. The name Salome could have appeared in ancient times in one of the alter’s already disappeared from the tomb and thus the tradition … Read more

Mercedes wanted to jump into the electric car in record time and is clear that they were wrong

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Four years now meet. It was a summer of 2021 when Mercedes launched his ordinance: in 2030 they would be an exclusively electric brand. They wanted to do it by building eight gigafactories to go out to their electric cars and batteries. Today they are clear that they were wrong. “They will last more than expected”. “We have changed the course, electrified combustion engines will last more than expected.” They are the words of Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes, in Auto Motor Und Sport Confirming what was an A Voca Secret: Mercedes will not fulfill the deadlines planned in the electric car. The company, therefore, will continue to bet on combustion engines that are key. It is not that he was going to withdraw overnight but that self -imposed obligation of being electric in 2030 led them to significantly reduce their offer until they focus exclusively on the electric car. Two symptoms (1). Although he had been rumored for a long time and in winter Mercedes already said that “There was too much optimism in the industry”there are two great symptoms that came to tell us clear that the time of combustion engines had not died. The first was The failure of EQS as flag bearer of the electric car in the company. The great electric Berlina, “the electric class” has been a failure and confirmed that the customer of a luxury car continues to bet mostly on combustion. Time will say if it is something exclusively linked to the autonomy or there is also a certain political positioning behind. The truth is that the company took advantage of the car to give a wash in the face of the image, sell the maximum refinement with the latest technology and its most advanced software with a Hyperscreen that surprised by groundbreaking. The truth is that the Mercedes client has continued to prefer the most classic class S. Two symptoms (2). The second symptom that advanced that Mercedes had changed course was given by its AMG sports division. The wealthy customer is especially complicated to convince when it comes to electrifying the fleet. To meet the European demands, Mercedes opted in its sports division for A four hybrid cylinders and although He got 680 hpcars that have mounted it have failure in sales. The solution has gone to return to these luxury cars the V8 engines. The company confirmed that will continue working on them And although they will be electrified, the potential car customer of more than 100,000 euros and extremely sports seem to continue asking for huge engines. It is no accident that, in his day, BMW already announced that he would continue to focus efforts on developing combustion engines. Specifically in those of six and eight cylinders. If you want gasoline, you pay it. Everything indicates that, as will happen with lower ranges, we will begin to see Two product categories clearly differentiated in Europe. Pollution policies will lead us to see An extensive electrification (with plug and electrical hybrids) in the low and medium range and a fence to the Combustion engines in the most expensive or luxury offer. In the case of Mercedes, everything indicates that they will continue to develop combustion engines but fenced to their most unattainable offer or Markets where hurry With the electric car are not so many. The confirmation that, in addition to the V8 for AMG, also They will continue selling the huge V12 Limited to the Maybach versions of its class S is a good example. But it is also that Mercedes has focused on “democratizing” its electric cars. He Electric Mercedes It will not be the cheapest car but the German company does want it to become its first great super electric success. And the formula is clear: improve the autonomy. “Rational”. For Källenius, in addition, this strategy is the most “rational.” Yes, the same one that Toyota has been holding so far, to sell the most demanded technology where they ask or let it sell. That is why they continue to focus on hybrids but ensure that the electric car will be key … in Europe. And Källenius knows that multienergy strategy helps them stay afloat. Its hybrid mechanics and huge engines will continue to be key in the United States and in Europe (who can pay it), while needing competitive electric cars in China. “It is our most important and crucial market for our technical innovations,” CEO himself pointed out from Mercedes a few months ago. A product that passes not only through the engine. Here, the latest generation software is essential because without it they do not think they can compete in China. They are aware that “Chinese clients not only use the car to move from A B. For many, it is also a second living room.” And there Mercedes needs to make differences if he does not want to star in a free fall. One that has already begun. Photo | Mercedes In Xataka | The Mercedes Class wanted to overcome the discomforts of the electric car. It is incompatible with a multitude of loaders

We have a big problem with AI agents: 70% of the time are wrong

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The AI agents They fail more than a fair shotgun. That’s at least what reveals A recent study of researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Duke. These experts have analyzed the behavior of several of them and put them to the test to check if this is a “much noise and few nuts.” AND At the moment it is. Inspiration. Graham Neubig, professor of CMU, explained In The Register how inspiration had been A 2023 article of OpenAi. It talked about what types of work could be replaced by AI systems, but as he said “his methodology was basically asking Chatgpt if those works could be automated.” In that study they wanted to verify it by asking various AI agents to try to complete tasks that theoretically carry out professionals of those works. In Xataka Everything begins by asking a thing to an AI. When the AI ​​is asked for others, chaos begins Theagentcompany. To carry out their study, the researchers created a fictitious company they called The Agent Company and they used it so that different agricultural models tried to complete various tasks. These systems should be able to use access to several services such as Gitlab, Owncloud or Rocketchat to carry out these works, but their performance was disappointing. 70% errors. The researchers used two trial environments called Openhands Codeact and Owl-Roleplay and in them they were testing the most important AI models today. The best of all of them is Claude Sonnet 4, which managed to solve 33.1% of the proposed tasks. Behind are Claude 3.7 Sonnet (30.9%), Gemini 2.5 Pro (30.3%) and, much further, disastrous GPT-4O (8.6%), call-3.1-405b (7.4%), QWEN-2.5-72B (5.7%) or Amazon Nova Pro V1.0 (1.7%). In the best case the models can complete 30% of the requested tasks, but they fail in 70%. Or what is the same: a lot of noise and few nuts according to these benchmarks. Unable agents. During these tests the researchers observed various types of failure in these tasks processes. Thus, there were agents refusing to send a message to colleagues who were part of the task, there were also agents unable to manage popup windows during navigation sessions, and even agents who cheated or cheated. In one of the cases, they highlighted, an agent who had to consult a person in Rocketchat (an alternative Open Source a Slack) did not find it, so “he changed the name to another user to give him the user with whom he had to contact.” But they are improving. Even with those problems, the evolution is being positive in the performance of these AI agents. Neubig and his team tested a software agent that was able to solve about 24% of the tasks involved web navigation, programming and some related tasks. Six months later they tested a new version and achieved 34% of completed tasks. {“Videid”: “X8HJ0VY”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “Chatgpt: What you did not know what you could do | tricks”, “Tag”: “”, “Duration”: “790”} Imperfect but useful. Not only that: these researchers pointed out that even failing so much, AI agents can remain useful. In certain contexts, such as programming, a partial code suggestion with which to solve a certain fragment of a program can end up being the basis of a solution in which the developer can then work. Care where you use them. But of course, agents make so many mistakes can be a problem in scenarios more sensitive to these problems. Thus, if we commission an agent who writes Correos and sends them to incorrect people, the result could be a disaster. There are solutions in sight, such as the growing adoption of Model Context protocol (MCP) that facilitates the interaction between services and AI models so that communication is much more precise and these errors can be mitigated during the autonomous execution of tasks. A benchmark that makes the AI ​​models look bad. For this expert one of the great disappointments is that companies that develop AI models do not seem interested in using it as a metric to improve their developments. Neubig suspected that “perhaps it is too difficult and makes them look bad.” It is something similar to what happens With the benchmark arc -ag2: It is such a difficult test for the IAS that today The best of all models of which they try to overcome it is o3, which achieves – a 3% of completed tasks. In Salesforce they coincide. That previous study is complemented With another realized by a group of Salesforce researchers. They created their own benchmark specifically aimed at verifying how various AI models would be checked when controlling typical tasks in a CRM like those developed by the firm. His project, called Crmarena-Pro, tests those AI agents in areas such as the Sales or Support Department. In Xataka If the question is whether IA is already as good as human intelligence, the answer is: solves this puzzle To replace workers, nothing. In their conclusions, these researchers reveal how the AI ​​models “achieve globally modest success rates, typically around 58% in scenarios with a single shift (execution), but with the yield significantly degrading approximately 35% in multiturn scenarios.” In fact, they explained, “agents are not generally prepared or have the essential qualifications for complex tasks.” The risk of some experts, with A great impact of AI on various jobsit seems precipitated. A complicated future. To these discreet results, the prediction of the Gartner consultant is joined. According to your studiesmore than 40% of the development agents projects will end up being canceled at the end of 2027. The main person responsible for the report, Anushree Verma, indicated that “at present, most of the agricultural projects are experiments or tests of concept in the initial phase, mainly driven by advertising already often badly applied.” The message is clear: there are too many expectations in relation to AI agents, but the current state of technology shows that today its application is problematic and limited. Image … Read more

Spacex has finally made public why the last Starship exploded. All rumors were wrong

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White and in bottle? Milk. Two Consecutive starships that exploit In the same flight phase, practically in the same minute, in similar ways? Anyone would say that there was a common cause, but it was not so. Context. Spacex has shed light on the explosive loss of Starship During his eighth test flight on March 6. After successfully capturing the Super Heavy propeller, all expectations were set on the ship, which in the previous launch had failed during the ascent phase. After a successful separation and before reaching the necessary altitude to turn off, Spacex detected a flash near one of the central engines of the ship, followed by an “energy event” that made the engine disappear. Shortly after, two other central engines and one of the outer vacuum engines went out, which caused the ship to lose control nine and a half minutes after takeoff. The Starship 34 He disintegrated About the Caribbean. They were not the vibrations. After two consecutive explosions, everyone assumed that the problem had been the same. On flight 7, Starship 33 was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after takeoff Because of stronger vibrations than expected, that had caused leaks of liquid oxygen and a fire In a non -pressurized area of ​​the lower part of the ship, which Spacex calls the “stern attic”. But it has not been so. “Although the ruling manifested himself at a point similar to that of the seventh flight, it is worth noting that they are clearly different,” Spacex wrote in a recent statement. “The mitigations implemented after flight 7 to solve the problems of harmonic response and flammability of the ship operated by design as planned,” added the company. What arose was a new problem. What happened on flight 8. According to the Spacex statement, the most likely cause of the loss of the ship during the eighth flight was “a hardware failure in one of the central raptor engines of the upper stage of the rocket, which resulted in a mixture and ignition not deliberate of propellents.” In essence, a engine component failed, causing a fuel leak and mixture (liquid methane) with oxidant (liquid oxygen). The consequent explosion destroyed the engine and committed the survival of the ship. Both problems originated in the lower part or stern of Starship, but the failure of flight 7 occurred in the “attic”, and that of flight 8 in the “basement”, the motor bay. All ready for flight 9. To address this new ruling for the ninth flight, Spacex has implemented reinforcements in key starship 35 joints, a new nitrogen purge system and improvements in the propellant drainage system. Later, he plans to introduce the new generation of Raptor 3 engines, with a complete redesign that addresses this type of problem. If there are no more delays, The ninth flight will take off this Tuesday, May 27 At 18:30, local time in Starbase (1:30 on Wednesday in Spain). It will be The first to reuse a super heavy propeller; Specifically, Booster 14, which flew in the seventh mission. The ship, on the other hand, will try again the objectives not achieved on flights 7 and 8, such as the deployment of eight Starlink satellit simulators and multiple reentry experiments. Image | Spacex In Xataka | “ELON, please, come back”: a week after the ninth launch of Starship, something is not going well at SpaceX headquarters

We thought we had solved the mystery of the giant “trees” of the Paleozoic. We couldn’t be more wrong

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More than a century ago, when the first known fossils of Prototaxitesintuition said that it should be the remains of a tree. Decades of study revealed to paleontologists that this fossil did not belong to a plant, so everything seemed to indicate that it was an immense fungus. Now a new study has reopened this unknown. Neither plant nor fungus. The study in question has revived the discussion About the nature and taxonomy of Prototaxitesprehistoric beings that so far the catalog scientific consensus as fungi. The involvement of “taking out” these beings from the evolutionary branch of fungi is that perhaps these beings belonged to an extinct and unknown branch of the tree of evolution. 400 million years ago. What we do know about Prototaxites For the fossil registry, it is that being trafficking with organisms that were alive towards the middle of the Paleozoic era, does Between 420 million and 375 million years. These beings had a more or less cylindrical structure, similar to a trunk and stood up to eight meters above the sky with a diameter that the subway could reach. These measures and their age make them one of the first large beings of those of which we have record in the fossil registry. The debate on the nature of these prehistoric living beings seemed to mid -2000s. It was then that an analysis revealed that the Prototaxites They did not obtain their carbon from photosynthesis, as is the case of plants, but obtained from other living organisms, as fungi do. Rhynie Chert. The new study that reopens the case It now contributes tests that this being did not belong to the kingdom of fungi and focuses on one of the known species of this genus, Taiti prototaxites. The team resorted to the fossils found at the Rhynie Chert site in Scotland. This site contains not only fossil remains of this species, but also of fungal species and others belonging to other kingdoms of nature. Similarities and differences. The new analysis of the fossils of this species ran into some similarities with fungal structures such as those that could be expected. However, despite having tubular internal structures similar to those of fungi, these tubes in P. Taiti They branched and linked in a different way from what they could expect. That was not, however the strangest detail. The analysis did not detect in fossils evidence of the products that are associated with the presence of chitina, a compound present in the cell walls of all contemporary fungi and that we know was also present in prehistoric fungi. They found that the chemical “firm” was more similar to that left behind by lignin, a polymer that we associate with vascular plants. The study has been published for now draft In the repository Biorxivso the standardized scrutiny of peer review has not yet passed. So what? This detail implies that we must extreme caution when drawing conclusions from the study we have in front. Even so, the signing team of the study outlines in this its conclusions, in principle preliminary. In his study, the team concludes that “the morphology and the molecular footprint of P. Taiti It is clearly different from that of fungi and other organisms preserved with it in Rhynie Chert, and we suggest that it is better considered a member of a group not described and totally extinct of eukaryotes. ” In Xataka | An amateur fossil search engine is behind a curious finding: vomiting of the dinosaurs era Image | Іщн

Physicists believed that this quantum phenomenon was impossible. They were very wrong

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This appointment of Richard FeynmanNobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to quantum electrodynamics and one of the most admired scientists of the twentieth century, condenses very well The complexity of quantum physics: “If you think you understand it, you don’t really understand quantum physics.” Quantum mechanics study the laws that govern The world of the very smallof the particles, as well as the interactions to which the atomic and subatomic structures are exposed. Most of these rules are radically different from the laws we have become familiar with in the world in which we live. In the macroscopic world. Many physicists have spent the last century trying to understand how known quantum phenomena work, and also striving to identify unknown quantum rules. The problem is that working with the extremely small, with the particles, is very difficult. However, this does not mean that they are not successful. To hunt and capture the elusive transition of super -artedia Physicists Klaus Hepp and Elliott H. LIEB predicted in 1973 a quantum phenomenon known as super -transiant phase transition. For more than half a century the scientific community has worked out without success to find evidence to protect the existence of this mechanism beyond mere theory. But everything changed on April 4. That day a group of researchers from Rice University, in Texas (USA); the University of Shanghai (China); NASA’s National Laboratory (USA) or the National University of Singapore, among other scientific institutions, published an article in Scienceadvances in which he explains the procedure he has used to experimentally observe this quantum phenomenon so elusive. Understanding what is the transition of super -transiant phase and all its implications is not simple, but we can get a rather precise idea about what this mechanism consists of if we observe it as a sudden change in a particle system that causes many of them begin to behave in a coordinated way. When this phenomenon does not occur, atoms interact in a weak way and behave in a disorganized way, but when the super -artary phase transition arises, they synchronize and exhibit the same behavior, giving rise to a new state of matter. When the super -transiant phase transition arises the atoms are synchronized and exhibit the same behavior The most surprising thing is that this new state gives the material unusual properties from a macroscopic point of view. The researchers who have mentioned some lines above have managed to carry out the first direct observation of this mechanism. And they have succeeded by triggering the transition in a glass composed of erbium, iron and oxygen subjected to a temperature of −271.7 degrees Celsius. In addition, they exposed it to a magnetic field of no less than 7 teslas, so it was more than 100,000 times more intense than the magnetic field of the Earth. What they pursued was to induce the transition of super -transiant phase by coupling the spin of the particles. And they succeeded. The spin is an intrinsic property of The elementary particleslike the electric charge, derived from its time of angular rotation. The first experimental evidence that endorsed its existence It arrived in 1922 Thanks to the experiments of German physicists Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach, although scientists did not begin to understand the nature of this very important property of elementary particles until a few years later. The reason why it is not easy to understand precisely what the spin is because it is a quantum phenomenon, so it is not quite correct to describe it as a conventional rotation movement in space. Even so, the description that I have proposed in the previous paragraph is usually used for a didactic purpose because it helps us to intuit without too much effort what we are talking about. In any case, the most interesting thing is that the transition of super -transiant phase opens the door to the next generation of quantum technologies. This is the really important thing. According to physicists involved in this experiment, this mechanism can be used to put quantum sensors endowed with a much higher sensitivity than those currently available. And it can also be used to produce more robust cubits for Quantum computers. Sounds good. I hope your predictions are fulfilled. Image | Generated by Xataka with Dall-e More information | Scienceadvances In Xataka | CERN has achieved something unprecedented: transform smartphones sensors into an antimatter chamber

We thought they were the red color in a galaxy he indicated that he was dead. There are those who believe we are wrong

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A simple and useful way of knowing if a galaxy is old or if on the contrary it is full of new star formations is in its color. The rule is simple: the most reddish galaxies are usually older; The most bluish, young. Young and red. Now a researcher at the University of Missouri has raised a third waythe possible existence of reddish but still alive colored galaxies, that is, in the process of forming new stars. Among other implications, this could mean that our universe forms even more stars than we thought. Red or blue. Galaxies are usually categorized according to the color of their stars. Blue stars usually shine with more force for less time, so when the blue tones predominate we know that new stars are still forming. The stars with warmer tones resist more so when a galaxy dies, that is, when it stops creating new stars, these more reddish stars are what remains. However, there is something that escapes us in this hypothesis. According to Charles Steinhardt, author of the new study, this model raises certain inconsistencies, for example in the ratios between stellar masses and masses of black holes, and enters the initial mass functions of red and blue galaxies. What if they are not dead? In An article Posted in the magazine The Astrophysical JournalSteinhardt raises the existence of a different category, red and young galaxies. The key would be in the fact that in these galaxies, the stars formed would be of less dough and that therefore, also the youngest would shine with reddish tones. “The red -star formants mainly produce little dough stars, which would make them look red despite the permanent births of stars,” Explain in a press release Steinhardt. Birth and fusion. One of the keys to this hypothesis is in the post-stallid galaxies (Post-Starburst). The galaxies can go from being young stars producing to lifeless galaxies in two ways. The first, through a slow and natural evolution; the second, after a burst of stars (Starburst). When two galaxies collide, the subject of both meets, accelerating the accumulation process that gives rise to new stars. This makes the galaxy go through a stage of rapid stars formation, a stage that leaves the galaxy without fuel. In his hypothesis, Steinhardt raises the possibility, that some of these galaxies have been forming red and small stars from the beginning, and not being the result of a burst. This possibility would imply, Explainhave to reclassify some of the galaxies we know. More stars. The new hypothesis postulates that red galaxies continue to create new stars which in turn implies that our universe produces even more stars than those we believed. “The existence of these galaxies can mean that the universe has formed a significantly greater number of stars than before,” Steinhardt defends. The galaxies are complex formations and we may still notice important details about them. Details such as the details of their life cycles, adds the researcher. In Xataka | The James Webb has found a galaxy when the universe was 330 million years old. Hide an entire enigma Image | Este/Hubble & Nasa, J. Kalirai, A. Milone

The aid seemed the only way to sell electric cars. Germany is demonstrating that we were wrong

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Electric car sales do not take off without state aid. And it has logic if we take into account that we are talking about a technology that forces the driver to Make some adaptation And, according to what cars we buy, force him to plan your trips. The electric car has many advantages. In Spain, with current prices and rates, an electric car can be much cheaper That one of combustion shortly time. In fact, The more trips and kilometers dothe car comes out. To this we must add the advantages Undoubted for day to day such as the absence of vibrations, of noise, the comfort of having the entire torque to a throttle pedal … but they are advantages that the client has to discover and that it is normal that it does not encourage it when the disbursement will be of tens of thousands of euros. To foster change, states have focused on giving purchase aid. It is a good way to lower the price and leave it at a cost closer to combustion models, especially when electric were sensibly more expensive than gasoline or diesel. They are decisions for which the reference countries have opted in the electric car market. He did it Norway, he did (and he does) China And Germany did it. And the German case showed us that without purchase aid, Electric car sales are deflated… or deflated. Because they have grows again. What if we have been looking at the wrong place? Direct aid to purchase At the end of 2023 justice forced Germany to withdraw aids to the purchase of electric cars. The reason is that funds had been diverted to combat the crisis derived from the coronavirus to the promotion of the electric car. Without destiny for that money, the government had preferred to reinvest it in the game of electric mobility. For justice, this was illegal and therefore I ordered the aid to immediately withdraw. Overnight, aid fell to the purchase that extended to all cars up to 65,000 euros. Last year, in 2024, a reduction in subsidies was already expected but buyers could expect a mattress of 4,500 euros in cars of up to 40,000 euros and 3,000 euros in which a price of between 40,000 and 65,000 euros appears. The help was complemented by manufacturers with 2,250 euros and 1,500 euros, respectively. That is, savings in the first case could be up to 6,750 euros and in the second of up to 4,500 euros. Figures similar to those we see in Spain with the MOVES III PLANrecently reimputed until the end of the year or exhaust the funds available. Last year, the fall in electric car sales was considerable. In its first year of direct aid to the purchase, Germany enrolled 27.4% less electric cars. A blow to European accounts with the main electric car market by volume falling from 524,219 tuition from 2023 to 380,609 units enrolled in 2024. By market share, the German electric car fell from 18.4% to 13.5%. However, everything has changed in these first months of 2025. They collect in Motorpasion than the 17% of cars Enrolled in Germany are electric. Compared to the month of March of last year, 35.5% have been grown and the trend indicates that it will continue to grow. It is very good news because they lack direct aid to the purchase of cars of this type. What the State is doing is to encourage the purchase of this type of fleet cars. Companies can deduce up to 40% of the value of the car in the purchase of new cars. A decision that has triggered sales since company vehicles reflect 67% of new car registration in Germany. The strategy is not new in Europe and focuses on the importance of aid beyond lowering the price of cars. In Norway, they stood out that if they have made the electric car Your best selling technology It has been because for years they have given themselves constant subsidies related to the property of the electric car. Not paying some taxes or road toll have been definitive attractive for implementation. Yes indeed, 1.8 billion euros have been raised. Belgium has been the other great country where the electric car has exploded in sales in recent months. In Belgium they already exceed 30% quota electric car market. Last year, to February 2024, they exceeded 20% market share and in 2022 they barely exceeded 8%. The secret is in the aids that, again, are given to companies. Depending on income, a company can be deduced up to 100% of the electric car fee. The percentage will fall over the years but prevent maintaining this economic incentive until 2031. In Bloomberg They explain that in a country where the company car is usually used as an incentive when changing work, promoting the purchase of this type of cars is key to popularize them and reach sectors that did not expect to make the leap for a few years (or did not expect it at all, as one of those interviewed in the article recognizes). The strategy contrasts with the one we have been carrying so far in Spain. Our country has also joined the delivery of purchase aids but, in addition to not being direct at the time of signing the contract, Each extension It has been a birth. The suspension for two months In the last extension of the Moves III Plan it has been the best example. Photo | Volkswagen In Xataka | The electric car is sweeping so much in China that the natural step is already raised: stop calling it “electric”

West believed that mines and conventional artillery were the past. Ukraine has shown that they were wrong

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They have been Several occasions in which the conflict after the Russian invasion in Ukraine seemed Go back to the pastat an era where technology did not dominate the battlefield, but the human through it. The effect of what has happened to east of Europe begins to have its echoes on several nations of the old continent. Conventional artillery and mines, for decades considered obsolete, have seen A resurgence That nobody seemed to glimpse, and now everyone wants to rearm. A return to the past. As we said, the conflict in Ukraine has radically reconfigured Western understanding about The modern warrevealing the validity of weapons that for a long time were forgotten as vestiges of the past. Antipersonnel minesheavy artillery and non -guided ammunition have reappeared as key elements In a type of war that NATO and European armies had stopped planning: the large -scale land war. For years, Western powers imagined the conflicts of the 21st century as technological, rapid and surgical clashes, starring reduced units and high precision weapons systems. It happens that the Ukrainian realitywith their stagnant fronts and prolonged fighting For territorial control, those assumptions have denied sharply. The Treaty of Ottawa and Las Mines. In fact, one of the most visible effects of this doctrinal turn has been the decision of several European countries to abandon the Ottawa treaty of 1997, the same that prohibited the use, production and sale of antipersonnel mines. Who is it? Finland was the last In reverting his adhesion, adding to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who had already announced their departure. These nations, all neighbors of Russia or in their area of ​​geopolitical influence, are actively preparing for undermine its bordersin an attempt to contain a possible Moscow military offensive. The reasons are clearly clear: the Use of mines in Ukraine It has demonstrated its effectiveness not only to stop advances, but to channel enemy troops to areas where they can be faced with greater guarantees of success. It is a territorial defense tactic that resurfaces in a conventional war context, precisely when it was believed to be overcome. Artillery and unburgated ammunition, the resurgence. While the guided missile systems provided by NATO face problems in the face of the Russian capacities of Electronic interferencetraditional artillery, with simple and cheap projectiles, has charged New prominence. These ammunition, not depending on electronic signals, are immune to blockages or technological sabotages. In addition, combined with modern surveillance tools (such as drones that identify real -time objectives), they have become extraordinarily lethal. Ukraine, in fact, has taken advantage of this synergy, adapting old technologies to the new battlefield. The result has been a war that advances very little in terms of territory, but that consumes huge amounts of projectiles and requires a sustained production that Europe was not prepared to assume. Europe and industrial career. On the other sidewalk, the paradigm shift has exposed the fragility of war production capacities in Europe, although that is not quite news when the old continent has already talked about rearming. A report by the Royal United Services Institute criticized European governments for Trust blindly in which the private sector would solve the manufacturing needs of ammunition without having offered them incentives or favorable regulations. This omission has had serious consequences: according to General Christopher CavoliSupreme Comandante Allied with NATO in Europe, Russia is on the way to accumulate projectile reserves three times higher to those of the United States and Europe together. He imbalance is alarmingespecially considering that the Ukrainian conflict does not show short -term resolution signs and that the current levels of ammunition consumption are unsustainable without an industrial restructuring. Russia’s mirror. In this regard and According to CavoliRussia currently produces 250,000 artillery projectiles per month, which leads it to build that arsenal three times greater than the United States and Europe. Not just that. Cavoli’s testimony underlines a crucial point: while Russia is perceived in the West bogged down In a wear war, its defense machinery He has managed to adaptgrow and, in some aspects, strengthen in full conflict. Moscow has been recovering its arsenals on all fronts (from ammunition to armored vehicles and troops), which strongly contrasts with the logistics and production difficulties faced by their adversaries. The estimate of Cavoli points to an annual manufacture of 1,500 tanks by Russia, in front of the 135 produced by the United States. In the last year, Russian troops would have lost Approximately 3,000 tanks9,000 armored vehicles, 13,000 artillery systems and more than 400 air defense systems, but would be completely replaced, keeping their land projection capacity intact. Planning errors. Experts like Paul van Hooft, from the Think Tank Rand Europe, They explained to Insider that this lag is a direct consequence of three decades of strategic planning focused on asymmetric wars. Since the September 11 attacks, NATO designed its military operations thinking of insurgencies, terrorism and irregular forces, where neither heavy artillery nor mines seemed to have practical utility. That vision led, according to the analyst, to the dismantling of traditional arsenals and the abandonment of terrestrial war doctrines, especially in Western Europe. However, the current conflict demands precisely opposite: territorial defense, sustained occupation of broad areas and classical deterrence capacity. The balance between the future and the past. Mark Cancan, from Center for Strategic and International Studies, stressed that prolonged wars, once stabilized the front lines, make weapons such as artillery and mines not only useful, but dominant. While drones, artificial intelligence and other innovations continue to perform An important roledo not replace the volume of fire or logistics resistance that allow sustaining an offensive or defending a position for months. In this regard, Cancan warns against excess confidence in futuristic war visions, many of them promoted by startups technological ones that compete to attract funds from the new defense budgets. Faced with this, the evidence seems to show that, at least for now, the war remains a matter of volume, physical resources and conventional abilities well managed. Ironically, if … Read more

After two catastrophic failures, we believed that Spacex would not risk with the next starship. We were wrong

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Starship’s next flight will be one of the most tense in the history of the rocket. Not only because the last two releases will end in paths explosions and with deviated airplanes to avoid the rain of rubble. Also because it will be the first time that Spacex reuse a rocket. Zero-Touch reflight. In addition to a 123 meters high mole, Starship is the first rocket designed to be quickly reusable. Spacex’s idea is that Starship takes off, lands and throws himself again after a few hours, as if it were a commercial plane. The company has partially advanced in this Objective of “Zero-Touch Desflight” or relaunch without intervention. The first stage of the rocket, the 33 -engines Super Heavy propeller, has landed in the arms of the launch tower three times: Booster 12 in flight test 5, Booster 14 in flight test 7 and Booster 15 in flight test 8. It was planned that the second stage of the rocket, the six -engines Starship ship, would make its first landing attempt during flight 9. To do this, the earth would orbit and re -enter the atmosphere until they perch on the arms of the second launch tower; Already finished in Starbase, Texas. However, the last two starship exploded at 8 minutes of takeoff For a defect in a redesign recent. A second -hand super heavy. The expected thing was that Spacex was taken calmly to flight 9 to compensate for the last failures, but the company has just announced a surprising decision. The next launch, scheduled for mid -April (if the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States is approved), will be done reusing the booster 14 of flight 7. This propeller first took off on January 16, 2025 and, after separating from the Starship ship, returned to the launch base to become the second Super Heavy that Spacex has captured with the arms of the Mechazilla tower. Of the 33 Raptor engines that you will wear during your second launch, 29 are already used engines. Another rocket that lands and takes off. The only orbital rocket with demonstrated capacity for propulsive landing is the Falcon 9 of Spacex. Specifically, its first stage, which usually lands in an autonomous barge in the ocean after throwing satellites or spacecraft. A few weeks later, you are ready to reuse (Generally, in Starlink missions). The second rocket to get it could be Starship, also from Spacex. Not in the “Zero-Touch reflight” mode, but after a restoration process and changing some engines, but it is a first step. And in fact, it is a step that nobody else has achieved apart from Spacex. The company that is closest is Blue Origin, who tried unsuccessfully on the opening flight of the New Glenn rocket. In China, Landspace is also achieved with his Zhuque 3 rocket. There will be no second capture. The bad news is that Spacex will not try to capture the Booster 14. The rocket, which has just passed some ignition tests on land, will merit in a controlled way in the Gulf of Mexico to test a more pronounced attack angle during the re -entry, which in the future will allow you to perform other flight profiles. Anyway, all eyes will be put in the Starship 35the third ship of the “Block 2” version. Its two predecessors exploded shortly after separating from the Super Heavy propeller, both for a flight of propellents due to excessive vibrations in the engines area. Starship 33 disintegrated after a fire and Starship 34 lost control after the explosion of an engine. The investigation of flight 8 is still open, so FAA has not yet given its authorization for flight 9. Even so, we should not take long to see it, taking into account that the rocket is almost ready and the renewed political power of Elon Musk It has already allowed accelerating the procedures in the previous releases. Image | Spacex In Xataka | Elon Musk has said that Mars will be part of the United States. It is an unusual affront to the outdoor space treaty

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