Science reveals a powerful, often overlooked link between sleep and sex. From hormonal shifts to intimacy disruptions, here’s how rest impacts your long-term well-being.

Cutting corners: A sophisticated spam campaign leveraging GenAI's large language models has targeted tens of thousands of websites, revealing the darker side of LLMs. According to a detailed report by SentinelLabs, the framework behind this operation, dubbed AkiraBot, has successfully bypassed spam detection filters, delivering AI-generated messages to over 80,000 websites in just four months. AkiraBot is a Python-based framework that exploits website contact forms and live chat widgets, primarily targeting small and medium-sized businesses. Its goal is to promote questionable search engine optimization services under the brands "Akira" and "ServiceWrap." Unlike traditional spam tools that rely on repetitive templates, AkiraBot uses OpenAI's chat API to generate unique messages tailored to each targeted website. It crafts personalized content using site-specific details scraped with BeautifulSoup, making the messages more difficult for spam filters to detect. The framework's modular design includes advanced CAPTCHA bypass mechanisms and network evasion techniques. It uses Selenium WebDriver to simulate legitimate browsing behavior, along with scripts like inject.js to manipulate browser attributes such as graphics rendering, installed fonts, and system memory profiles. Annoying CAPTCHAs… because selecting blurry traffic lights, deciphering distorted text, and proving you're not a robot is apparently the ultimate test of humanity. These modifications allow AkiraBot to mimic real user behavior, defeating CAPTCHA systems like hCAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA. Additionally, it relies on proxy services like SmartProxy to diversify traffic sources and evade IP-based restrictions. // Related Stories SentinelLabs uncovered archives dating back to September 2024 that document AkiraBot's evolution. Initially referred to as "Shopbot," the framework expanded its targeting from Shopify-based websites to platforms like GoDaddy, Wix, Squarespace, and others commonly used by small businesses. The bot's graphical user interface allows operators to monitor success metrics and adjust settings for concurrently targeting multiple websites. Logs obtained by researchers reveal that AkiraBot successfully spammed over 80,000 domains while failing on approximately 11,000 attempts. In total, more than 420,000 unique domains were targeted. User review/report for spam domain useakira[.]com The use of AI-generated content in spam campaigns marks a significant shift in tactics. It highlights the dual-use nature of large language models: while they power innovations in automation and communication, they also provide tools for malicious activity. OpenAI responded promptly after being alerted by SentinelLabs, disabling the API key associated with AkiraBot and reaffirming its commitment to preventing misuse. "Distributing output from our services for spam is against our policies," OpenAI stated. "We take misuse seriously and are continually improving our systems to detect abuse." Despite this, SentinelLabs warns that AkiraBot's operators are likely to continue refining their techniques as website hosting providers strengthen defenses. It noted that the campaign's reliance on CAPTCHA bypassing technologies and proxy rotation demonstrates a high level of sophistication and determination.

Now that its first season is in the books, we keep getting more evidence that The PittVariety is reporting that the hospital drama averaged 10 million viewers across the first 14 episodes of its first season, according to Warner Bros. Discovery. This number is the average number of people who watched the show both when it premiered and in the days afterward, as opposed to on the day of each episode’s release. WBD also said that the first episode has now hit 16.2 million viewers and that each episode has outperformed the previous one in night-of viewership for 13 straight weeks. The release of these viewership numbers is atypical for WBD, which typically only releases viewership numbers for shows that also air on HBO. WBD likely shared these numbers because of how successful The Pitt has been. The show, which is set in a Pittsburgh emergency room and is told in what is essentially real time over the course of a single shift, became a slow-building phenomenon that, as the viewership data suggests, eventually became appointment television. Recommended Videos The show has already been renewed for a second season, and part of the plan for the series is to allow it to function more like old-fashioned network television. In addition to the show’s content, that also means longer seasons, and that the second season will debut just a year after the first. Related In addition to catching on with viewers, The Pitt has also earned plenty of critical acclaim, and both fans and critics are already anticipating the show’s second season. Editors’ Recommendations

I now care for my aging parents and disabled brother in addition to my own three kids. I'm happy to do it, but I wish I had prepared more for my new reality. Courtesy of Anna De La Cruz. 2025-04-12T16:02:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? I'm currently caring for my aging parents, disabled brother, and three young children. There are many things I wish I would have known and prepared for before being in this situation. Once I was settled into my new roles, I was able to take time to work on my own wellbeing, too. When my first two children were 2 and 6, my mom ended up in the hospital. Little did I know, she would never return to living independently. Suddenly I was scrambling to figure out where she would live, the status of her finances, and researching what to expect given a new dementia diagnosis. Just a few years later, my father's health began to decline and there were signs of dementia — all while I had a third child on the way. With both of my parents losing their ability to fulfill guardianship duties for my brother with Down syndrome, his care soon became my responsibility as well. I was part of the Sandwich Generation — with a side of fries.No one prepared me for this, but maybe they should have. After all, my mother was 38 when I was born, and I had my three children when I was between the ages of 34 and 40. No other siblings or extended family lived nearby. As people have children later and our parents live longer, I'm not alone in this situation: almost a quarter (23%) of American adults are part of the sandwich generation, according to Mental Health America. Everyone should be ready before a care crisis hits their family — I wish I had been.Being prepared makes a big differenceThere are many things I wish I would have known and prepared for before being surprised and overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for aging parents and a disabled sibling while already caring for my own children.I quickly realized that I couldn't avoid having difficult conversations with my parents and my husband about eldercare, medical wishes, wills, and advance directives. It's not fun to talk about worst case scenarios, or planning for death and disability, but it's infinitely easier to manage these events if you have a plan in place beforehand.I started thinking aheadIt quickly became crucial for me to develop an extended care network for support. I got in direct contact with doctors and social workers and hired an eldercare specialist to take on tasks for my mom that I couldn't manage alone. The specialist helped take my mom to appointments when I was unavailable, made care suggestions and connected me to trusted resources, and helped slowly purge some of my mother's belongings before she moved into a nursing home.Getting power of attorney for my mother and getting named on her accounts was critical to being able to take care of all of the financial and health responsibilities that emerged. Similarly, becoming my brother's co-guardian before it was completely necessary so that I could have time to learn the responsibilities of the role made the transition much easier. I hired a lawyer to help file guardianship paperwork and streamlined my communication with his care team.Having a flexible work schedule as a consultant also allowed me to handle some care tasks during business hours. It was still exhausting, but things were manageable. I made sure to make time for my kidsMy husband took on more of the childcare responsibilities in our family while I was in the thick of sorting out financial and health issues for my mom and brother, but I always made time for them.It was a juggle, but I didn't let my new caregiving responsibilities keep me from taking family vacations with my kids or attending their school performances. Sometimes they simply came along with me to visit their grandma or uncle while I took the time to help with financial or health tasks. Spending time with their disabled relatives has had the positive impact of building empathy and recognizing the importance of caring for others.I had to take care of myself, tooOnce everyone else was settled, I started to focus on myself. I had to learn to maintain my own boundaries and ditch my people-pleasing tendencies. Even though I was doing so much to care for everyone around me, I felt constant guilt that it wasn't enough, and pressure to do everything others needed or wanted at any given time, often at my own expense. I had to come to terms with the fact that sacrificing my own needs was not sustainable or productive, and that saying no to some requests and asking for help would be the only way I could care for others and maintain my own health and wellbeing.We've been taught to save for a healthy retirement, but planning for the possibility of extra care and disability in our elder years has been a taboo topic for too long. I would encourage other Gen Xers and Millennials to consider taking a more proactive approach to figuring out childcare, eldercare, and finances to avoid burnout and care crises in their own lives. Doing so will certainly make things easier down the line. Recommended video

By AJ Dellinger Published April 12, 2025 | Comments (0) | Donald Trump looks at a smartphone while sitting at a desk. © Saul Loeb (Getty Images) Donald Trump’s tariff regime keeps getting less and less robust. In the latest backtrack from the Trump administration following the repeated warning of the markets to chill out a bit, the US Customs and Border Protection published guidance late Friday night that introduced new exemptions for smartphones, computers, and other electronics—a major carveout for tech companies that were feeling the crunch. The exemptions, as reported by Bloomberg, include popular devices like iPhones and MacBooks, as well as Android and Windows devices made overseas. It also includes hardware like hard drives, computer processors, memory chips, and graphics cards. Some have noted the exemption does not include video game consoles, which leaves things still pretty up in the air for the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. Notably, the exemptions apply universally, meaning these items coming into the US will not be subject to the 10% global tariff that currently applies to every nation, nor the 145% tariff that is currently levied against China. The exemption was also backdated to April 5, 2025, so just pretend this whole past week didn’t happen. The exemption comes after another week of extremely volatile markets that seem to be pleading with Trump to stop harassing the nation’s top trade partner while the rest of the world side-eyes America and starts shifting its money elsewhere. Pretty much the only thing that has sent the markets bouncing back up in the last few weeks is even the tiniest of breadcrumbs suggesting that maybe Trump isn’t as pot-committed to the nonsensically calculated tariffs as he insists he is. Trump left a little trail for investors, suggesting this type of exemption might be on the horizon on Friday when he told reporters aboard Air Force One that there could be “a couple of exceptions for obvious reasons” coming. He didn’t say what the obvious reasons were, but we can probably interpret that as “we’d like to stop the bleeding for some of our most profitable companies.” The tech sector was certainly signaling that pain was coming. Apple reportedly airlifted 1.5 million iPhones to the United States from Inida to try to keep them from getting hit by the tariffs, and was warning that the prices of their devices could be going up soon. Other major tech players including Asus, Sony, and Nividia all started ticking up the retail price for their devices as the tariffs took effect. Consumers, expecting those price increases, raced to stockpile devices. Those who might be in the market to buy a new phone or computer can breathe a slight sigh of relief now, as can the companies who were ready to upend their entire logistics to try to figure out how to duck the extra charges. The exemption does seem to suggest a backtrack from Trump’s position that we can just make our electronics in the country. Earlier this week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump “believes we have the labor, we have the workforce, we have the resources” to build iPhones in America—which is maybe theoretically true, but in practice, experts say such a device would cost as much as $3,500 to buy, plus years to build the manufacturing infrastructure to even do it. Shocking that idea didn’t stick. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Matt Novak Published April 12, 2025 By Lucas Ropek Published April 12, 2025 By Alex Cranz Published April 11, 2025 By Lucas Ropek Published April 11, 2025 By Matt Novak Published April 11, 2025 By Lucas Ropek Published April 10, 2025

Old computers can still have their uses. Image: FRANCESCO CARTA/Getty Images Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 You want to squeeze as much life from a laptop or desktop computer as possible. Doing so can save a substantial amount of money over time, and stops you from contributing to mountains of e-waste. At the same time, dealing with an old, sluggish computer is a frustrating experience. If apps and websites are taking ages to load, it can seriously impact your productivity. At a certain point, the temptation to upgrade to a shiny, speedy new computer proves irresistible. A middle ground exists, which is to make sure your laptop or desktop lasts as long as possible. There are multiple tricks you can try when it starts to show its age—tricks that could mean it stays usable for much longer than you expected. Cut down on the clutter You’ll find several programs starting up with Windows or macOS. Screenshot: Apple One way to stretch the life of your computer is to reduce its load. Uninstall any apps you’re not actively using, and keep your apps trim in terms of extensions and add-ons. We’ve covered how to uninstall programs on Windows and macOS, and it’s not difficult to do. Limiting the number of programs starting up with your computer can help too: It means fewer apps running in the background, freeing up more memory and other system resources. You can take care of this with a few clicks on both Windows and macOS. The more storage space you have the better. It gives your computer and its operating system room to breathe and get organized, and can improve performance. Uninstalling apps should help with this, but also be on the lookout for files that you no longer need or can move somewhere else. Choose some upgrades Some well-chosen upgrades can breathe new life into an old computer. While this is going to cost you money, it won’t cost as much as a full upgrade would—and it could mean you get several years of extra use out of your device. The right upgrade will depend on your system’s specs, how much you have to spend, how easy the system is to upgrade, and how comfortable you are with opening up your computer. This is mostly for Windows PCs and for desktops, though a few limited laptop upgrades are sometimes possible. Upgrading the RAM or the storage on your computer are usually the best upgrades for getting the most bang from your bucks. It could be something as straightforward as buying an external hard drive to move files over to, for example. Install another operating system There are plenty of lightweight Linux distros to choose from. Screenshot: Lubuntu In the interests of doing more with older components, you can install a fresh operating system to replace Windows or macOS, one that’s less demanding on your aging computer. This will wipe everything on your system though, so be sure to back up all of your important files and folders first. Linux is always a popular and completely free option, and it comes in many different flavors (known as distros). Some of them, such as Lubuntu, are designed to be as lightweight as possible. Have a browse around the web and you’ll find many options to pick from, as well as detailed guides to how to make the switch. Then there’s ChromeOS Flex, which essentially turns your Windows or Mac computer into a Chromebook. You’re just running a web browser with a few extras, so older computers should be up to the challenge. As with Linux, this is free to do, and it’s perfect if you spend most of your computing time in a web browser anyway. Use your computer for something else Then there’s the option of using your computer for something else, rather than an all-purpose machine. One option is using your aging laptop or desktop as a media server: It doesn’t have to do anything except stream audio and video to other devices on your network. Plex and Emby are two programs that can help. Or how about turning your ancient computer into a dedicated writing machine? This could work if your machine is so old that it’s no longer getting security updates, so shouldn’t really be connected to the web. Set up a word processor and you’re good to go (you will need a USB drive to get your writing shared elsewhere, however). Repurposing your laptop or desktop doesn’t save you from the cost of an upgrade, because you’ll still need to buy another computer, but it does cut down on e-waste and does mean your hardware stays useful for longer. And when you do finally need to get rid of a computer, make sure you do it responsibly.

Nature, Published online: 09 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01186-wTonka bean trees might make themselves into lightning rods to edge out the competition. Plus, Trump cuts threaten US scientific leadership in Antarctica and how to build a broader, more inclusive defence of science.

A new report released April 1 by the European Space Agency sheds light on space pollution surrounding our planet — how bad the problem is, and what we need to do to keep Earth orbits clean enough to use.

This started off as an innocent experiment to quickly generate destroyed buildings and spiralled into a full modifier that works by converting a single storey, modelled from flat planes, into a complete building with responsive destruction. I learnt so much from doing it that I tackle problems differently from the beginning of the geometry node graph to the end. With the exception of the original floor layout, everything is procedural including the shaders. I think there's still room to push it so that the internal layouts can be randomised and more detail added to the building - small touches like air conditioners, cables and wall gubbins would also add some much needed visual interest - but I'll probably avoid that rabbit hole for the time being. Considering the intensive use of geometry nodes it's surprisingly responsive as long as you don't stack the building too much and, after a suggestion from a discord member, I also added the option to paint the destruction in dynamically. Come talk with me about 3d on Discord + get the project file/video on Patreon. Enjoy! submitted by /u/GoodGood3d [link] [comments]

RT NROMISSION SUCCESS: NROL-192 launched today at 8:25 a.m. EDT on a @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base.The rapid deployment of NRO’s proliferated constellation directly supports the needs of the people NRO serves.Press release: https://www.nro.gov/Portals/135/Documents/news/press/2025/NROL-192%20Press%20Release%20FINAL.pdf?ver=wvjFwrtVPcw8_Gz7--60-A%3d%3d