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the science behind a geological risk that repeats itself every 1,200 years

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Although the tsunamis seem like effects that are reserved for the Japanese coasts, the reality is that Spain He also has many ballots to suffer an event of this magnitude on our coasts. Cádiz is one of the locations with the highest risk of suffering a tsunami in Spain, and the authorities wanted to verify that the emergency and response systems they work in case this type of event occurs at any time. In order to verify this, the authorities carried out a drill in mid-November in which the ES-Alert systemseveral schools and all emergency services. And given this great display, the question is mandatory: what are the chances of a tsunami occurring in Cádiz? Cádiz is at the center of this simulation because it is the area with the greatest danger from tsunamis in the country, due to the history behind it and the seismicity of the Azores-Gibraltar area. For this reason, the Junta de Andalucía has prepared a Emergency Plan for the Risk of Tsunami (PEMA) and has chosen Cádiz for the largest tsunami simulation carried out in Spain. Because. In the past, geological records indicate that at least five large tsunamis have occurred in the Gulf of Cádiz in the last 7,000 years. All of these associated with megaearthquakes at the plate boundary between Africa and Eurasia. Added to this is the historical reference: the tsunami linked to the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755which completely flooded Cádiz and part of the Andalusian coast with waves of several meters in a matter of dozens of minutes. The paleoseismology works of the CSIC and several universities place the recurrence interval of these events between 1,200 and 1,500 yearslong enough to be socially forgotten, but too short to be ignored in risk planning. This places the southwest of the peninsula as one of the most exposed areas in Europe to tsunamis, despite the fact that the “perceived risk” on the street has historically been very low. And this is precisely something that has been analyzed in the layers of sand and marine remains left inland and that gives us information about what happened thousands of years ago. Although logically always with a time frame that is approximate. Why now. The fact of doing the simulation in this month of November may make us think that scientists have found evidence that a large tsunami is coming to Cádiz, but nothing could be further from the truth. What is happening in this case is that a risk that has been known for a long time and for which, until now, hardly anything had been tested on a large scale, is being taken more seriously. That is why this scientific evidence that tells us about the real risk that exists in this case on the coast of Cádiz has been transferred to the regulations. In 2015, the Basic Planning Guideline for Civil Protection against the Risk of Tsunamiwhich recognizes the Gulf of Cádiz as a critical area where the expected wave height exceeds 0.5 meters. A framework that is not limited to pretty maps, but defines decision guidelines according to magnitude and location of earthquakes, chains of command, warning protocols and response time objectives, with the National Geographic Institute, AEMET and the future SINAM network as input sensors. What has been simulated. In this case, Cádiz has simulated an earthquake with an approximate magnitude of 7.5-7.6 to the southwest of Cape San Vicente, very similar to the one in Lisbon in 1755 and which generates a tsunami that points directly to the western Andalusian coast. In this scenario, the propagation models estimate between 45 and 60 minutes from the activation of the alert until the arrival of the first wave from Cádiz, which in practice is the clock with which Civil Protection works. The objective of the exercise was to virtually save as many people as possible in that one-hour window: horizontal evacuation to non-flood areas, vertical evacuation to high floors, beach and port rescues, protection of cultural assets and management of damaged buildings were tested. On paper, all this already existed in manuals and maps; What was missing was to see how a real city behaves when a tsunami warning sounds in the middle of a work morning.​ Images | Matt Paul Catalano In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

After years of searching, I have finally found the perfect Weather app for Android. And he just received superpowers

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If the question is how many weather apps do we have available on Android, the answer is “yes”. This is great because we have a lot to choose from, the problem is precisely that: there are so many that finding the one that is perfect for me seemed like a utopia. I finally found it and To my surprise, it’s from Google. Its problem, and because of how long it took me to discover it, is that it is a bit hidden. The weather app that Google doesn’t want you to use I’m not talking about the classic Google weather app that comes pre-installed on many Androids, but about the other Google weather app, one that It is only on the Google Pixel and what I discovered thanks to my colleagues from Xataka Android. The app is called ‘Pixel Weather’ or, in Spanish, ‘Pixel Weather’. It premiered with the Pixel 9 in 2024 and remains exclusive to Google mobile phones. That means that if you try to install it from the Play Storeit will tell you that “none of your devices are compatible.” But don’t despair, you can have it on any Android thanks to the installation via APK. However, remember that there are risks and download it only on reference portals like APKMirror. An exquisite and very functional design Pixel Weather has the design you would expect from a Pixel-only app. I really like the Material You interface because it is very clean and clear; Even in apps with many features like this one, it makes all the elements look super clear and conveys a feeling of simplicity. The interface is beautiful On the home screen we have the very large temperature and below it the different blocks with information such as the hourly forecast or the forecast up to 10 days. Below we have more information, all with a design reminiscent of a panel of widgets of different sizes. The good thing about Pixel Weather and why it has conquered me is because It is completely customizable. Do you prefer to have higher wind speeds? No problem, just hold down on the block you want to move and drag it to the new position. The only thing you won’t be able to move is the hourly forecast, which always remains fixed at the top, but everything else can be moved freely. We can move all the blocks as if we were arranging the home screen icons. Sliding down we have more widgets with different designs, such as the UV index one that is shaped like a sun or the humidity percentage widget that simulates being full of water. I also like it because at first glance it seems like a very simple app, but in reality it has much more information; By clicking on each of these widgets we obtain the hourly forecast about the specific data we are consulting, such as wind speed or relative humidity. The two widgets available talking about widgetsthe app offers us two to add to the home screen. The smallest one only has the temperature and an icon of the weather status, while the large one gives us the hourly forecast and more details such as the thermal sensation. I especially like the small widget for its oval design. Now with the best Google model That the app is very beautiful and functional is very good, but if the data it offers is not accurate, it is not of much use. This is not the case with Pixel Weather, in the time I have been using it it has been correct in its rain forecasts with quite a bit of accuracy regarding the time, but it has also been a few days ago. Google DeepMind announced that they have integrated WeatherNext 2his AI weather prediction model more advanced. According to DeepMind, WeatherNext 2 generates forecasts up to eight times faster than the previous model and its accuracy is better in 99.9% of variables. The innovation is that it uses an FGN or ‘functional generative network’ that injects noise into the model to achieve forecasts that are physically realistic. They have also integrated it into Google search, Gemini and will soon be in Maps. Images | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | The most beautiful, exciting and hopeful thing about November has come out of England and it is a weather forecast

A Volvo S80 has been parked in the middle of a lake for 13 years. And it has become a tourist attraction

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Google Maps is a tool that can take us on a trip through the most unusual places without leaving the sofa. The great pyramids, the Canadian tundra or even Everest are ‘visitable’. But if we enter the coordinates 41.35474 – 88.79789, there seems to be an error. A car in the middle of a lake? It’s not a normal car, it’s a Volvo. What’s more, it is THE Volvo. On the outskirts of Ottawa, about 130 kilometers from Chicago, there are a tiny artificial island that is just the right size to house a Volvo S80 silver from 2001. And if you are thinking that someone forgot it parked there when the area flooded or any other strange story, you should know that the story has a much simpler explanation. And also much more fun. Volvo Island Year 2012. Scott Mann, local citizen and owner of a couple of car repair shops, owned the land of an old open pit mine which had been abandoned and flooded, forming an artificial lake. As sometimes it seems that advertising has no limitsMann had an idea: place a car in the middle of the lake. We do not know if the result of a “because you don’t have noses” or because it really seemed like a good idea, the businessman conceived this as a marketing strategy to promote his workshops. As? Well, I don’t have the slightest idea, but he must have had it very clear. Their plan was to place the car there in the middle and organize a contest for people to guess how it got there. Actually, placing the Volvo was very simple: since the land is his, he towed the car to the end of a spit of land and, later, removed the segment that connected the peninsula with the rest of the continent. Ready, the Volvo S80 was already in its new home, and there it was abandoned waiting for someone to wonder how it happened. There are a couple of things that are wrong with that plan, and it turned out that someone in the office questioned whether it was really a good decision. Tiffany Warren, office manager, explained to the local media The Times They started doing it with the idea of ​​the contest, but in the end they abandoned the idea because “It was actually quite dangerous.”. The reason is obvious: the ground is not the most stable, there is 12 meters of depth around the car and if someone tried to reach it for whatever reason, misfortune could occur. So, the idea of ​​the contest was abandonedjust like the Volvo and any other genius marketing plan Mann might have in his head. The Internet did what the Internet does best For a few years, Volvo Island remained a local curiosity, but in 2015… it exploded. appeared in Google Maps and Street View and the Internet did its job. The place went viral and, although it can only be seen from afar because it is still private property, hundreds of fans have come to contemplate this work that could be another of the wonders of the modern world. In fact, the most delirious thing is that on Google Maps it appears as a “Tourist Attraction”, and has accumulated 455 reviews at the time of writing this with a score of 4.9 out of five stars. The reviews are for a laugh, but don’t think that people simply write a review and that’s it: they actually go to the place, take photos and upload them to the platform. “Photos simply don’t do this place justice. I feel truly blessed to have seen Volvo Island with my own eyes. I drove to Volvo Island in a Volvo for an incredibly immersive experience. As I drove away in my wife’s Volvo, I was overwhelmed with the emotion of what I had just witnessed: Volvo Island in all its glory,” says someone in the Google system. There are also more serious questions, such as how is it possible that, after so much time, the bodywork is still in that state, without signs of corrosion when it has been outdoors for at least 13 years. And people who claim that the island is the Grand Canyon of the Midwest or the Taj Mahal of Western civilizationa mandatory place if you go to the United States and a recommendation: go early because there is a line. Jokes aside, the truth is that it is most curious that Google Maps shows the icon of a car in the middle of the lake. It’s also a great example of how the Internet becomes a cultural phenomenon? something so unexpected that it has not only inspired digital tourism, but also physical one. And it appears that Mann has no intention of removing the vehicle or modifying the island. It has taken, as we say, measures to prevent people from accessing the islet due to both the depth and the sudden changes in terrain below the surface, but everything indicates that this failed “announcement” will remain there for a long, long time. He should have put up a sign for his workshop, or something. At least… he gets that publicity. In Xataka | All your worst nightmares have been captured by the Google Street View car. Here you have the proof

Roman roads changed the world. And this Google Maps from 2,000 years ago allows you to explore them

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What have the Romans given us? It’s not a question I ask myself when I can’t sleep, but the brilliant satire that Monty Python captured in ‘Brian’s life‘. He aqueductsewage, education, irrigation, health, wine, public baths… and roads. At its peak, it is estimated that The empire’s network expanded over 120,000 kilometersbut as excavation has been carried out, more and more remains of Roman roads have been found. On some occasions we have brought some “Google Maps” of the Roman Empirebut what we have in our hands today is the culmination of an anthological work that compiles some of the most important sources of the arteries of the empire and captures those roads is an impressive interactive map with almost 300,000 kilometers of roads. The tool is called itiner-eand it is something that can absorb us for hours and hours. The Google Maps of the Roman Empire If you have already taken a tour of the mapyou should know that it is a living element. As discoveries are made and the location of the tracks is determined, the team will update the map. But what we currently have is the result of more than five years of work carried out by a team with members from both the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Aarhus University of Denmark. In it study published in Naturedetail that it is “the most detailed and complete digital data set of roads in the entire Roman Empire” published so far. In fact, it exceeds the known length of Roman roads by more than 100,000 km thanks to both greater coverage at the focus and better spatial precision. Previously, the Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations (DARMC) mapped 188,554.7 kilometers. To do this, the researchers identified both the most important routes and the paths of archaeological and historical sources, locating them using both historical and current topographic maps. The main sources have been the Antonine Itinerary and the Tabula Peutingeriana, but the “milestones” and settlements close to each other (for example, limits of the empire, such as those near Hadrian’s Wall) are what have allowed researchers to assume the existence of roads that connected them. Other sources include summaries of the Roman road network in specific regions, maps from the Mapping Past Societies, the Barrington Atlas or the Tabula Imperii Romani, among many others. As a result of this work, the new map includes 299,171 kilometers of roads (to connect a territory of more than four million square kilometers), and they are divided as follows: 103,478 kilometers of main roads, 34.6% of the total. 195,693 kilometers of secondary roads, 65.4% of the total. And it is not that more than 100,000 kilometers have been taken out of the bag, but that roads that previously crossed rivers or were simple straight lines, have now been drawn with greater precision, adapting to the topographical peculiarities of the terrain. Now, although the work is amazing and we can see by playing with the different layers of information that many of the main roads coincide with current roads, the researchers confess that “only” the location of 2.737% of the Roman roads is known with certainty. That is why the vast majority of itiner-e roads show the legend “hypothetical” or “conjecture”, just before detailing the record from which they took the data. This certainty depends on: Certainty: segments well documented in the sources, which have been digitized with high spatial precision. Guess: segments with lower spatial precision due to a lower level of documentation. Hypothetical: paths that are speculated to have existed, but for which there is insufficient evidence to classify them within one of the above groups. For example, roads in desert areas where the infrastructure was less fixed and where several parallel roads have been found. But beyond satisfying our curiosity, something we can do with this map is… play. The team has including a function that is still in beta status and allows you to explore the time these routes took. To do this, we have to select between several points and select between four modes of land transportation: On foot at a speed of 4 km/h. By oxcart at 2 km/2. In an animal like a donkey at 4.5 km/h. And on horseback at 6 km/h. We can also select maritime routes with speeds of 2.5 km/h downstream and 0.6 km/h upstream. In the end, that rebel group from ‘Life of Brian’ was quite right when it came to saying that one of the most important things the Romans had done for them had been the deployment of roads. Because they were fundamental to speed up transportation within the empire’s domains, and that work is noticeable even today. They were the foundations on which we build our roads and urban centers. It is something that becomes clear when we observe that the only place in the empire in which there was not such an important or meticulous deployment, such as Africa and the Middle East, where trade on wheels was abandoned in favor of camel caravans in the 4th-6th centuries, has consequences today. Images | itiner-e In Xataka | Forma Urbis Romae: the gigantic map of Ancient Rome conceived in 1901 and still unsurpassed today

We have been talking about railguns for years without seeing their real damage. Japan just showed an image that says it all

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Japan is going through one of the most crucial transformations in recent decades: that of its rearmament. It is its most aggressive defense policy since Second World Warand the Ministry of Defense justifies because we are in the “most severe and complex phase of the last 80 years.” And there is nothing that better exemplifies Japanese rearmament than a cannon that, until not long agoit was science fiction material. The electromagnetic cannon. Reconfiguration. Starting in the 1990s, Japan stopped investing significantly in its Self-Defense Forces. He economic bubble burstthe “lost decade” and demographic difficulties implied that the military spending of 1% of GDP that they adopted after the Constitution of 1947 would be maintained. In 2023, things changed. As a result of geopolitical complexity, they decided that they would invest 2% of their GDP in rearmament. In figures, we are talking about about 271,000 million euros until 2027, but recently The target has been brought forward to March 2026. This reconfiguration will manifest itself in four dimensions: the aforementioned increase in military spending, the restructuring of the Self-Defense Forces, a relaxation of restrictions on the export of weapons and the expansion of long-range offensive capabilities. That’s where the railgun comes into play. Electromagnetic cannon. Like gunpowder, it fires a projectile that gains speed as it passes through a barrel. However, it uses electricity instead of gunpowder. Two metal rails form a circuit that, when closed by the projectile, generates an intense magnetic field. This produces a beastly force that propels the projectile at high speed, allowing hypersonic, precise and long-range shots. This speed would allow that would travel without detour even in the most unfavorable weather conditions. Japan has been investing in this field since mid of the 2010s, and a few weeks ago, the Japan Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA) performed the first proof documented firing of a naval electromagnetic cannon at a real ship. Mounted in it JS Asuka test shipthe prototype is a cannon of 40 millimeters in caliber and six meters in length. It requires four huge energy containers to power the weapon and the projectiles used were small missiles of about 320 grams, stabilized by fins and without an explosive head. There is no need for an explosion: upon reaching those 2,300 meters per second, the kinetic energy is comparable to that of a 1,000 kilo car crashing into something at 140 km/h. Success. During them, the system achieved a record by firing projectiles at a speed of 2,300 meters per second. It is a speed of Mach 6-7, but in addition, they also pushed the useful life of the barrel to the limit. The estimate was about 120 shots, since it was established in previous phases of the investigation, but they got perform more than 200 shots without the system failing. ATLA had conducted open sea tests before, but never against a real target. And although they had already commented that the tests were a success, now they have shared photographs in which you can see the holes left by these projectiles. The target ship was in motion, but due to the enormous speed and stability of the projectiles thanks to the enormous power of the system, the entry holes allow an almost perfect view of the “cross” left by the projectile passing through the hull. Challenges. Now, understanding how a railgun works is easy, but executing it is extremely complex. It is a brutal technical challenge due to several factors: The stability of the barrel: the system generates tremendous heat, so dissipation systems must be effective enough not to compromise the integrity of the barrel. Wear and tear not only affects the speed and accuracy of the projectile, but can cause accidents on the boat itself. The energy: since it requires so much electricity to operate, it must have storage systems large enough to allow it to operate with the necessary power and during intense fire sessions. Miniaturization of the system: these cannons are extremely large and, although ATLA has managed to contain it quite a bit, mounting them on ships is not easy due to both the length of the cannon itself and the set of batteries required. Integrating a railgun into a ship is not easy. Perspectives. Currently, ATLA is working on evolving a system which might not be as far from the action as was thought a few months ago, and this miniaturization would allow it to be mounted on other types of vehicles, in addition to ground defense lines. But apart from as a weapon, the agency has mentioned that the concept of electromagnetic acceleration could be applied to other areas. For example, to the “mass throwers” ​​that would allow launching materials electromagnetically in space transportation. The problem is that other challenges are added, such as the imperative need to calculate the trajectory millimetrically or develop recovery methods for these goods. USA and China. And, although it may seem like another test of weapons, what Japan has achieved is a milestone. After fifteen years of research and some 500 million dollars invested in the technology, The United States left in 2021 the development of electromagnetic railguns (although they are now with larger versions). Japan has persevered and its testing demonstrates that the system can be viable in a real-world context. And another that has continued to develop this technology is China. They are keeping it more secret, but we have already seen images of Chinese ships with an electromagnetic cannon and power containers on the front. And that, precisely, it was these two countries that They are taking steps forward when developing this technology It’s not a coincidence. They are both engrossed in technological warbut also in a escalation of military tension that has been going on for months and that is leading both countries to accuse each other of invading their respective territory. Images | ATLA, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force In Xataka | Taiwan has had an idea if Beijing invades it: surprise China underground

The bloodiest scene in the history of cinema left its protagonist in shock. 50 years later we know it was real

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Stephen King told that, for him, his Carrie It was like a pig taken to the slaughterhouse, and the blood of the animal reinforced the metaphor anticipating the massacre that would follow. Hence when the novel became a film, the most recognizable scene was the most visceral, organic and unpleasant of all. A gore moment that became celluloid history. The blood that changed terror. The Legend of Carrie (the movie) is born at the moment when a thick mixture of corn syrup and red food coloring falls on actress Sissy Spacek, a moment that has transcended horror cinema itself to become a cultural icon. The construction of the scene (the coronation interrupted by the explosion of humiliation and fury) concentrates the essence of a film that turned the artificial into something emotionally real. He Karo syrupheir to decades of cinematic experimentation with fake blood, here acquired an unexpected meaning by becoming the visual and psychological trigger for Carrie White’s transformation. Anniversary. Now that 50 years have passed since the original film, Spacek has remembered that that substance “warm as a blanket” in the first seconds soon became an exhausting, sticky and repetitive experience, forcing her even to sleep with the bloody suit so as not to have to reproduce the makeup application. But precisely that physical surrender, with its almost immobile and tragic presence under the weight of the thick liquid, is what granted to the plane that kind of mythical quality: the border between artifice and emotion is erased, leaving only the fixed gaze of a broken teenager who feels, for the first time, that the whole world is laughing at her. The infernal filming of a scene. The Independent said It’s been a few years since the prom sequence required almost surgical precision. Although the rest of the scene required more than thirty takes, the exact moment of the blood spill could only be filmed once or twice due to the impossibility of cleaning and recomposing the set. Spacek even accepted that it was her own husband who operated the cube mechanism to ensure that the fall was perfect, knowing that her interpretation would depend on how she received that hit of red viscosity. The fake blood was a physical enemy but also a dramatic element on which the story completely depended: its texture, shine, the way it adhered to the actress’s body and soaked her dress, everything contributed to giving the impression that something irreversible had happened. In fact, many of the scenes we saw ended up being very real: a stage that ended up accidentally burning, a team evacuated while the director I asked to keep rolling and injuries such as the perforation of an actress’ eardrum during the attack of the launched hose telekinetically by Carrie. What should have been millimeter choreography became an almost ritual experience, in which fire, destruction and general chaos seemed to respond to the internal logic of the film itself. The unexpected myth. Despite initial doubts, the rejection of critics who considered it a sensationalist spectacle and the fact that even the name of Stephen King appeared poorly written In the first previews, Carrie ended up transforming into a phenomenon. Its mix of operatic stylization, black humor, adolescent cruelty and symbolic violence connected with a much wider audience than expected, inaugurating a type of youth horror cinema that is still alive several generations later. For King, a small-town teacher who had thrown away the first pages to the garbage can before being rescued by his wife, the film marked the beginning of a hyperbolic race. For director Brian De Palma, it was the definitive consolidation of his baroque style, obsessed with the gaze, visual manipulation and expressive excess. A unique role. Of course, for Sissy Spacek, work meant an Oscar nomination and lasting recognition for a performance that combined absolute vulnerability and unleashed rage. On a personal note, I would say that none of the later remakesreinterpretations and adaptations managed to capture that mixture of innocence, evil and contained tragedy that the original became its hallmark. The validity of a story. The truth is that with the passing of the decades, Carrie has not lost strength. Quite the contrary, its contemporary reading resonates in a world where school violence, public humiliation and the feeling of youth isolation are part of the collective imagination. the movie speaks of the ritualized cruelty of adolescence, of vulnerability to changes in the body and of a universal feeling of maladjustment that Spacek described a few days ago on CNN like that “wounded teenager that we all have inside.” The combination of emotional realism and the tone of a dark story, almost biblical in some passages, turns the story into more than just an exercise in terror. The presence of a fanatic mother, the brutality of her classmates, and Carrie’s own inability to understand what is happening to her allow the story to oscillate between melodrama, religious parable, and Greek tragedy. The visual references, the use of color and the stylization of the final climax consolidate an imaginary that continues to define how psychological horror is filmed. in adolescence. The weight of artifice. Five decades later, Spacek’s memory of filming it’s contradictory: the physical hardness of the process, the exhaustion of wearing hardened layers of corn syrup, the extreme discomfort of the long days and, at the same time, the privilege of having worked on a project where each member of the team was dedicated to something that they did not know would transcend. That mix of technical suffering and unfiltered creativity explains why the blood scene has become an immutable symbol of horror cinema. What began as a practical necessity (creating cheap, realistic, and manageable gore) ended up leaving an indelible mark on how emotional violence is portrayed on screen. Perhaps for this reason, Carrie remains a most accurate study in fragility, repressed rage and the devastating power of humiliation, but also as a demonstration that even a sticky, artificial substance can, in … Read more

Italy has been importing its famous “Italian” tomato paste from China for years. And now China has a problem

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The powerful tomato sector Chinese faces turbulence. After achieving a prominent position in the global market and becoming the largest tomato orchard in the world, the Asian giant has encountered a drop in sales in a strategic market: the European market. More specifically in Italy, where the demand for vegetables from Xinjiang has deflated at the stroke of controversies. The data is quite eloquent. Only during the third quarter of 2025 did sales of Chinese tomato paste in Italy decrease about 80%. Tomato ‘made in China’? It comes with taking a look at the maps from World Population Review to understand the enormous weight that China has achieved in the world tomato market. According to its latest data, in 2023 the nation produced about 70.1 million tons. This places it considerably above India, which occupies second place with 20.4 million tons, Turkey (13.3 million), the US (12.4 million) or Egypt (6.2 million), which complete the ‘TOP 5’. Also from Spain, which occupies ninth place, with nearly four million. Extremaduran farmers warned about the growing threat from China a few months ago, who recognize that the competition exerted by the Asian tomato is already their “biggest problem”. It’s not just that China harvests tons and tons of vegetables, it’s that it does so at such low costs that they make its tomato paste (a fundamental product for the food industry) unbeatable. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Is he that attractive? Yes. And it is not something that is observed only in Extremadura. Just a year ago Francesco Mutti, CEO of the sauce manufacturer that bears his last name, recognized that much of the cheap tomato paste coming from China is produced in the Xinjiang region with “very, very low labor costs.” something similar they slid in 2016 from Las Marismas (Andalusia): “They ask us for European quality at the price of Chinese tomatoes, something impossible taking into account the costs.” In practice this means that China exports every year tons and tons of tomato to the European market, which in turn generates a lucrative business. OEC calculate That last year the Asian giant exported processed tomatoes worth 1.21 billion dollars. If we look at its main destinations, Italy occupied a priority place, with a value of 83.8 million dollars. And what has happened? That although China is a gigantic exporter and has managed to differentiate itself in prices, its product has been compromised by an unexpected factor?: controversy. I told it a few days ago Financial Times. News about the use of forced labor in Xinjiang (a region that has attracted attention of the UN for alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur minority) and the lack of clarity The labeling with which some Italian companies identify the origin of their products has conditioned Chinese pasta exports, in which large state companies play a crucial role. Result? Against this backdrop, to which is added the campaign of the Italian agricultural association Coldiretti, China has encountered a problem: a ‘pinch’ in exports that has left it with a huge stock of processed tomatoes. Financial Times assuresciting data from the platform Tomato News, that the Asian giant has a reserve of between 600,000 and 700,000 tons of tomato paste. To understand its scope, it is equivalent to six months of exports. Has demand dropped that much? Yes. The data shows that the Western market seems to want to move away from the doubts that shadow the Chinese product. In general, Chinese tomato paste exports decreased by 9% year-on-year during the third quarter of 2025, but if we focus specifically on sales to Western EU countries, that percentage rises to 67%. In the specific case of Italy, purchases plummeted by 76%. “It is clear that Europe has become a difficult place to export,” recognize to Financial Times Martin Stilwell, head of Tomate News, the source of the data. Do we handle more data? Yes. There are two other reveals. The first has to do with the value of processed tomato exports to Italy. If between January and September 2024, Chinese customs recorded about 75 million dollars, this year, during the same period, it did not even reach 13. The other data has to do with the volume of fresh tomato processed to turn it into pasta: 4.8 million tons in 2021, 11 million in 2024 and 3.7 this year (estimate). For Stilwell, the reading is clear: faced with the difficulties of selling, China chooses to cut expenses instead of increasing its stock. What does China say? That accusations about the use of forced labor in Xinjuang are “a lie” created and propagated by “anti-Chinese forces” to harm the country. The truth is that years ago the US decided to turn its back on imports of tomato paste from that region of the Asian giant and in the case of Italy they weigh somewhat more than the suspicions of the UN. In 2021 the Caribineri ‘hunted’ a company that labeled its canned tomato as “100% Italian” when in reality it included product from China. “If we assume that Italy has 80 companies related to tomato processing, three, four or five have committed dishonest practices,” Mutti assureswho regrets the damage this does to the reputation of the Italian sector. Images | Tom Hermans (Unsplash) and Arthur Wang (Unsplash) In Xataka | Four nations are fighting over a fruit that smells like rotten eggs. China has turned it into its gastronomic phenomenon

We know that role-playing video games were born 50 years ago. What we don’t know exactly is which game was the first

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If when they ask you about the first role-playing video game in history, a legendary franchise will undoubtedly come to mind: ‘Dungeons & Dragons‘. The influence of the then newborn board role-playing game was undeniable in the first titles of the genre, but to determine a foundational touchstone we have a serious problem: there are several candidates. The first roles. In 1975, half a century agothe genre of role-playing video games as we know it was born. Just one year after Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson will publish ‘Dungeons & Dragons‘, different American university students They transferred the board game experience to computer systems of the time (huge mainframes or data systems), creating titles like ‘dnd’, ‘pedit5’ and ‘Dungeon’. Those experiments laid the foundations for the industry along with early icons like ‘Spacewar’, but determining which came first is not so easy. Why D&D. Dungeons & Dragons It sold 3,000 copies during its first year.a modest figure but behind which there is a great cultural impact among university students. Some of the concepts that ‘D&D’ introduced in early role-playing games (life points, accumulating experience, progression by levels, character classes, dice system – that is, chance – to resolve combat…) were of a statistical nature. It was ideal to be processed by computerswho calculated probabilities faster than any human game master. The convergence was inevitable: American campuses brought together both programmers with access to computers and players obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. Sometimes it was the same people. What was PLATO. This proto-internet served as the basis for many of these games to spread: its acronym is equivalent to Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations, it was developed at the University of Illinois in 1960, and was born as an educational tool, although it ended up going far beyond that initial purpose. Towards the mid-seventies This network connected approximately a dozen mainframes with several thousand terminals distributed globally. The system incorporated revolutionary technologies for the time: plasma screens with a resolution of 512×512 pixels, interfaces 16×16 touch points and transmission speed of 1,200 bits per second. But his true legacy was to become a precursor to the Internet by including discussion forums, email, chat rooms and, at a certain point in its history, real-time multiplayer video games. In this way, and as it could not be otherwise, the university students subverted the initially academic purpose of PLATO: the programmers disguised their games with names that pretended to be educational files to avoid being detected and deleted by university administrators (hence the cryptic titles, almost based on acronyms, of some games). The pioneer dungeon. In this way, and thanks to the possibilities that PLATO offered, during 1975 several programmers worked without knowing each other on the creation of the first RPG for computer. Rusty Rutherford, a 35-year-old doctoral student at the University of Illinois, developed ‘pedit5‘ (also called ‘The Dungeon’). The game featured a fixed 40-50 room dungeon with random monster and treasure encounters, establishing the concept of the “dungeon crawl”. The character combined the three classic ‘D&D’ classes: warrior, wizard and cleric. Players generated attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Intelligence, and had eight different spells at their disposal. The random nature of the encounters made it a direct precursor of the roguelike. The game could only hold 20 simultaneous characters, a limit that became a problem when its popularity exploded. The first final boss in history. Southern Illinois University students Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood completed ‘dnd‘ (‘The Game of Dungeons’) after ‘pedit5’ demonstrated the viability of the concept. ‘dnd’ expanded its offering with multiple dungeon levels, a teleporter system, and allowed players to leave the dungeon, recover, and return later, gradually accumulating power over multiple sessions. Its big innovation was a scoring system inspired by pinball machines, which made players collect gold and leave. The solution was to create an ultimate goal, the Orb, guarded by a dragon in the deepest levels. Thus, it was the first video game to feature a “boss fight”, a final climatic encounter. Technical sophistication. In California, meanwhile, Don Daglow was programming his own game, Dungeonfor him mainframe PDP-10 from Claremont University. Daglow implemented sophisticated mechanics: line of sight, fog of war, automapping, and NPCs with rudimentary artificial intelligence. The game required 36K of RAM, a very notable amount at the time. Finally, on November 4, 1975, John Daleske, Gary Fritz and their team released a second game called ‘Dungeon’ on PLATO, considered as one of the first MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). That same year ‘Moria’ also appeared, by Kevet Duncombe and Jim Battin, allowing up to ten simultaneous players in the same game, which is a direct precedent for future MMORPGs. In Xataka | Virtual dungeons: The successes and failures of bringing ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ to video games

This woman has been accused for years of committing the only crime that has taken place in space. It was all a lie

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Six years ago, his face went around the world. Astronaut Anne McClain appeared in all the media as the alleged perpetrator of the first crime committed outside of Earth. Now we know it never happened. A little context. In August 2019, NASA opened a file to investigate what It seemed like the first crime committed in space.. Astronaut Anne McClain had been accused of identity theft and irregular access to her ex-wife’s financial records while she was on the International Space Station. Specifically, her ex-partner had accused her of “guessing” his credentials to spy on his bank account from space. He had made it up. Six years later, Summer Worden, McClain’s ex-wife and former US Air Force intelligence officer, has pleaded guilty to lying to federal authorities in a twist that definitively closes this unfortunate chapter for the astronaut. According to the official statement From the prosecution, an investigation revealed that Worden had voluntarily shared his credentials with McClain since 2015. The bank account in question had been open since 2018. Worden allowed McClain access until January 2019, at which time he changed the passwords, something he hid to incriminate his ex-partner. Custody of a child as a motive. The accusation came amid a messy divorce and a dispute over custody of a common child. McClain always maintained his innocence, arguing that he had simply reviewed the family finances to ensure there were sufficient funds for the child’s care, something he routinely did with Worden’s consent. The damage to his reputation was immediate and had ramifications and rumors beyond the legal. It coincided with NASA postponing the first all-female spacewalk in its history, starring McClain and Christina Koch. The reason was the lack of suitable suits, but the shadow of the accusation and public scrutiny always loomed over that decision. Redeemed. The resolution of the case comes at a sweet time for Anne McClain. The astronaut has continued working for NASA and, last March, she had the opportunity to return to the ISS as commander of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission. The sentence against his ex-wife will be handed down in February 2026. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Image | POT In Xataka | How many times have we gone to the Moon and why have only 11 military aviators and one geologist set foot on it in all of history?

Disney’s most profitable business for years has been amusement parks. And Netflix is ​​going to follow in their footsteps

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In a turn that will not be too surprising to those who closely follow the finances of entertainment giants like Disney, Netflix has made the leap to the physical world. Last Wednesday, the platform inaugurated its first permanent entertainment center in King of Prussia, a town located 25 kilometers from Philadelphia. A real dive into Netflix products that makes it clear that there are no authors or stars here, but a single corporation with things very clear. What does it consist of? Netflix House is a two-story complex with a surface area equivalent to a football stadium and that allows visitors to tour replicas of scenes from series such as ‘Wednesday‘, ‘The squid game‘ either ‘Stranger Things‘. For example, there is a replica of the room that Wednesday shares with Enid at Nevermore Academy, where visitors solve a murder with Thing through their cell phones, or a escape room based on ‘One Piece’. There is also a nine-hole mini golf course with automatic ball tracking technology, whose courses are themed to series such as ‘Bridgerton’ or ‘The Squid Game’. Finally, there are virtual reality rooms. As a culmination, a restaurant with dishes inspired by the series, and the TUDUM theater, with 229 seats for screenings. The company already plans to open a second headquarters in Dallas on December 11 and a third in Las Vegas in 2027. Admission is free, although the experiences have a cost: from $15 for a game of mini golf to $39 for the main immersive attractions. On the go. The flexibility of the model was demonstrated before the inauguration. The success of ‘The K-pop Warriors’ It caught those responsible for the installation by surprise, but its presence was incorporated into the venue on the fly with life-size figures of its protagonists and merchandising exclusive. And of course, more dedicated content is promised in the coming months. It is one of the strong points of the project: that although there is always the presence of timeless hits such as ‘The Paper House’ or ‘The Squid Game’, last-minute audience bombshells can be incorporated to make it an experience that breathes a certain life of its own. British roots. This concept that Netflix exploits does not come from the United States, but from the United Kingdom: for example, Fabien Riggall founded Secret Cinema in 2007 with the idea of ​​making your childhood wish come true of “living inside a movie.” Its first event brought together 400 people in an abandoned railway tunnel to screen a film whose title was kept secret until the last moment, with stages and actors decorated to give the atmosphere. Since then, the company has raised over £130,000 for charitieswith increasingly spectacular and complex installations. A few years before, in 2000, Punchdrunk already existed, immersive theater collective where the public was not limited to passively observing the work, but went on a tour of spaces where the action took place. London has ended up consolidating itself as global epicenter of these interactive experiences. Like a virus. Of course, this idea did not come from Netflix: its rivals have been operating comparable facilities for decades. Disney is the clearest example given its long experience in amusement parkswill allocate 60,000 million dollars to its experiences division over the next decade. Universal invested 7 billion in its recently inaugurated Epic Universe, based on franchises such as Harry Potter or Super Mario. Let us remember that Disney’s parks division contributes 70% of the profits of the company. Of course, be careful with the powerful comparative advantage of the Netflix proposal: entry to Netflix House is free. It’s just the beginning. This is not an isolated experiment or an extra next to Netflix’s main business: the platform’s decision to stop communicating its number of subscribers should give us a clue about how they have peaked in certain aspects, and need to continue expanding their reach. Netflix has reached agreements with cinema chains in the United States and sporting events have become core part of its offer. He has already made it clear that the plan is to open up to 25 of these Netflix Houses around the world and to continue releasing plays like ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow‘. We are going to continue hearing about Netflix for a long time. Header | Netflix In Xataka | The chaos of streaming is causing a phenomenon that we thought was in recession: downloads are increasing

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