years

If you want your body to be biologically eight years younger, science has a recipe for you: vegan diet

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We humans have many desire to appear as young as possiblealways seeking eternal youth. This has meant that its search has ceased to be the exclusive terrain of the alchemy to become one of the hottest fields in biotechnology, with many treatments that seek to literally make us younger or even extend our lives. Now, the vegan diet It is at the center of supposed iron health, and science has wanted to verify whether consuming it leads to an increase in the years of life. The twin experiment. Traditionally, doing research on how a person ages has been a problem because of genetics. And comparing two therapies between two people to see if they age more or less quickly makes us wonder if the result is due to the treatment or diet or because one of the members has very good genetics. To eliminate this variable from genetics, science has found the best way to work: use identical twins. In this way, their genetics will be exactly the same and the effect of the intervention we perform will be directly related. The study. They recruited a total of 21 pairs of healthy adult identical twins. One of each pair was assigned a healthy omnivorous diet; on the other, a strict vegan diet. In total, for eight weeks the impact was measured using epigenetic clocks with algorithmic tools that estimate biological age based on in DNA methylation. Methylation is the process by which small chemical groups called methyls are added to certain parts of DNA with the aim of being able to ‘turn genes on or off’, causing some instructions to be read and others not. Something that is related to agingsince it changes over time. The results. In this case, what the researchers saw was very interesting, because despite the short time the diet was maintained, it was found that the vegan group showed significant reductions in estimated biological age. This is something that was seen in decreased DNA methylation in pathways related to inflammation and metabolism. All of this adds up to improvements in fasting insulin and a reduction in LDL cholesterol, leading to better old age. But although everything seems very good, caution was already requested with these results. Because. It’s okay that the vegan diet seems to offer good results, but the big question is why this happens. And the summary tells us that it was not just because they left meat aside, but because they stopped eating in general. This is the most important point, because the vegan group consumed fewer calories simply because the calorie density, and therefore the calorie restriction in the end It is one of the few methods which has been proven to extend life in animal models. This also adds up to weight loss, as the vegan participants lost more weight than their omnivorous counterparts. Critics point out that rapid weight loss can alter epigenetic markers on its own, regardless of the food source. The problem. Although the fact of being on this diet for such a short time and under the study means that longitudinal research is still needed to know if this translates into years of real life gained. And although the biological clock slowed down in this case, researchers warn about the long-term risks of having a poorly planned vegan diet. One of the consequences is the vitamin B12 deficiencyalthough today the supplementation that is done in foods makes this a minor problem. Added sugar. The other culprit of aging and to which we pay less attention. A study published in 2024 I was quite clear about the consequences of its consumption, in some cases without knowing it because we did not read the labels of the foods we consumed. In this case, a study with 242 middle-aged women used epigenetic clocks to measure cellular damage to correlate it with their consumption. The results in this case were quite clear: each extra gram of sugar added was associated with an increase in epigenetic age. However, there is a brake that we find in our Mediterranean diet, which is rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. That is why eliminating up to 10 grams of added sugar per day could reverse the biological clock in approximately 2.4 months. The lesson. Scientific literature points out in this case that what matters in food is quality, not just the label. This is why a varied diet with fruits, vegetables or legumes is directly associated with lower mortality and a decrease in chronic diseases. On the contrary, a vegan diet that is based on ultra-processed foods (even if it has very little meat) can be really harmful in the end. Images | Anna Pelzer In Xataka | The truth about intermittent fasting to lose weight: deciding whether its benefits have a scientific basis or are pure hype

We’ve been hearing for years that washing your hair too much causes it to fall out. It’s exactly the other way around

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Enter the shower, wash your head and when looking at your hands or the floor find a tangle of hair. A scene that can be everyday for some people and that can lead to conclusions, such as if you wash your hair very often. falls more and can lead to alopecia much earlier. Something that is nothing more than a myth that is quite widespread, but that dermatology tries to disprove. We don’t tear it off. The idea that you can have in mind with this scene that we have related is that by rubbing your head you are pulling out your hair from the roots. But this is a serious misconception, as you remember the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) when pointing out that hair loss in the shower is not related to the mechanical action of rubbing. The hair that we see between our hands or on the floor was already loose before entering the shower as it found itself in what is called telogen phasethat is, fall or rest phase. The only thing washing does is make it come off more easily, something that also happens when we comb our hair or when we rub the pillow. Because that hair was already unsalvageable. This is something that the Spanish dermatologist Óscar Muñoz himself defends, who in a recent interview which stated that “h“There are those who believe that when they wash their hair falls out more, but the only thing they are seeing is the hair that was already destined to come off.” A bad idea. At the point of not washing your hair in order to save it, it is not the most advisable thing to do. Especially because it can have the completely opposite effect. All this because the fat accumulation or sebum in the hair, beyond being an aesthetic problem, it is also a breeding ground for fungus like the Malassezia which can give us more headaches. All this because a fungus on the scalp It generates a response from our body as it is a threat that results in seborrheic dermatitis that generates a state of inflammation in the scalp that aggravates androgenic alopecia, which is what we are seeking to control. The medical recommendation is clear: regular hygiene (even daily if necessary) with mild shampoos to keep sebum and inflammation at bay. The stress. A clear culprit It has nothing to do with shampoo. The. scientific literature confirm that there is a clear link between stress levels and the follicle since when cortisol, the classic stress hormone, is triggered, it is also generated an inflammation which can cause the follicle to go into a shedding phase. Although this effect is not seen at the time of upset or peak stress, but 2 or 3 months after the stressful event. The good news is that it is a reversible condition, but a sustained state of stress can create a vicious cycle that perpetuates the problem. What works. Although we have seen that the myth of not washing your hair does not work to prevent hair loss (it even aggravates it), the question we ask ourselves is what works. Science has a great battery of options such as broccoli and soybeans. In this case there are interesting studies in mice where broccoli extracts either phytoestrogens Soybeans modulate hair growth. Although logically eating more broccoli does not stop androgenic alopecia, it does open up very interesting avenues for further research in the field of aesthetics. The drugs. Beyond diet remedies, which can be more homemade, dermatologists have a range of treatments that offer great results. The first-line ones are finasteride and minoxidil, which have demonstrated with robust evidence behind them a good ability to stop miniaturization and improve capillary density. Although the fear of sexual adverse effects exists, trials indicate that the incidence rate is low. Images | Donald Teel Towfiqu barbhuiya In Xataka | When they told us all the advantages of intermittent fasting, they forgot one small detail: that it could make us bald.

It looks like a conch, in reality it is a “sound technology” manufactured 6,000 years ago in Neolithic Catalonia

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When we think of the Neolithicthe truth is that we imagine the use of polished stone tools, how they began to flirt with ceramics or how they killed each other. But to this we must now add the acoustic engineeringwhich seems to have also been somewhat dominated thanks to the conch shells. Something that happened right here in Spain. The investigation. It was the University of Barcelona that was able to confirm that twelve sea shells found in the sites of Catalonia They were not leftover food or decorations, but rather sophisticated musical and communication instruments that are capable of producing a powerful and modulable sound similar to that of a modern horn. Something that can be considered the first musical instrument in history. This finding has been published in the scientific journal Antiquity and suggests that these shells Charonia lampas They were modified by the locals themselves to become what is now called one of the “oldest sound production technologies known to man.” The shells. Without a doubt the protagonists of this study and that have been dated between the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. That is, about 6,000 years ago. Some pieces that have been collected from different locations in Catalonia such as the Gavà variscite minessettlements in the Penedes and the Llobregat basin. But beyond how old they are, their technical intention also stands out, since these conch shells were not collected to eat the mollusk. Science suggests that they were collected already empty and collected for their size and ergonomics to be used as a musical instrument. From this raw material, the tips were precisely removed from all the pieces to create a mouthpiece to generate the sound. The idea in this case was to have the right size to be able to carry it with you and have an adequate sound. Testing the sound. Beyond having the conch on the table, we also wanted to know what prehistory was listening to. To do this, they chose the eight conch shells that were in good condition and blew through them. The result was very spectacular: when blowing through them, vibrating the lips in the same way as is done with the current brass instruments (like a trumpet or trombone), the shells came to life. The resulting sound was powerful, stable and with a timbre similar to that of a French horn. But although it may seem that he only had one note available, the reality is that by inserting his hand into the shells he could lower the pitch and change the note. And even if the tongue was articulated, the texture of the sound was modified. In this way, in prehistory they not only made an instrument, but also had the possibility of ‘playing’ with the sound. A telephone. Beyond their musical capacity, these objects fulfilled a vital function as long distance communication tools. The study itself points out that in a world where there were logically no telephones or WhatsApp, trumpets served as a communication system to coordinate communities. Six of the conch shells were found in the Gavà mines, suggesting their use to send signals between workers in the different underground galleries or to communicate with surrounding agricultural settlements. Its importance. This discovery is not trivial, since it opens up the debate on the origin of music in humanity. The question is quite clear: Was it born out of pure utilitarian need (coordinate hunting, warning of dangers) or out of an aesthetic and emotional need? For now, it can be concluded that both functions were used together. They were pragmatic tools for social management and work in the mines, but their melodic capacity could also be used in the rituals or celebrations of different tribes. Images | Steve Adams In Xataka | Neither lions nor hyenas: at the top of the food chain 30 million years ago, there was a “pig” weighing more than a thousand kilos

Atresmedia has been exploiting the series for years without being accountable

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The ‘There is no one who lives here‘ and the series that continued his legacy, ‘The one that is coming‘, is something that will be studied in the history books of Spanish television. And not only because of its virtues as a comedy of manners or out-of-the-box satire, nor only because of its audience, but because of the queue that its broadcasts continue to bring decades after their premiere. In the case of ‘No one lives here’, twenty years later. ‘No one lives here’ returns, but to the courts. Alberto and Laura Caballero, together with the screenwriter Iñaki Ariztimuño, original creators of the masthead, have managed to get the Madrid justice system to force Atresmedia to reveal the real emission numbers of a series that continues to generate income on multiple digital platforms. The Commercial Court No. 18 has given the green light to the preliminary proceedings that require a complete breakdown: how much the fiction has made since 2003, to which third parties rights have been transferred and what remuneration the group has received for each exploitation window. The chain replica. Atresmedia has replied firmly: ‘No one lives here’ is a collective work whose rights belong entirely to the production company, not to the individual scriptwriters, not even to the creators of the series. For this reason, he requested to raise the bond (precautionary measure that ensures that the obligations of all parties will be met during a process) to more than 290,000 euros to stop what he considers a “disproportionate” request. However, the judge has considered that there is legitimate interest on the part of the plaintiffs in knowing these data. The crux of the matter: analog contracts. The agreements that the scriptwriters signed with the production company Miramón Mendi, which disappeared in 2009, contemplated broadcasting on general channels, but the universe of on-demand distribution did not exist. Today, ‘There is no one alive here’ generates audiences on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Movistar Plus+ and Atresplayer itself, among other digital windows of whose profitability the original creators have not been informed in detail. With the law in hand. The Caballeros and Ariztimuño put on the table the article 75 of Royal Decree-Law 24/2021rule that transposed European Directive 2019/790 to Spain on copyright in the digital market. This text, which came into force in November 2021establishes an annual transparency obligation: those who exploit audiovisual works must inform the authors about all modes of use and the income derived. Atresmedia must report emissions and income, although as the defendants claim, they may only have to do so from the effective date of the decree, not retroactively to 2003, as the plaintiffs intended. The European standard pursued an explicit objective: to rebalance the balance between the astronomical benefits of platforms and production companies in the face of the growing precariousness of those who write, direct or perform. Other cases. The Battle of the Knights It is not an isolated episode. For example, ‘Física o Química’, the teenage phenomenon on Antena 3, faced its scriptwriters in disputes over the distribution of profits when the series multiplied its value in that digital market from which the Caballeros request data. Before, ‘Blue Summer’ was involved in lawsuits related to the massive retransmission of a work that TVE exploited for decades without the rights of its creators being clear. In the cinema, Álex de la Iglesia and the scriptwriters of ‘The Day of the Beast’ battled for financial compensation after the commercial success of the film, establishing jurisprudence on authorship and income distribution. ‘La casa de papel’ is not Spanish. The sector has been warning about this structural imbalance for years. At the meeting Screenwriters in Series 2022organized by the ALMA union, several creators denounced that the production companies had become “service providers” for the platforms, losing property control of the works. Pablo Barrera pointed out a revealing fact: ‘La casa de papel’, the greatest Spanish cultural ambassador of the decade, legally belongs to the United States, not to Spain: “That heritage that is produced does not belong to us.” The past screenwriters’ strikes in Hollywood in 2023 They claimed, among other things, this type of residual income. New paragraph. This process marks an important starting point for changing the way screenwriters are financially compensated. On the table, the confrontation of two legitimate principles: legal contracts already signed against an economic reality that has been radically transformed. Nobody could foresee that a comedy from 2003 would continue to make money in 2025 through technologies that did not exist at that time. Currently, all production incorporates specific clauses in contracts regarding “known and unknown media”, but audiovisual production in 2003 was very different. In Xataka | Beyond ‘La casa de papel’: how Spain has managed to ensure that one of every four series played is its own

Europe has been warning for years that firing in Spain is a bargain. Now Congress is making a move with the “restorative dismissal”

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Unfair dismissal in Spain is a bargain for companies. At least that is what the European Committee of Social Rights (CEDS), dependent on the Council of Europe, has been telling Spain for years. Throughout this time, the Government has turned a deaf ear to the recommendations from Brussels. However, an unexpected turn caused by the mistake of a representative of the Popular Party During a vote in Congress, a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) by Sumar was allowed to prosper, which urges the Government to present a bill to reform the laws that prevent the application of the restorative dismissal that Europe has actively and passively requested. Europe has been warning since 2021. When Spain ratified in 2021 the European Social Charterassumed the commitment to harmonize its labor legislation with its principles. Since then, the European Committee of Social Rights (CEDS), an advisory body of the Council of Europe, has reiterated that the Spanish system, based on a fixed calculation of 33 days per year worked and a maximum of 24 months, does not meet the criteria of said commitment. The problem is that the European Social Charter is a set of guidelines, but it is not binding, and the CEDS is a consultative body, so it cannot demand legislative modifications from Spain. Its resolutions are recommendations, valuable from a legal and political point of view, but without executive force. This lack of obligation has allowed Spain to postpone reforms that would change the way compensation is calculated for employees for unfair dismissal. The cornerstone: article 24. The point of greatest friction to undertake the reforms is found in article 24 of the European Social Charter. It requires “the right of workers dismissed without valid reason (unfair dismissal) to adequate compensation or other appropriate relief.” This means ensuring that compensations to employees for unfair dismissal must be “appropriate and dissuasive”. Something that, as a general rule, does not occur in the system of fixed compensation that is currently applied in all judicial processes for unfair dismissal. This time the request has not come from Europe. Despite having dictated different resolutions and requestsnothing has changed in Europe’s position, nor has it gained power to force Spain to implement the legislative changes. However, what has changed is internal politics. In September, a Non-Law Proposition promoted by Sumar managed to get ahead thanks to the voting error of a PP deputy, repeating the scene that in 2022 allowed approve the labor reform. This NLP does not modify the law itself, but it does urge the Government to begin the legislative process to adapt the regulations to the European framework. This implies the opening of a social dialogue table with unions and employers and, subsequently, the preparation of a bill that must return to Congress to be voted on. The reform of the regulations to legislate unfair dismissals, therefore, is still a long way off, but for the first time the Executive is obliged to put it on the table. “Restorative dismissal” is not a type of dismissal. Among all the CEDS recommendations, none has generated as much debate as the so-called restorative dismissal. The name can lead to confusion: it is not a new category of dismissal as the disciplinarynull or inadmissible, but refers to a proposal to transform How compensation is calculated when a dismissal is declared unfair. Europe considers that the current Spanish system is too predictable and, in many cases, insufficient. The result is that companies can treat unfair dismissal as a more or less easy cost to assume and choose which employees or how many to dismiss based on the cost of the operation. Restorative dismissal causes this calculation to vary from one employee to another and is under the sole discretion of a judge, which would prevent companies from calculating in advance the final cost of the dismissal. What is restorative dismissal?. As its name indicates, restorative dismissal is a model that seeks to individualize the severance payment to the specific damage it causes to the dismissed employee, instead of an automatic calculation based in days per year worked. Judges could assess specific factors in each case, taking into account factors such as the age and social situation of the worker, the real probability of re-entering the labor market, the economic and personal impact of the dismissal, or the size, solvency, or economic capacity of the dismissing company. Based on these factors, for example, a 60-year-old worker with children and a 24-year-old single worker who were fired by the same company in similar positions would obtain different compensation because, statistically, the older one would have less likely to return to the labor market than the young person. Europe understands that this flexibility is essential to repair the real damage of dismissal and to act as a preventive mechanism. Deterrence, protection and less business calculation. The objective of restorative dismissal is not only to better compensate the worker based on the impact caused, but also to discourage the appeal of unfair dismissal and that, if companies really have economic problems that justify dismissals, they do so through dismissals for objective reasons. If the cost is no longer predictable, the company loses the ability to make profitability calculations. This protection measure especially affects precarious groups who, due to their low salary or short seniority, are very cheap to fire: young people, women and precarious workers. Furthermore, Europe insists that the reinstatement after dismissal inadmissible should no longer be optional for the company as it is currently, and should become a real possibility imposed by the court when it is appropriate. Restoration, in this sense, is not only economic, but also labor-related. Justice has its hands tied. Despite Europe’s insistence, the Spanish courts have rejected impose compensation higher than the current scale included in the article 56 of the Workers’ Statute. The reason was not a lack of judicial will, but the absence of a legal framework that would allow additional compensation to be established without generating legal uncertainty. In Xataka | … Read more

Brendan Foody, one of the new AI billionaires, has not had a single day off for three years: he doesn’t need it either

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Mark Zuckerberg has been for years the benchmark of success precocious in Silicon Valley for having become the youngest self-made billionaire at just over 23 years old. Now the baton is being taken by new startup founders of artificial intelligence. In this new scenario there is Mercor, an AI recruiting platform founded by three 22-year-old friends who met on the high school debate team and are today listed as the world’s youngest self-made billionaires. Brendan Foody, Adarsh ​​Hiremath and Surya Midha have made it to the Forbes list with an estimated fortune of 2.2 billion dollars. However, all that money has not been enough for them to take a single day of vacation in the last three years. The startup that breaks records. As and as highlighted Fortunein less than nine months the founders of Mercor turned an initial idea into a company with a revenue rate of one million dollars, that meteoric growth places the Foody employment platform among the startups that have climbed the fastest in the current wave of AI. The definitive leap that has put Foody and its partners on the Forbes list came with a financing round of $350 million led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures, which it granted to Mercor an assessment of 10 billion dollars. Forbes estimates that each of the three partners control around 22% of the company, which places their fortunes in billions at just 22 years old, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg himself, who reached that figure at 23 years old. Generation Z and the 996 days. Paradoxically, this success comes from partners belonging to generation Z, which is usually associated with a greater concern for conciliation and balance between personal and work life. However, according to what was published by Fortune, Foody’s work style is more similar to the famous culture “996” (day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and six days a week) that is is imposing among the new Silicon Valley startups, which in the image of relaxed schedules and teleworking which is often attributed to the youngest. Three years without a single day off. Foody acknowledges that he has opted to follow an extreme work discipline since he dropped out of Georgetown University to focus entirely on Mercor. In his own words: “We work a lot, I have worked every day for the last three years,” he told Fortunebefore clarifying that, in his opinion, “people generally become exhausted, not only by working hard, but by working hard on something that is not as satisfying or enriching for them.” With this idea, Foody is located near the logic of culture 996but reinterpreted from the passion for his own project, where the long days they are experienced as an investment in a personal vision rather than an external imposition. It stops being an obligation and becomes a passion. Foody did not always experience work in this intense and voluntary way. Before creating his own company, he describes his relationship with work as something closer to disciplinary obligation than to deep motivation. “Often they were things I didn’t enjoy doing,” he recalled when talking about his previous stage. The turn came with the creation of Mercor, when the daily task began to be perceived almost as a creative obsession linked to one’s own project and a clear vision of the impact one wanted to achieve. “Compared to when we started Mercor, it became an obsession where I can’t stop thinking about, even if I’m having dinner with my parents or whatever, it’s spinning in my head,” Foody explained, stressing that this constant mental involvement means that he doesn’t even feel the need to take a vacation. Curiously, this feeling is not new. Bill Gates described a similar feeling in the early years of Microsoft. Then he understood that rest is necessary and even productive. Seeing results motivates you to continue. One of the keys to sustaining this pace that the young founder of Mercor highlights is to verify that the hours invested generate a clear return on the project. “I think the most important thing is to always make sure I see the impact of what I do, the return on investment (ROI) of the huge amount of time I put into it,” Foody added. In short, it confirms the old saying “find a job you like and you will never work again.” However, the origin of this motivation has a scientific explanationthe short-term rewards produced by the so-called “lens gradient effect“. Obtaining quantifiable results in the short term motivates you to continue working on the project. Especially if that impact is accompanied by a fortune of 2.2 billion dollars. ‘Genzers’ demolishing clichés. Foody’s story questions the clichés about Generation Z that portray them as reluctant to do the slightest sacrifice and rejects the excessive hours at work. However, it shows that when there is a strong connection between personal purposeperceived impact and financial rewards, some young people are willing to embrace extreme models of dedication. Faced with this narrative, the implicit question remains open for the new founders who They openly embrace the culture of “996”: if they demand the same from their teams level of delivery and commitment They, perhaps, should also ask themselves why these employees are not entering the Forbes list along with the creators of the company. In Xataka | “They are much more daring”: Gen Z is overturning all labor consensus in its massive entry into work Image | Pexels, Brendan Foody

from working 120 hours to thinking that in 20 years work will be optional

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Elon Musk gained his reputation as a tireless worker when became public that his days at Tesla stretched beyond 120 hours a week and that he even slept in his office at the Austin gigafactory during the production crisis of Model 3. However, the millionaire seems to have changed his mind upon seeing the evolution of AI and has surprised the world with a futuristic vision about work: “working will be optional,” assured the richest person in the world in a recent speech at an investor forum in Saudi Arabia. From 996 to “working is optional”. Elon Musk, famous for defending 80-hour days to achieve great goals, published a message in November 2018 on his social network wrote the millionaire In an interview on the podcast ‘People by WTF’ by Nikil Kamath, Musk has changed his mind and has come to believe that, in a period of “between 10 and 20 years, work will be optional. Like a hobby” thanks to the increase in productivity promised by the evolution of AI and the progressive arrival of humanoid robots like Optimus that Tesla is developing. In his talk with Kamath, Musk compared working to growing vegetables in your own garden: “You can grow your own vegetables in your garden or you can go to the store to buy them. It’s much harder to grow your own vegetables. But some people like to grow their vegetables, and that’s fine. But it will be optional, that way, is my prediction,” said the Tesla CEO. Its formula: universal income. Musk believes that a universal income It will cover all the basic expenses of the population, eliminating the need for mandatory employment. This would allow people to live in the countryside or the city without depending on a job near an office. The businessman added: “You won’t have to be in a city for a job. If you can think of it, you can have it, that will be the future.” This vision of a population financed by a universal basic income aligns with the experiments with basic income funded by Sam Altman, former founding partner of OpenAI and Musk’s current rival. The future of AI comes together. With this change of heart regarding the workday, Elon Musk aligns himself with figures like Bill Gates, who predict that AI will automate almost everything and lead to three-day work weeks in less than a decade. Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, also pointed out in an interview with The New York Timesto the theory of the three-day week thanks to the increase in productivity. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, it coincided a few days ago with Musk on stage at the Saudi Arabia Investor Forum. There he agreed with the Tesla CEO’s postulate. Huang has long argued that AI will boost the four-day work week, promoting idea generation and projects beyond current capabilities. AI is a concern for Gen Z. While the predictions of technological CEOs come true, the reality is that the evolution of AI has become a serious concern for young people of generation Z who are starting your working career. The first data They already point out that some large companies are reducing hiring in entry-level positions, which were usually occupied by recent graduates. A recent survey from the Deutsche Bank Research Institute revealed that generation Z was “very concerned” about AI stealing job opportunities. As the question moves to older generations, that concern fades away. In Xataka | We still don’t have a four-day week and there are already CEOs dreaming of the next level: working only three days Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore)

For years, foreigners who wanted sun and beach bought a house in Spain. Now they are looking for something else: luxury housing

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The real estate market emits signals which show that foreigners have won a relevant weight in the sale and purchase of luxury homes, which leads us to think about changes in the profile of the international buyer. Spain is no longer just a destination for families or couples from other countries interested in getting a small apartment for their vacation in search of sun and beach. It also receives wealthy people who want settle herein the cities, and is able to pay for his house out of pocket. The data are certainly suggestive. “First level destination”. I warned him recently in an interview with Idealista Paloma Pérez Bravo, CEO of Residencial de Lucas Fox, a platform specialized in the premium market: “Spain has gone from being a sun and beach getaway to a top-level luxury destination.” From your experiencethe country “has stopped being the home of the sun and has become the home of investment. People want more first homes than second homes because they are moving to Spain.” It’s not the only change he appreciates. Upon your signature, Bravo explains to SERdigital nomads are now arriving, entrepreneurs from America, English and American, also businessmen and investors who used to invest in the US and now find themselves with problems there due to Trump’s immigration policy. Is there data? Yes, although they come mainly from companies, so they must be handled with some caution. In your report On market forecasts for 2026, Lucas Fox reveals for example that 62% of buyers Those who close transactions worth more than 2.5 million euros are foreigners, more than 60% of ultra-luxury sales are signed without the need for financing and a good part of the acquisitions are made in search of a “main residence”, not to convert the property into a vacation home or as an investment. Looking ahead to next year, the company also expects that activity in the segments prime and super prime grow 3-6% and 6-10% respectively and leaves behind a fundamental idea that tells us about the profile of those clients who purchase the most expensive houses: “The international buyer is already the majority.” Specifically, the weight of Europeans stands out, followed by Americans and British. Other percentage: 92%. Lucas Fox is not the first to warn of the frequency with which foreign accents are heard in real estate agencies specializing in the premium market. A few months ago Barnes claimed that 92% of buyers from the Spanish luxury market were already foreigners. Of them, around half (49%) were also investors from outside the EU, with a notable presence especially of Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Russians, Chinese and Arabs. The community members They accounted for 43% while the Spanish, according to the real estate agency, were left with a meager 8% of the total. Are there more clues? The answer is once again affirmative. Another company that shared data recently is LuxuryEstatea premium housing portal that confirms that searches by international buyers interested in the Spanish market already represent a substantial part of its traffic. Above all, the demand for information from european countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Belgium or the Netherlands and the interest aroused by the premium segment of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Madrid or the Valencian Community. Other regions, such as the Canary Islands and the Basque Country, also seem to be emerging. A consolidated destination. LuxuryEstate confirm in fact that ours “is no longer just an aspirational destination, but a highly competitive market.” The comment is in line with what it points out to Lucas Fox or even CaixaBank Research, which in a recent analysis Regarding the changes in the profile of the resident foreigner who acquires housing in Spain, he warns: “Spain has established itself as one of the most attractive destinations for luxury investment in Europe.” Different buyers. In the same reportCaixaBank recalls that the demand for housing by foreigners has grown in recent years, first after the pandemic and then thanks to the improvement in financing. It also clarifies that there are differences between resident foreigners and those who do not live here and are mainly looking for houses for their vacations or as an investment. On average, the former (residents) paid around €1,795/m2 in 2024 and the latter (non-residents) €3,063/m2. These are values ​​significantly higher than those recorded by national buyers, which moved at 1,713. However, the last balance of Property Registrars shows that foreign demand for housing has reduced in the third quarter of the year, representing 13.6% of the total. The percentage reflects the entire market, not just the luxury segment, although there are those who warn that the latter is not immune to the shortage of supply, which among other issues affects its prices. Images | DaYsO (Unsplash) In Xataka | After Catalonia, there is another autonomous community considering prohibiting buying a home to invest: Canary Islands

We have been hearing for years that plastic is safer than wood. Jordi Cruz does not agree (and it seems he is right)

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Science has spent decades studying what happens with E.colithe Salmonella and company when they touch the wooden, plastic or metal boards that we use in the kitchen. It is an old (and we thought unsolvable) fight, but the famous chef Jordi Cruz has spoken. He said it on TikTokbut since the ways of distributing content on the Internet are capricious, he has also said so in tens of websites. The question is whether what he said makes sense. What does Jordi Cruz defend? In essence, Cruz has commented your prints on three cutting board materials (plastic, metal and wood). Furthermore, it has gotten wet: for him, the best option is wood. As explainedwhile plastic is filled with grooves where bacteria accumulate and metal destroys the edge of the knife, wood has “natural antibacterial and antimicrobial” properties, where bacteria “get between the fibers and end up dying.” The controversy has been enormous, of course. A curious debate. That “clear” comes from the fact that for years it has been said that wood is the material that “accumulates the most bacteria”, in contrast to “non-porous” plastics that can be put in the dishwasher (and can be cleaned more easily). It is logical that seeing a famous chef say that wood is the best has made many put your hands on your head. However, Cruz is not as off track as we might think. What the evidence says. From the very beginning (the pioneering studies by Dean Cliver at the University of Wisconsin in the 90s), research they have been giving us back the same image: There is no evidence that plastic is inherently safer than wood. Appropriate (hard and closed-pore) and well-preserved wood creates a hostile environment for many bacteria. The problem is that. Wooden boards are not only more expensive, but require maintenance. And if we are not going to give it to them, plastic with all its problems is safer. Although not totally sure, of course. That is to say: the most dangerous boards are the old, scratched and poorly washed ones. The material does not matter, what is important is its state of conservation. And then? Some time ago, food safety experts stopped focusing on the material and began to look for strategies that would try to reduce the main risk derived from the tables: cross contamination. A good example of this are the recommendations of the North American USDA. For the Agency, both wood and other “non-porous” surfaces are acceptable for things like meat and chicken. Their main recommendation is another: use a table for raw meats and a different one for ready-to-eat foods (in addition to always cleaning them with hot water and soap; and subjecting them to periodic disinfection). In Europe the recommendation is similar and, in fact, he adds that although there may be more or less appropriate materials depending on the use, “in domestic kitchens the priority is hygiene and not the specific material.” What do the chefs say? What Jordi Cruz says (that a wooden board is best as a “main board”) is a general consensus between chefs and gastronomic influencers. However, it is common to restrict them to chopping cooked vegetables, fruit, bread and produce. On the other hand, also it is common to use plastic with meat and raw fish. Or what is the same, for “dirty uses.” Sometimes we get stuck in absurd debates. And this is a good example: the public debate has dedicated a lot of effort to establishing the idea of ​​”bad wood/good plastic”, when the important thing is to use several boards, assign them fixed uses and clean (and replace them) when necessary. Image | Garden House | The Anthill In Xataka | To the question of whether ultra-processed foods are as bad as we have been told, science still has no clear answer

We are facing the greatest threat to livestock farming in 30 years

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As I write this, the Military Emergency Unit is deploying to Collserola to try to contain the African swine fever epidemic that has already left 14 dead wild boars and threatens bring the entire Spanish pork sector to a historic crisis. Right now, while the Generalitat finishes the tests on the 39 livestock farms in the area, more than 80 UME operatives (together with the Rural Agents and the Civil Guard) are sweeping the natural park between Barcelona and Cerdanyola del Vallès. Thirty years later, this animal disease is back. What has happened? On November 26, in the vicinity of the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Bellaterra, two dead wild boars were found. The tests by the veterinary services of the Generalitat of Catalonia left no room for doubt: the African swine fever virus was back on the peninsula. It was the first positive in Spain since November 1994. After notification to the Ministry of Agriculture, confirmation of the positives by the Central Veterinary Laboratory of Algete (Madrid) and the implementation of the control device, the Department of the Generalitat found four other bodies more in the same area. Given the confirmation of the outbreak, the Government requested intervention of the UME hunting control unit. Aren’t we overreacting a little? That’s what it might seem like. After all, African swine fever does not affect humans and is relatively localized among wild pigs in a specific natural park. The question that many ask is whether it is really necessary to mobilize one of the elite units of the Spanish army for 14 dead wild boars. And the answer, I’m afraid, is yes. Although it is a strictly zoonotic disease (and, indeed, does not affect humans) it has mortality and morbidity levels close to 100% among domestic pigs. That is, it is a disease that “can kill all the pigs on a farm after a few days of fever, coughing and bleeding.” And the world takes it very seriously. To the point that “the appearance of a single case of plague causes preventive blocking of pork exports.” There are more than 20 countries that, to begin with, they do not accept regionalization and, therefore, the veto of Spanish pork exports is en bloc and immediate. Among them are Japan or Mexico. The Ministry of Agriculture is in negotiations with them, but shipments are stopped. We must not forget that it is leader in pork export within the European Union and ranks third worldwide in production. The arrival of African swine fever (however predictable it could be) is a catastrophe for the sector. And for Spanish foreign trade in general: China, which imports 20% of Spanish pork and which has just signed a historic agreement precisely on pork with the presence of the Kings, is very pending of what is happening in Catalonia (and the possible expansion of the virus). We must not forget that the arrival of the plague to Spain in the 60s (through Portugal and its African colonies) led an international isolation of the Iberian pig for more than three decades. And now what? The first thing is to “clean” Collserola. That is why the deployment has been so rapid and large. But afterward, it will be time to identify the origin of the outbreak (Councilor Òscar Ordeig has pointed to contaminated food as the main suspect, but it is still not clear) and, above all, we will have to reflect on hunting and veterinary controls. Because, as I said before, this is not a surprise. In 2014, reports were already saying that the virus was rampant across Europe’s eastern border; but it wasn’t until 2020 when he jumped to Germany also through a wild boar. The German country was, by the way, at that time the largest pork producer in the EU. Since then, the virus has already appeared in 15 EU countries (Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Belgium and Sweden). Just these last two They have managed to eradicate it again after the application of draconian control measures. Now it’s our turn and we have a lot at stake. Image | Oscar in the middle | Jonathan Kemper In Xataka | In a country with almost as many pigs as people, the worst that can happen is that investment funds take over

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