The US believes to have a “treasure” with the rare earths of Ukraine. Everything is born from a outdated Soviet report 50 years ago

Today, Friday, February 28, Presidents Volodymir Zelensky and Donald Trump They will meet in Washington to discuss and sign the agreement on the mineral resources of Ukraine. This alliance will give the United States a control over the country’s natural resources, a measure that Trump has promoted These last days. However, estimates on this aspect are based on reports of the former USSR for more than 50 years ago. The famous “rare earths”. I think we have heard of the “rare earths” these days and, in this same medium, We have deepened the subject Exposing the arguments of two energy experts, which have confirmed that talking about “rare earths” is a mistake. However, the global S&P medium He has been able to demonstrate Where does that speculation come from, it has only had to dust off some old documents of the former Soviet Union. More than 50 years ago. The geological report of the Soviet era that is using Ukraine to evaluate its “rare earth” deposits focuses on an exploration made between 1960 and 1990. It is true that the technology of the moment and the methods were very different from the current ones. According to experts Consulted by S&P Globalthe data used to estimate mineral resources have not been updated since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. In addition, some of the deposits are in areas of difficult access and require more advanced technologies for extraction, as is the case of Novopoltavske, located in the Zaporizhia region, due to hydrogeological mining conditions. This mine, according to the report, contains phosphates, rare earths and niobium. On the other hand, currently, you cannot access the territories occupied by Russia, as in the Donetsk region, where the Azovske and Mazurivske quarries are located. Were these deposits exploited in the USSR? According to the report with more than five decades, they knew about them and explored them, but were not completely exploited on a large scale. The impediments went through a lack of structure, the complexity to access the deposits and technological limitations of the time. After the dissolution of the USSR, the mining projects in the Ukraine area stagnated and no attempted development was made in a postsoviet era. What will happen today? United States and Ukraine They will sign a treaty For a Ukraine reconstruction fund, partially financed with the income of its mineral reserves. Ukraine has agreed to contribute 50% of its future income derived from critical mineral mining such as cobalt, lithium, titanium and rare earths. In return, United States It would help develop The mining infrastructure necessary to extract these resources, but analysts consider that real benefits could take many years to materialize. In addition, the US will be co -owner of the Fund to the extent allowed by its legislation and promises long -term financial commitment, but the agreement It does not specify amounts, deadlines or details about the management of the fund, which generates uncertainty about its real implementation. However, there is a key fact that has been overlooked: currently, Ukraine does not produce rare earths at the commercial level. Although it has reservations, the infrastructure necessary to extract them still does not exist. According to the United States Geological Service, Ukraine has Scandio depositsone of the 17 elements of rare earths, but its large -scale extraction has not begun. Is it really so essential for the US? We have already told. On the one hand, Trump seeks to lead global mineral resources and impose himself on China. On the other hand, analysts They have mentioned that Ukraine should produce 20% of the world’s rare land for more than 150 years to reach the 500,000 million dollars of value that Trump has mentioned. In addition, as indicated in the report, the value of deposits may not justify the investment in its extraction, which makes Trump’s interest not completely clear from an economic perspective. To this is added the lack of clarity On the previous help of the US: Trump has mentioned between 300,000 and 350,000 million dollars, but the Kiel Institute has estimated that the real figure is 119,000 million. It should be remembered that Ukraine has a notable production of other strategic minerals. Before the war, Galio produced, used in semiconductors and biomedical applications, and contributed 2% of the world’s bromine production, essential in flame retarders. In addition, it produced ilmenite, a key mineral concentrate for obtaining titanium, a metal with military applications. However, the war has stopped the production of manganese and alumina, fundamental for the manufacture of steel and aluminum. And about the occupied territory? Access to mineral deposits in territory occupied by Russia depends on an eventual resolution of the conflict, adding another layer of uncertainty to the agreement. It also follows a key issue in the air: Zelensky sought to include security guarantees for Ukraine, but The agreement does not explicitly mention them. Although the text says that the US will support “Ukraine efforts to obtain security guarantees,” does not establish specific commitments or defense mechanisms in case of aggression. Without them, the real impact of the treaty remains uncertain. Trump and Putin. All this conflict is even more complicated if we add the layer of the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, who have talked again, and the Russian leader even has offered preferential access to the natural resources of your country, showing willing to negotiate the end of the conflict. Despite these “advances”, the possible concessions that Trump could accept, such as Ukraine renounces NATO, they worry both kyiv and Europe. They fear that these agreements can make safety in the region even more unstable. And the cake wid. The agreement Mention explicitly That future negotiations on the fund should avoid conflicts with the process of adhesion of Ukraine to the European Union, a striking point given Washington’s growing antagonism towards Brussels. However, Zelensky wants to avoid that the agreement interferes with its ambitions in European integration. Everything remains to be seen at today’s meeting. Image … Read more

After years with its closed borders, North Korea has opened to foreign tourism. The price: more than $ 600

Very shy, limited and with restrictions, but North Korea begins to open to foreign tourism five years after have sealed its borders to protect yourself from the propagation of COVID-19. The hermetic nation led by Kim Jong-un is about to be somewhat less hermetic, both for travelers from China and Western. Of course, at least for the moment and despite the fact that the country is building His own ‘Benidorm’ In Wonsan, the tours will focus on a specific (and controlled) area: Rason. No visits to Pyongyang. Border closure. Five years ago, even in the initial bars of the Covid-19 Pandemia, North Korea took A radical decision: At the end of January 2020, the view of how the virus spread for the Chinese neighbor, the authorities decided to close foreign tourists. The measure made sense if one takes into account that in 2019, tens of thousands of travelers arrived from the Asian giant had visited North Korea. Some sources speak of 350,000. Others point out that the country received in total 300,000 tourists foreigners, of which 90% were Chinese. One (long) temporary measure. The idea was that the borders remained “temporarily” as “preventive measure against coronavirus.” Or so He announced it In January 2022 Young Pioneer Tours, an agency that was dedicated to organizing trips to the country of Kimg Jong-un. What was not clarified was what exactly “temporary” meant, an uncertain horizon that extended one, two, three … until five yearswhich is what has ended up lasting the closure. The government already made A first gesture In 2024, allowing Russian tourist delegations, which were already pointed out as The first foreign travelers who accessed the country from the pandemic; But now North Korean authorities have decided to go one step further. Coinciding almost with the fifth anniversary of the closing of the borders, the country has allowed The passage of several travel companies and a very small group of visitors. What exactly? The Straits Times Explain that at the beginning of February the North Korean authorities allowed the country of a select group of travel operators. Select and Very small. Experience served to tote the land for the really important date: tourism reopening February 20although the latter has also been done in a limited way. Among the operators who stepped on North Korean soil after years of border closure was the Australian Rowan Beard, of the Pioneer Tours agency, based in Beijing. His business was expected to take A dozen tourists To the country, a figure similar to the one that was handled by another of the selected operators, Koryo Tours, who when Corea’s apartment already had a group of 15 people eager to walk around the country. And who have visited it? After the first trip of recognition and “familiarization”, that of Beard, foreign tourists have arrived, including people from Singapore, Australia, Germany or Romania, according to Precise The country. Other media They holdthat among visitors there are also citizens of the United Kingdom and Jamaica. The CNN even assures That among the “pioneers” is an American, Justin Martell, who would have mocked the prohibition of his country after becoming a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean nation. Looking at China. After A first approach To Russia, the nation of Kim Jong-un already looks at its great tourism market: China. Kyodo News agency I advanced A few days ago the country prepares to resume tourist trips of the Asian giant, which until the closing of borders moved a flow of tens of thousands of travelers a year. The perspective of knowing North Korea may be more or less appealing from countries such as Spain, where the government even advised The visitbut it has its market. Packages for $ 670. Beard remember that when his agency announced the trips the company’s email “saturated” consultations. And that the experience requires scratching the pocket: Young Pioneer Tours, one of the few authorized, offers a five -day and four night package for $ 670. Another option is to pay $ 720 With several nights in Yanji, China. “For many people it is a very mysterious country,” Beard comments: “Technically there is no Internet or is limited. So life there works in a similar way to what we had in the 1980s.” Those who have already been in the country after reopening ensure that the rules when taking photos have relaxed, which does not mean that visitors can film what they want. “They only scold me once,” Recognize the CNN Gerg Vaczi, by Korko Tours, “and was to film a guide.” Opening, but with quotes. North Korea’s policy change has been important, but also limited. That he has decided to allow the passage of tourists again does not mean that they will move freely through the country or move to the capital, Pyongyang, supposedly closed For any tourist who Do not come from Russia. Visitors must settle at least for the moment with Rasona special economic zone established in the early 90s and presents certain important peculiarities. A special destination. To begin its location, it is strategic, northwest of the country, near the borders of China and Russia. It also does not have an international airport, with what the only way to arrive is to cross the limit with China under the control of the Border guards. The area also has peculiar administrative conditions and has been raised, Precise ABC News, as a kind of evidence field to test new economic policies. The idea It is that tourists who can reach drops visit spaces such as a factory, an aquaculture farm, Schoolsor have the experience of open an account Banking in the Golden Triangle Bank. Rason is also in a border and coastal area. Beard Recognize In any case that the area presents certain “logistics limitations”, such as the number of hotel places, guides and buses. And why now? The other big question. It is estimated that before the pandemic the country received hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists generated … Read more

The eight years of updates are already possible on Android. That will happen is something very different

Who was going to tell us a few years ago that a phone could be updated up to eight times to a new version of operating system. This is precisely what Google and Qualcomm have just signed, supporting updates for eight years to all those manufacturers that incorporate the Snapdragon 8 Elite on your phones. “This means that the support for platform software included in this program will be available for OEM for eight consecutive years, including updates of the Android and Kernel operating system, without the need to make important changes or updates on the platform and the code OEM of the device (a separation commonly known as “project treble” or “supplier implementation”). Update of Kernel mode controllers, the supplier code can remain unchanged while providing software support. “ Updating for eight years sounds very good, but it is difficult to end up becoming a common practice. Manufacturer’s decision. Qualcomm and Google have opened the door, but it is the manufacturers who decide whether or not. In fact, Qualcomm itself makes it clear in its statement. “The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) will decide if a smartphone or an eligible mobile phone will receive all software support offered For longer. “ Last year, Qualcomm already endured Seven years of updatesand just Samsung and Google got on the car. Among all Android manufacturers, these two are the only ones that offer seven -year updates from the date of purchase of the device. A small shot in the foot. Updating a phone for seven years is a complex matter. On the one hand, it is a great sale argument. If we think of brands such as Samsung, Google or Apple, the first thing that can come to mind is “longevity.” They are phones made to last, and when we are looking for a high -end phone, this point is key. But, on the other hand, support for eight years involves dedicating eight years of resources to a telephone that will stop selling after their first year of life. That is why the vast majority of manufacturers still do not offer a wide cycle of updates. Manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Oppo offer four years of system updates. Others, as alive, stay in three. The battle with the annual model. We have been raising a movement that a priori would make sense: stop launching a year a year. The technological maturity of the smartphone is increasing (even more in the highest ranges), something that makes it difficult to see relevant innovations. If a phone is going to last eight years, a renewal cycle every two years is not crazy. Despite this, launching annual devices remains a strategy to boost income and grow the manufacturers ecosystem. Not only will it be high -end thing. “The smartphones that are launched with the new mobile platforms of the Snapdragon 8 and 7 series will also be eligible to receive this extended support.” Qualcomm has not detailed which series models seven will be compatible, but opens the doors for mid -range models also have an extensive life cycle. Great news about the paper, although it will remain to be checked how many manufacturers update a phone away from the first line. Image | Xataka In Xataka | How to update Android to your latest version

The oceans of the Earth were green for thousands of years. More and more scientists believe they will be again

On February 14, 1990, 6,000 million kilometers from Earth, the Voyager 1 He took a photo. There, sustained in space by the mysterious forces of. Space-time, our planet is nothing more than a light blue motor between the sunlight reflected by the camera. Four years later, Carl Sagan baptized that photo as “that pale blue point.” What we just discovered is that it was not always the case. 3,000 million years ago, that point would have been green. Wasn’t it blue? Actually, according to Taro Matsuo and his team from the University of Nagoya in Japan explain in Japanduring most of the history of the earth its surface would not have been blue. For about 3,000 million years and until 600 million years ago (just when complex life begins on the planet) the predominant color seems to have been green. (No) take iron from the matter … The first is that, at that time, the indications tell us that the oceans were full of iron hydroxide. This inorganic compound absorbs blue light. In addition, naturally, water absorbs red light. That means that taking into account that chemical composition, the only free light was the green color. The other reason is the cyanobacteria. It’s about One of the first photosynthetic beings of history and not only used chlorophyll to absorb sunlight, but used fuses to absorb red and green light. The sum of these two things caused the seas to have a characteristic green color. And they had it for billions of years. It is true that it was not a pure green color. After all, blue is “a consequence of dispersion Rayleight of sunlight in the atmosphere. “So the color would tend to blue, but without a doubt it would be something much greener than current. What is the use of all this research? First, to understand that when The MIT explained in 2019that the sea will return green in the mid -century, we are talking about something very plausible. It is not just that A follow -up study In 2023 he confirmed that more than half of the land surface had gained greenery in recent years. It is that, for a long time, it was so. On the other hand, it allows us to answer one of the great questions of astrobiology: “Does only the blue tone of a planet serve as an indicator of its potential to house life?“And the answer, of course, is no: not a ‘non -radical’ is true; but one that reminds us that there are more things out there that can still dream our biology. Image | Georgetan#5 In Xataka | UFOs are a distraction: how astrobiology is our best asset to find extraterrestrial life

Mathematicians needed 300 years to demonstrate Fermat’s last theorem. Computers have not achieved it

“I have found a really admirable demonstration, but the margin of the book is very small to put it.” It is what the 17th -century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat wrote when stating his His “last theorem”. Fermat’s problem took three decades to be found between the mathematician papers and three centuries until that admirable test was discovered. And yet the case is not entirely settled, only that the challenge is something different. Take it to a computer. He New challenge It is to make a computer to try the elusive theorem. That is the objective of a new project, FERMAT FORMALISINGled by Imperial College London. Fermat’s problem. Fermat’s last theorem “postulates that, if A, byc are natural numbers and not equal to zero, the an+bn = cn equation has no solution if n is greater than two. Formally demonstrating something is not as simple as trying it by rehearsal and error, and this demonstration, too complex for the “megish margin” of the Fermat’s notebook would be lost for centuries. The problem was resolved in 1994 by the British Andrew Wiles, who had begun to solve this puzzle with only 10 years. In 2016 Wiles was awarded the ABEL award, the award considered “The Nobel of Mathematics.” Almost one million pounds. Another 30 years after the resolution of the enigma and more than three centuries after the death of Fermat, a team of researchers, led by Kevin Buzzard, of Imperial College London, has put to work to take a different step, teach A computer to solve this problem. The new project It began at the end of 2024 and will last until 2029. It has a financing of just over 934,000 pounds and already begins to give some results, in the form of code fragments that are added to a Database in Github. What remains to be resolved.It can be contraintuitive, but this type of reasoning, which lead us to formally demonstrate mathematical theorems, are difficult to teach computers. Recently, Buzzard and other experts They explained the complexity of the matter to the French newspaper I monde. To begin with, we must take into account that the resolution of this theorem is complex, it is no accident that several generations of mathematics would turn the brains trying to find it. These mathematicians also had previous experience in the field of resolution of these types of problems. As Buzzard explained to the French newspaper, mathematicians have a base that allows them to “jump steps” when explaining the resolution to this problem. A computer, however, must start from scratch when building its own explanation for the matter. And all this, for what? “Fermat’s last theorem (…) has no applications, theoretical or practices, in the real world,” Buzzard pointed out A few months ago to the magazine New Scientist. So why so much effort to teach a computer to solve something we already resolved? The key here is not in the past but in the future. According to Explain the team at the head of the projectcomputers today can be used to attend mathematicians trying to solve problems such as demonstration of theorems, but there is an obstacle to materializing some forms of help. The problem, they point out, is that few mathematicians have focused on working with this software, so there are no tools that have the “definitions” used by mathematicians to solve these problems. Working on this problem should be used to create the necessary databases for solving similar problems in the future. In Xataka | We had more than a century trying to solve some mathematical problems. The AI ​​is starting to unravel Image | Diofanto’s arithmetic / Pierre de Fermat by Rolland Lefebvre

The director of ‘The substance’ debuted 30 years ago with a homemade tribute to Star Wars that you can now see for free

It is one of the most surprising films of the year: ‘The substance‘(What can you see In Filmin and Movistar Plus+) It is a history of neocárnico horror that satirizes the obsession of society to supervise the body of women. With absolutely star Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley and a display of absolutely demential effects, the film It is also a tribute to many forms and styles of horror cinemafrom the toxic avenger films to ‘Videodome’. That is, its director Coraline Fargeat is a devouring of all kinds of films. In fact, he already demonstrated it three decades ago and with only 17 years. Herself Account to Letterboxd I “did A small Star Wars movie. Using my family’s camcorder, I encouraged my toys in Stop Motion, I dressed my friends from Ewoks and Stormtroopers, and edited it in a VHS video (which was the fashionable device at that time!) “. The rudimentary images and the zero budget are apologized by Fargeat himself: “It was a fond thing, but Everything I liked to make movies was already there… It was the place where I felt free, passionate and alive, and capable of expressing myself fully. It was after making this little movie when I knew I wanted to be a director … today that I am nominated for best director, I can’t help remembering this little movie … Follow your dreams. “ The truth is that the result is absolutely adorable, and the shameless campaign at ease: infrahuman costumes, direct ripeo of plans and complete dialogues of the original film, sectional script twists … and of course, an absolute devotion for the act to create stories, even if they are second -hand. To do this, Fargeat puts the hands of the licensed toys that he had on hand and the soundtrack of John Williams, of course used without permission, as well as the portal of a building, shot as if they were the interiors of an imperial base. And, of course, a final Ewok party that lengthens more than reasonable. Now that Fargeat is a prestigious director and Oscar nominated What would she do if a new installment of ‘Star Wars’ fell into their handsa possibility not as far from reality as a few years ago. Surely we would see much more canteen, much more alien with tentacles and confrontations with infinitely more visceral imperial assault troops. It seems impossible for Disney to put a family franchise as ‘Star Wars’ in the hands of such a radical director, but for that Oscar win, right? Header | Letterboxd In Xataka | ‘Star Wars’: Where and what order to watch all the films of the saga

Smell mummies 5,000 years ago

Why are roses red? What is the meaning of life? Is the potato tortilla better with or without onion? What does an Egyptian mummy smell of 5,000 years ago? The answer to some of them is not clear (The tortilla with onion, of course), but if Your particular Roman Empire It is thinking about the aroma of rot and mortuary processes of ancient Egypt, you should know that you are not alone. In fact, a group of researchers has been smelling mummies for months. Now they want anyone to do it. Eau de Mummy. “We were surprised how pleasant his smell was,” commented Cecilia Bembibre a few days ago to BBC Radio 4, just at the same time that a study of the University College of London in which They analyzed The reasons after the interest in knowing how the mummies smelled. And it is curious, especially when it comes to a body that has been macrating thousands of years in a sarcophagus and that both cinema and literature (and a little common sense) have encouraged us to never smell a mummy if we had the opportunity . But, if we stop to think about it, it is not so far -fetched that a mummy smells “good.” In the end, the mummification process was carried out to preserve the body and soul in order to enter the other life, so not only the deceased was accompanied by its trousseau, but the body was treated with oils and balms. “Sweet” Ok, surely you think they simply opened sarcophagi and bring their nose closer. It would be little hygienic, as little, but no. The researchers of both the UCL and the University of Liubliana of Slovenia inserted a tiny tube to measure the gases. In this way, they get the method not to be invasive when you do not need to take samples. The device can be seen in the image that we leave below: Separating odors. It is always difficult to describe odors, but researchers comment that, although they are intense, they can say that they have touches of wood, spices and that the background is something sweet. Wow, quite the opposite of what we could imagine. They also noticed odors related to the decomposition of animal fat used during the embalming processwhich tells them that the body would be beginning to deteriorate. This olfactory analysis was not like that of a wine taster, but through a process in which, through gas chromatography, they separated the different odors captured inside the sarcophagus. Subsequently, a program analyzes them, compares with markers of other odors, combine and is how the aromas are formed. The data of the nine mummies were compared to see which markers coincided with family odors It makes sense. All this has a double purpose. On the one hand, “intervene practically” in the conservation of mummies. Knowing what aromas and substances were used at the time they embalmed it, researchers have a new way of storing them and wrapping the bodies in a much closer way to the original. Also of knowing the age of the mummy more accurately, since the techniques and oils evolved over time. On the other, the nose is powerful: smells transport us to other times and places without moving from the site. It is something that creates a strong emotional reaction and Ally Louks, supervisor of English literature at the University of Cambridge, told BBC that it is an “innovative” way to communicate history. Also, like Comment Ali Abdelhalim, co -author of the study and director of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, the smells were key to society during the mummification process, since the pleasant ones associated with the deities and the “dirty” to body corruption and decline. Sensory experience. In fact, from the research team it was affirmed that it can be “an approach of great interest to museum collections.” That is, if you visit a museum with a collection of ancient Egypt that exposes a mummy, you could live a more complete sensory experience if, in addition to observing it, you could taste the aroma that would be lived during the embalming process. When separating odors and recombing them through these chromatography techniques, substances that smell similarly to permeate the room in which the mummy is exposed can be generated. Therefore, these discoveries have a double purpose: to approach that point in our history and, above all, allow the past to be better. Images | ACS, Abdelrazek Elnaggar In Xataka | Ancient Egypt had something more impressive than its pyramids: a colossal death industry

After a delay of seven years, Saudi Arabia takes up the works of the highest skyscraper in the world. Let’s see what lasts

Saudi Arabia has become the Madrid of the ‘galacticos’, the Barcelona of the ‘Tiki-Taka’. When we talk about megaconstructions, the country plays in another league, a capable of shadowing the Almighty Manhattan. And it is evident when we see all those projects that have as hands like the imposing MUKAABthe huge Abraj al Bait tower watch or the ‘Boss’ end of urbanism: The Line. Another project is Jeddah Tower that, like The Line, It has been choking More than once to builders. But, after two threats to return to the work, now the final one has arrived: they have restarted the works of what will be the highest building in the world. Kingdom Tower. The Jeddah Tower, or Kingdom Tower, has an objective between eyebrow and eyebrow: make the Burj Khalifa 828 meters high. To do this, the same team of architects that built the Dubai skyscrapers is being in charge of this tower, which will be the jewel of the crown of the crown of the Vision 2030 Project and the heart of a new city that will rise around it. The construction began more than a decade ago, but although they advanced at a good pace, the planning was too optimistic. It was said that it would have been completed in 2018, but by then, the tower was not even close to completing. The reason? Delays due to labor problems and COVID-19 Pandemiabut above all to the purge of corruption of 2017. The purge. In 2018, the heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman created an anti -corruption committee with an objective: centralize political power. He had tired that different elites of the country handled the threads, so he created a system that ended with more than 380 arrests of entrepreneurs, ministers, princes and even members of his family, as his own mother. HE speak of death groups to murder dissidents and, in this purge to stop political corruption, extortion to officials and money laundering, foundations and first floors of the Jeddah Tower suffered the consequences, being frozen. Initial plans with the intention of release the tower in 2018 and a height comparison To the third is the defeated. At the end of 2023, the promoter invited local contractors to see which candidacy conquered him for the end of the work and, in October last year, a video made it clear that They moved on. The problem is that everything was very in the air … until now, when the company Kingdom Holding Companythe one behind the project has announced that construction has restarted. In it release before the press, They affirmed that they had already poured cement on the 64th floor and that they are using a cement application technique with which they can complete a floor every four days. 1,000 meters, more or less. It will have about 160 floors and we cannot speak with ownership of the matter because, really, it is not clear. It is curious that it is not known from the beginning how many floors the tower will have or how much it will measure, and in the last releaseThey explain that it will measure more than 1,000 meters high, but that it is something that will take place in the future. To every train. What seems invariable is that it will be a luxurious tower that will act as an epicenter of a new city. The skyscraper will house shops, offices, recreational spaces and hotels, such as Four Seasons. He also aspires to have the highest viewpoint in the world and is expected to be a structure covered with glass, such as an extremely elongated pyramid and with a base of three edges. It will be in an area of ​​5.3 million m² in which there will be hospitals, schools, universities, shopping centers and housing, as well as other high towers and, from the government, it has been confessed that they are open to any type of investment to develop The ambitious project. Investment? Welcome. They affirm that the financing has almost been completed, with the builders -binladin Group- financing the first part, the banks putting their grain of sand and other sources of capital that has preferred not to reveal (stating that it is something that they will do step by step). What has made it clear is that Binladin Group is “strongly supported by the government” and that they are open to any type of investment because it is a tower that will make the land around you increase their value. And not only the immediate, like that land of 5.3 million m², but the entire region. This is what they want to ride around them They have work ahead It is estimated that the Jeddah tower is completed by 2028 as part of Vision 2030 to diversify the economy of the country, but as this does not stop, they are already thinking about its following tower: one that will humiliate Jeddah with a height of two kilometers in Riadnear the imposing Rey Khalid International Airport. Images | Omarnizar05, Google Earth, Jeddah Tower In Xataka | Saudi Arabia is waste so much money in The Line that has entered deficit

For 15 years a strange circle under an island in Japan was an enigma. The author’s identity was a surprise

If we go to the dictionary to be exact with the term, the verb “courtej” accompanies the following definition: try to get the love or favors of someone flattering him and looking for his company. Therefore, the finding that took place several decades ago was so surprising. Normally, when we talk about courting WE THINK HUMAN KEY. However, in the animal kingdom they exceed everything seen in our species when it comes to claim the attention of the other. The enigma of the circles. In 1995, a group of divers who were exploring the waters near Amami ōshima, Japan, Japan, They discovered strange circular formations In the seabed. It was surprising, since those structures were symmetric, with radial spikes and valleys, and with such a prominent geometric perfection that it aroused all kinds of speculation about their origin: were they facing a human creation, or was it due to some kind of unknown natural phenomenon , or maybe an unusual organism? The years passed, and it was not until 2011 that A team of scientists managed to solve the mystery. Not just that. They managed to “catch” the suspect repeating the lavish scene. To the surprise of the researchers, the protagonist was A tiny torquigener albomaculosusa small kind of balloon fish that, with a size of just 12 centimeters, seemed to be able to sculpt structures 16 times larger than their own body with a very specific purpose: seduce a couple for reproduction. The art of courtship under the sea. The year of the finding, the scientists recorded the process of creating these circles in the seabed, observing up to 10 reproductive events in two study areas. Each structure took between seven and nine days to complete and required extreme precision. The male balloon fish used its pectoral, anal and flows fins to dig and model the sand in a perfect radial pattern, alternating between rapid and strategic pauses movements To give texture to the formations. In addition, he decorated the peaks of his work with decorative elements such as shells and coral fragments, while the center of the circle was completely clear as we see in the images. Only when these final details were ready, The females began to approach to evaluate the design of the “artist”. The mating ritual. At this point, when a female was interested in the structure, The male stirred the fine sand of the center to attract his attention. If she decided to enter the circle, the male withdrew momentarily before swimming quickly towards her in a repetitive courtship dance. If the female was impressed, she put her eggs in the center of the circlemaking it a temporary nest. If that was already fascinating, shortly after it was revealed that the impressive structures were never reused, they were of only one use. After reproduction, males leave their creation and begin a new one from scratch, since the process of sculpting the circle consumes most of the finest and most adequate sand for reproduction. This apotheosic nest construction ritual, documented years later In the Big Pacific series of BBC Earth/PBS and narrated by Sir David AttenboroughHe has amazed biologists and spectators since then. Ephemeral art. No doubt, the complex work of the balloon fish is One of the most fascinating exhibitions of the animal kingdomcomparable to the elaborate dances of mating of birds or the constructions of some mammals. However, what makes these structures unique is that these are true underwater works of art, carefully designed and molded with geometric precision. In addition, its discovery also offered a new perspective on the evolution of courtship in vertebrates. Although humans tend to think about art and architecture as exclusively ours capacities, these seabl , all that, and surely something else, in the extraordinary work of a tiny creature. Image | H KAWASE et al (2017) FISHES, CC by 4.0 In Xataka | What science tells us about when a romantic relationship will be a success or complete failure In Xataka | We have lost track of one of the few mammals that put eggs. Now we have rediscovered it

My concentration ability takes a long time. Working in a laptop almost 15 years ago has saved me

Our care economy is broken. Completely. We are continuously bombarded by stimuli that come by many ways and the consequence is clear: We distracted ourselves with the flight of a fly. It is curious how this is causing a change not only in us, that we look for methods not to distract us, but in elements such as an entertainment industry that has changed its way of capturing our attention. There are two very clear examples of this. Music is one more or less obvious, with increasingly short songs (just a couple of minutes) and, some, with the chorus as the beginning of the theme. In addition, these choruses are also short to fit in the 15 seconds that you can share in an Instagram story. Another example is that of films, with trailers of a couple of minutes that begin with a trailer trailer itself. Here are an example of ‘TOP GUN MAVERICK‘, whose trailer starts with a five -second teaser with images that we will see below: Many more films make this, being a marketing resource that begs us to Let’s pay attention For two minutes. They seem to beg a “Please, pay attention to me, cool things come”. Due to that constant information bombardment, We seek to be productive when we are hyperstimulated And we read books, we learn from successful people, we put into practice supposedly infallible methods, we download applications and, sometimes, we spend more time looking for how to be productive That, really, being. I have to say that I have found a secret to Improve my productivity: Working on a computer that prevents me from opening more than three tabs at the same time. And – at least to me – it works. A hardware barrier If you are reading this it is because you have looked for ways to be more productive and not distract you. I have done it and I have installed everything on my computer, I have configured Ways not to bother the phone And even issues that restrict apps during work hours, but the meat is weak and the finger always tends to go open Bluesky or worse Instagram and Tiktok. One day it occurred to me that, if the software did not limit me, perhaps the hardware would. I went to the closet and took out of the box (I am one of those who keep the boxes of what he buys) My university laptop: a 2011 MacBook Pro. 16 GB of RAM A double -core i5 at a few 2.4 GHz and 13 inches of screen. Years ago I replaced his hard drive with a SSD and I was surprised to light after so many years. What did not work was the charger (nothing that does not solve Amazon and some 20 euros), so I configured it and came across the first problem: I was very outdated. Not only could he not update to a new operating system, but browsers such as Edge, Chrome or your own Safari They were insuffically slow. Nor could I install some applications that I use on a day -to -day basis, such as Notion, because they require a more recent version of the system, so I did with a Firefox Legacy and configured it so that Notion Be the default opening page. You will be wondering why I tell you this, and there I go: when I changed this laptop for a more recent one in 2017, something was already slow and having more than 4-5 tabs in a browser was unfeasible. Despite the 16 GB of RAM, the processor could not with so much without making the fan a turbine, without heating the chassis and without making the system on pull. Precisely, the reason that forced me to make the leap to Infame Macbook Pro with butterfly keyboardIt is the one that made me come back because I wanted, precisely, that. I explain: when I work on a website like Xataka, I do it with a lot of open eyelashes to search for sources. I have Telegram installed, YouTube Music, an image editor and Many times I open, almost by inertia, some social network Or youtube if I don’t feel inspired. With issues such as news or reports, having that overestimulation does not bother me because I know it is something that will take me for a while and then I will happen to something else, but the thing changes when I have an analysis or an opinion article. Does the screen divided there? Neither joke For this type of texts, the concentration is key. You have to turn your thoughts and structure them in a certain way. You cannot afford to get distracted because you lose your thread, and those distractions do not exist with a laptop from almost 15 years ago. If I have more than three tabs open at the same time, the Mac goes to the idle, so I only have notion, Perplexity (precisely to look for something and have many options in a single tab instead of many sources in many tabs) and YouTube Music. Web Telegram It is not an option, for example, and as soon as I have four tabs, the processor is already asking for rest. That with four Firefox tabs That technological barrier, almost physicalnot only does it exist because of how the Mac would go if I open more eyelashes: the screen also plays a paper. 13 inches are not bad and many current laptops have that diagonal, but here the resolution is 1280 x 800 pixels. Translation: scarce, much, so much that putting a game is not an option. Not having a high resolution, putting a split screen is unfeasible, which forces me to have a single screen I am writing, preventing you from having an eye in my text and another in a YouTube video, for example. As I said, it works for me and it is something that I have incorporated into my work routine. … Read more

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