Dating show love is more often than not short-lived. But will 'The Bachelor's Grant Ellis and ... More Juliana Pasquarosa from Season 29 beat the odds? Heres what research suggests.Disney via Getty ImagesGrant Ellis may have handed his final rose to Juliana Pasquarosa on The Bachelor Season 29 finale, but if history tells us anything, their love story faces steep odds. Over the past two decades, The Bachelor has promised grand romances and fairytale endings yet more often than not, those fairytales fade once the cameras stop rolling.Though some dating shows have produced a few successful couples, the numbers speak for themselves: the majority have dismal success rates even The Bachelor.Since 2002, nearly 30 bachelors have left the villa with a partner. As of 2022, however, only five are still together, which equates to a success rate of 4%. Similarly, Love Is Blind saw only four of its 16 engagements result in an actual marriage two of which have ended in divorce, giving it a 12.5% success rate. And on Are You the One?, a meager 3.3% of the 150 contestants have found lasting love.Of course, some couples do manage to make it work; however, the majority of relationships formed on dating shows fall apart not long after the cameras cut. Despite their romantic settings and seemingly perfect matchmaking, most dating show relationships simply dont last.Heres why, according to psychological research.1. Unrealistic SettingsOne of the biggest issues with dating show relationships is their inherent setup. The environments are hyper-romantic and curated to be as stress-free as possible, similar to the honeymoon phase of real-life relationships.As research from the Journal of Neurophysiology explains, the initial stages of romantic love feel euphoric due to the strong cocktail of neurotransmitters that are produced in the brain.Dating shows do their very best to simulate this experience. Contestants are often whisked away to exotic locations complete with candlelit dinners and sweeping views that make falling in love feel almost inevitable. They live in a fantasy world where every day is perfect, and real-world issues simply dont exist.But thats exactly the problem: these environments are thoughtfully manufactured to create intense feelings of love and passion, which are entirely divorced from reality. Theres no job stress, no bills to pay, no mundane daily routines to follow. The relationship exists in a bubble, and the idyllic setting makes it easy to confuse contextual infatuation with genuine compatibility.Once theyre out of the fantasy and back in the real world where life is full of responsibilities and harsh realities that sense of connection often starts to dwindle. The absence of practical, real-life scenarios in dating shows makes it difficult for couples to determine whether their relationship actually stands a chance to last.In real relationships, love is tested every day: balancing work and personal life, dealing with real conflicts and, most importantly, supporting each other through it all. Dating show couples arent offered a real chance to face these obstacles before making big commitments which leaves them unprepared for the realities of daily life together.The transition to a simple, even boring routine can feel underwhelming especially in comparison to the romantic paradise where it all began. This is usually the point where couples may start to realize theyre not as compatible as they thought.2. Rigid Time ConstraintsAnother major problem with dating show relationships is the incredibly rushed timeline. Most dating shows give contestants just a few weeks or even days to decide if theyre in love or ready to get engaged.Married at First Sight participants meet for the first time at the altar, while Love Is Blind contestants spend a mere 10 days in pods before making lifelong commitments. On The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, the entire season typically lasts about eight weeks from start to finish.This kind of pandemonium doesnt allow for the natural progression that most relationships rely on. While its impossible to put love on a definitive schedule, research from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests it can take (on average) between 34 months for couples to truly fall in love but this can still vary greatly from person to person.Exact numbers aside, the overarching reality is that a healthy relationship typically builds slowly with time spent getting to know one another, experiencing hardships together and seeing each other in various contexts. But on dating shows, contestants are pressured to make life-changing decisions before theyve really had this chance to develop a true understanding of one another.Moreover, the rapid timeline can also instill a false sense of urgency: the contestants likely feel pressured to make commitments they wouldnt necessarily make in a real-world scenario. In turn, their decisions are motivated more by the heat of the moment as well by the shows narrative than on real compatibility.Naturally, once the pressure is off and real life sets in, these relationships often crumble given the hastily constructed foundations they were built on.3. External Pressure And ExpectationsThe third major issue with dating show relationships is the immense pressure and high expectations placed on them. Once the shows air, fans become deeply invested. Every contestant knows that theres a great public expectation for the couples to stay together forever which may persist well after the show is over.Even for the average individual, research from Interpersona explains that pressure from friends and family can make entering and navigating a romantic relationship markedly more difficult. For dating show contestants, however, this pressure is exponentially higher; millions of people root for them to figure it out, as opposed to the average persons handful.If cracks start to form, they may feel pressured to keep up the happily ever after faade to avoid disappointing fans or facing public scrutiny. Social media can exacerbate this: their followers watch their every move, scrutinize their every post and flood their comments with opinions about the relationship.Moreover, while some contestants do genuinely want to find love, others may be more interested in boosting their social media following or launching an influencer career. For these contestants, the relationship becomes more about gaining exposure than forming a meaningful connection even once theyve left the show and returned to their normal lives.But even if both partners are sincere in their desire to maintain the relationship, the pressures of fame and the public eye can easily tear them apart. Their intense public attention also means that any signs of trouble be it infrequent social media posting or appearing without one another in public can become fodder for gossip and speculation. These unrealistic expectations only place more strain on the relationship.The everyday person can only imagine how hard it is to work through highly personal issues when everyones watching and waiting for the relationship to implode. This constant scrutiny can cause resentment, which may, in turn, lead to couples staying together for the wrong reasons just to prove people wrong or to maintain a public image. Once the cameras are gone and the attention dies down, the relationship often follows suit.Think your relationship is stronger than those on reality dating shows? Take this science-backed test to find out: Relationship Satisfaction Scale

Bottom line: To commemorate World Backup Day on March 31 just one day before April Fool's Day Western Digital commissioned a survey of 6,118 people across 10 countries, conducted a month ago, to better understand their backup practices. The findings revealed that 87 percent of respondents do back up their data, either manually or automatically. Their main motivations include fear of losing important files (83 percent), the need to free up device space (67 percent), and protection against cyber threats (42 percent). Despite these efforts, data loss remains widespread: 63 percent of respondents reported losing data due to device failures, accidental deletions, or cyberattacks.Personal data has become ever more valuable in today's digital world. From health records and financial documents to cherished memories captured in photos and videos, the importance of safeguarding this information cannot be overstated. The survey underscores just how many consumers have come to recognize this reality.The consequences of failing to back up data can be catastrophic, as several high-profile incidents demonstrate. During the production of Toy Story 2, for example, a server command accidentally deleted large portions of the film's animation files. Although the team had backups, they were partially corrupted, leaving the project's future uncertain. In the end, the movie was successfully restored but not without serious challenges.A more recent example occurred in 2021, when OVHcloud, one of Europe's largest cloud service providers, suffered a massive fire at its data center in Strasbourg, France. The blaze destroyed one data center entirely and damaged another, taking thousands of websites and services offline including government portals, banks, and gaming platforms.While some clients had opted for additional backup services, others lost critical data permanently because they relied solely on local data center storage without offsite backups. // Related StoriesIn another high-profile case, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021 brought critical U.S. fuel infrastructure to a standstill. The attack forced the company to shut down operations along its 5,500-mile pipeline, leading to widespread fuel shortages across the East Coast. While Colonial Pipeline ultimately paid a ransom of $4.4 million, the company was able to resume operations within days thanks in part to its data backups, which allowed them to begin restoring critical systems independently of the attackers' decryption tools.In light of these examples, adopting a dependable backup practice is crucial. The 3-2-1 backup strategy, which involves storing three copies of data on two different media types with one copy offsite, is widely recommended.However, with free cloud storage limits being quickly exhausted, many consumers are turning to a hybrid approach that combines cloud and local external storage. This shift is driven by the need for cost efficiency and reliability, as 60 percent of respondents have run out of free cloud storage space in the past six months, leading 56 percent to upgrade to paid plans.

OpenAI just updated ChatGPT's image generator, and users have begun flooding social media with famous pictures reproduced in the anime style of Studio Ghibli. The results are impressive, but it is not something new to ChatGPT. The AI could do this before. However, the update added several enhancements, including better image handling.The pictures that people convert cover various topics and media, from movies to news photos to historical events. I've sprinkled several examples throughout this article representing some of the best and most recognizable images. As you can see, applying Studio Ghibli's iconic and whimsical art style gives even darker images, like the JFK assassination photo, a different tone.It's unclear how these users are getting ChatGPT to produce these images. When I tried a couple of times, the bot refused me. It said this when I tried to reproduce the album cover for Abbey Road in Ghibli style:Remember when this happened?"I was unable to generate the image you requested due to our content policy, which restricts the generation of images based on specific copyrighted content, such as The Beatles' album cover." Others have clearly found workarounds for ChatGPT's copyright filters, but I don't have time for that.Before:After:Note that the AI got the number of fingers right but gave JD Vance two right hands. So, it's still not perfect.Not everybody is pleased about this use of AI, particularly Studio Ghibli Director Hayao Miyazaki. He was the lead on several Ghibli hits, including Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. In 2016, Miyazaki-san commented on AI-generated animation, saying it "disgusts him.""Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted," he said after watching an example of an animated AI-generated zombie. "If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."For fair context, he made this comment nearly ten years ago. The example Miyazaki watched was not a finished product and was nowhere close to his animation style. It was a textureless humanoid figure wriggling and crawling on the untextured checkerboard surface representing the ground.Miyazaki might have a different opinion about the images on the internet that look like well-fleshed-out examples from the studio. They say the sincerest form of flattery is imitation. However, he still might not have a favorable option. Miyazaki may view it as a threat to his work, as many others have, but these creations are a far more favorable representation of AI's current capabilities than the zombie.Most of the responses on social media have been positive. Many have commented that the pictures are amazing. People are fascinated by the ability of an AI model to spin a real-life event or image into a capricious piece of anime art. Even more are asking the original posters how to do it. Evidently, I am not the only one having trouble getting the model to cooperate.Not just anime-related generation enhancements though...Like it or not, be prepared to see a massive flood of these images over the next few days. Well, at least until copyright holders start sending out take-down notices. While most of this seems to fall under fair use, there is little doubt that IP owners see it that way.

Theres a lot to say about the differences between paper books and ePaper books. Paper books give us extra senses of touch and book-depth to increase memory, and (I think) even Digital Trends writers are allowed to say that the time away from a screen is pretty great. But what if there was a paper-saving, super notetaking, and even discounted eBook that was debatably better than a regular physical book? Well, then wed have to talk about it.The latest Amazon Kindle Scribe is one of the best eReaders for notetakers, and you can get one with 64GB of storage for just $365 (or 20% less with a trade-in) right now. This Amazon Big Spring deal brings it down $85 from $450, at least if you buy it between now and March 31. Tap the button below to find the product or keep reading to learn about its cool features.The Amazon Kindle Scribe has a battery life that can last you up to 12 weeks, has IPX8 water resistance so you can even use it poolside with little worry, has a 10.2 inch paperwhite display, and even comes with a premium pen. Our Amazon Kindle Scribe review discusses just how easy it is to read and write at the same time with the device. Additionally, you can get a real sense for how big the 10.2-inch screen is (despite there being tablets for reading that will have a same or similar size, this is big for a dedicated eReader). When you decide to scribble some notes in the margins or write up a memo, our reviewer stated that it truly feels like pen and paper.RelatedNow, being able to take notes on a book isnt exactly groundbreaking. But what is? The AI features that, when using the Amazon Kindle Scribe in daily life, our reviewer described as being genuinely good not just a cheap gimmick. You can get summaries of all of the notes youve taken so far, for instance, which can be extremely helpful if youre the type to go overboard with notes or just dont want to reread 400 pages worth of biophysics notes before a final. Plus, if you have chicken scratch handwriting like me, theres another feature that will take your notes and rewrite them in an easier-to-read format that even your classmates can understand. Even if you already have a laptop for students, you may still want this in your go-bag.So, if youre wanting to upgrade your notetaking and get an excellent eReader along with that, this is the time. The Amazon Kindle Scribe with 64GB of storage is just $365 right now through March 31. You can even get an extra 20% off if you trade in a device with your order. Even without the trade-in youre getting $85 off of the usual $365 price. Just tap the button below to get yours now. Alternatively, check out more Kindle deals to see if youd rather get a different eReader.Editors Recommendations

If youve always wanted to buy an e-reader, you should check out Amazons Big Spring Sale 2025 for Kindle deals. Heres an offer thats going to be hard to refuse: The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which has an original price of $280, is available at 20% off for a more affordable price of $225. Were surprised to see the device receive a $55 discount so soon after its launch late last year, so we highly recommend hurrying with your purchase because we dont expect this bargain to last until the event ends on March 31.The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which received a solid score of 3.5 out of 5 stars in our review, is featured in our list of the best e-readers as the best color e-reader, and its also among the best Kindles as the best color Kindle. Thats because its the first model of the e-reader with a color screen, which is its major advantage in our Kindle Colorsoft versus Kindle Paperwhite comparison. In addition to reading digital copies of bestselling novels, the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is one of the best ways to read graphic novels and comic books while on the go, as the 7-inch display is also glare-free with an auto-adjusting front light.While reading on the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, you have the option of highlighting text in different colors, and since the e-reader is waterproof, you can keep using it while lounging beside the swimming pool or in the bathtub. The device can last up to eight weeks on a single charge, which you can maximize further if you sign up for a Kindle Unlimited subscription.RelatedThe Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is an excellent choice, whether youre upgrading from an older model or if this will be your first time owning an e-reader. Youre going to want to hurry in completing your transaction for the device though, as its on sale from Amazon with a 20% discount that slashes its price from $280 to only $225. The savings of $55 is equivalent to a few e-books for your digital library, but you need to push through with your transaction right now to make sure you get it.Editors Recommendations

William & Marys Muscarelle Museum of Art presents an illuminating exhibition of the Renaissance masters drawings for the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment.

Oops After a spacecraft was damaged en route to launch, NASA says it wont launch "Following initial evaluation, there also is damage to the cargo module." Eric Berger Mar 26, 2025 5:34 pm | 19 Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is pictured at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is pictured at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThree weeks ago, NASA revealed that a shipping container protecting a Cygnus spacecraft sustained "damage" while traveling to the launch site in Florida.Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of two Western spacecraft currently capable of delivering food, water, experiments, and other supplies to the International Space Station. This particular Cygnus mission, NG-22, had been scheduled for June. As part of its statement in early March, the space agency said it was evaluating the NG-22 Cygnus cargo supply mission along with Northrop.On Wednesday, after a query from Ars Technica, the space agency acknowledged that the Cygnus spacecraft designated for NG-22 is too damaged to fly, at least in the near term.Loading up Dragon"Following initial evaluation, there also is damage to the cargo module," the agency said in a statement. "The International Space Station Program will continue working with Northrop Grumman to assess whether the Cygnus cargo module is able to safely fly to the space station on a future flight." That future flight, NG-23, will launch no earlier than this fall, likely using a different Cygnus vehicle.As a result, NASA is modifying the cargo on its next cargo flight to the space station, the 32nd SpaceX Cargo Dragon mission, due to launch in April. The agency says it will "add more consumable supplies and food to help ensure sufficient reserves of supplies aboard the station" to the Dragon vehicle.As it mulls stopgap measures, one option available to NASA may be to try to slot in a cargo mission on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. After the propulsion issues experienced on Starliner's first crew flight to the space station last June, NASA is still evaluating whether the vehicle can be certified for an operational crew mission, or whether it would be better to perform an uncrewed test flight.In such a scenario, Starliner could ferry cargo to the space station. However, Starliner would be competing with SpaceX crew missions for docking ports, and there would be limited time frames when the vehicle could fly.Limited options amid development delaysNASA also has Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft on its internal schedule for a May launch this year. This is a new vehicle intended to carry cargo to the space station under the agency's Commercial Cargo program. However, that spacecraft is not yet ready for its debut flight, nor is there a Vulcan rocket available within the next several months to launch it. A Dream Chaser mission later this year remains possible, if unlikely.All of the roads for cargo supply, therefore, lead back to Dragon. As a result of Dream Chaser's delays, Starliner's problems, and the dropped Cygnus, NASA is now almost entirely reliant on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to get its astronauts to the space station and to feed them.Crew Dragon remains the only vehicle certified by NASA for human flights to the station. On the cargo side, Northrop Grumman is developing a new rocket with Firefly, but in the meantime, has been using the Falcon 9 to launch Cygnus. With Cygnus now sidelined for at least half a year, every non-Russian vehicle flying to the space station will be built by SpaceX.Eric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 19 Comments

consolation prize for button-lovers Newer Kindles get a work-around for touchscreen page-turning in new software update "Double tap to page turn" works on latest Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft. Andrew Cunningham Mar 26, 2025 4:42 pm | 3 New Kindles with the 5.18.1 update installed support double tapping to turn pages or advance the screen. It's not quite a button, but it's a non-touchscreen option for people who want one. Credit: Amazon New Kindles with the 5.18.1 update installed support double tapping to turn pages or advance the screen. It's not quite a button, but it's a non-touchscreen option for people who want one. Credit: Amazon Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAmazon discontinued 2016's Kindle Oasis in early 2024, and since then, the company hasn't offered a new e-reader with physical page turn buttons or any other alternative to touchscreen input. There still isn't a Kindle with buttons and the feature seems unlikely to return, but buyers of the latest Kindle Paperwhite or the Kindle Colorsoft are getting a possible consolation prize in the new 5.18.1 software update: a "double tap to page turn" feature that will turn the page or move to the next screen when you double-tap on the back or side of the device.The 5.18.1 software update is available on all Kindle readers going back to 2018's "10th generation" models, but the double-tap feature only works on the newest 12th-generation Paperwhite and the Colorsoft, not on any older Kindles or either Kindle Scribe model. We verified this firsthand by installing 5.18.1 on a 10th-generation Paperwhite, but we also checked the release notes for each individual Kindle on Amazon's software update page.All Kindles that get the 5.18.1 update also gain access to new book summaries for "thousands of bestselling English language Kindle books," aiming to make it easier to pick up a new book in an ongoing series.When a recap is available, it will be accessible from your Kindle's home page, or by opening the book and selecting "Recaps In This Series" from the menu. Opening a recap will show you a spoiler warning before you tap through. Based on the handful of recaps I could find and skim, there's a pretty good chance these summaries are mostly AI-generated, but Amazon's release notes and the Kindle interface don't say one way or the other.The 5.18.1 update also includes the typical non-specific "performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements" for all models.This is the first update to get the Colorsoft and the other Kindles running on the same software versionbefore now, the other Kindles were all on version 5.17, and the Colorsoft ran a version of 5.18 that wasn't available for manual download from Amazon's software update page.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 3 Comments

[Virtual Event] Cyber Resilience in 2025: How to Keep Business Moving When Everything Else is Collapsing

Pregnancy has many effects on the bodyAnnaStills/Getty ImagesAs anyone who experiences it knows, pregnancy vastly transforms the body and now we have the most detailed picture of how it affects the blood, organs and immune system on a weekly basis. This could help provide treatments post-pregnancy, as well as reveal the risks of developing certain conditions while pregnant.We got an unprecedented view of the way the mothers body is changing week by week, to compensate for the incredible load on it, and how long it takes to recover after delivery, says Uri Alon at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. AdvertisementDespite its importance, pregnancy has been understudied, says Alon. For example, previous research has tracked how around 20 blood markers, such as salt and iron levels, change in dozens of women during pregnancy up to roughly 6 weeks after delivery, using samples taken during standard healthcare. These experiments are usually done on a small number of patients, and they sample just once every trimester or one time point after delivery, says Alon.To get a more comprehensive view, Alon and his colleagues analysed blood samples previously collected from more than 160,000 women in Israel, aged between 25 and 31, who collectively had over 300,000 pregnancies. Together, these samples provided a snapshot of the body each week from 20 weeks before conception to 18 months after delivery, with each woman providing data for a few points in time. This approach gives useful insights into how the body generally changes during pregnancy at a population level, though tracking the same women over time would provide a better picture of individual trajectories, says Christoph Lees at Imperial College London.The researchers mapped out changes in 76 blood markers, such as the levels of proteins, fats and salts, that indicate the function of the liver, kidneys, blood, muscles, bones and immune system. They found that each of these markers varied widely from pre-conception levels during pregnancy, before either gradually returning to pre-pregnancy levels or overshooting the other way before settling back to the pre-pregnancy baseline.Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterNotably, the scientists found that while 36 of the markers, including those related to blood clotting, bounced back within a month after delivery, 31 markers took more than 10 weeks to recover. For instance, some changes to the liver and immune system took around 5 months to return to pre-pregnancy levels, and several kidney markers took roughly half a year. Some bone and muscle markers took even longer. What exactly this means for womens health is unclear, but it should be explored in future work, says Alon.Whats more, a few other markers never returned to baseline levels, even over a year after birth. The slightly old-fashioned view that by six or eight weeks after pregnancy, everyones completely back to normal, is clearly wrong, says Lees.For instance, iron levels remained low long after giving birth. Women are quite likely to be anaemic [have low iron levels] after delivery because of haemorrhaging, and because a developing foetus takes a lot of the iron stores out of their bodies, says Lees. We typically think it takes six to 12 months for iron stores to get back to normal this suggests it might take even longer.Meanwhile, levels of a protein called CRP stayed high. CRP is affected by a number of different processes, certainly inflammation is one of them, but things like hormonal changes can also affect this, says Lees. In another analysis, the team looked at differences in markers between women who had pre-eclampsia a condition during pregnancy where high blood pressure can cause headaches, vision problems and pain below the ribs and those who didnt. This revealed that, before conception, women who developed pre-eclampsia had elevated levels of blood cell fragments called platelets and a protein called ALT.For decades, the idea has been that the placenta doesnt implant properly, and if it doesnt implant properly, the blood supply is disrupted, it releases hormones and substances that lead to the mother getting high blood pressure, says Lees. But some studies suggest that those who develop it have a different cardiovascular function before pregnancy these findings add weight to this theory.If further studies show that these pre-conception markers really do indicate the risk of pre-eclampsia, they could potentially be used to pinpoint women at high risk. Then you could target them with ways of improving health prior to pregnancy either through exercise and lifestyle advice to lower their risk, says Lees.Journal reference:Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr7922Topics:pregnancy and birth