Here’s how long you can go without sleep

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YouTube and X have become ‘gateways’ to nudify apps

“Most mainstream social media platforms have strict guidelines preventing the dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images (NCII), or sexually explicit photos and videos. But a new report finds that many social media platforms directly refer users to such content. The report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), an anti-extremism organization, analyzes the online ecosystem that enables the proliferation of so-called ‘nudify’ apps and websites, which allow users to digitally undress people without their consent. The study … looked at the top 10 apps and websites used to make nonconsensual explicit deepfakes, as well as how people are finding them. It found that a surprising amount of referral traffic comes not from small, poorly regulated online communities like 4chan but from mainstream social media platforms.”

Passwords are dying. Here’s how to not go down with them.

Passwords are going the way of the fax machine: slowly, awkwardly, and with a few holdouts insisting they’re fine, actually. Keeper manages the whole messy handoff to passkeys for you, generating strong passwords, autofilling the ones you still need, syncing your passkeys across every device, and storing your 2FA codes so you’re not squinting at your phone at 2 AM. Get your first year of personal and family plans right now for 50% off. [Ad]

Repeated storms are turning disaster recovery into a way of life, and leaving communities facing disaster fatigue

“Flash flooding has been tearing up communities across the U.S., with heavy downpours sending creeks and rivers rushing over their banks from Texas to Kentucky, across the Midwest and into the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast. Texas’ Hill Country was hit hard again when a powerful storm triggered flooding on the Guadalupe and other rivers on July 16, 2026, in the same region where more than 100 people, including young campers, died in flash flooding on July 4, 2025. In Missouri, floodwater swept away a home, and National Guard helicopters had to rescue and evacuate dozens of people from a summer camp. If this feels like déjà vu after two summers of flash flooding across America, imagine being a community that has had to live through flooding like this again and again.”

Brain implant helps paralyzed man to feed himself and drink from cup

“A man who was paralyzed from the chest down in a swimming accident six years ago has been able to feed himself and drink from a cup thanks to a brain implant that bypasses his spinal cord injury. Keith Thomas of Massapequa, New York, could not lift his arms off his wheelchair when he agreed to trial the technology in 2021, but after surgery to implant electrodes in his brain and many months of training, he was able to move the limbs again. Researchers fitted Thomas with a brain-computer interface that not only helped him move his arms and hands, but also sent signals back to his brain to recreate the sensation of touch. He has since been able to feel his sister’s hand and the fur on his pet dog. Remarkably, the technology appears to have partly rewired Thomas’s nervous system, helping to restore some hand functions and sensations that remain even when the system is switched off.”

Microsoft Office 2024 isn’t a subscription: It’s $55 once

Fifty-five dollars is what Microsoft 365 charges every couple of months, forever, for software you rent but never own. Office 2024 flips that math. One payment installs the full suite, Word through Access, directly on your Windows PC, running offline with zero cloud dependency and zero renewal date lurking on the calendar. It’s the same programs you already open every day, just purchased instead of leased, with the subscription conversation permanently closed. [Ad]

How long can you actually go without sleep?

“Sleepless nights are a reality for many of us: parents of newborns, students cramming for tests, people struggling with insomnia. We all know that we need to sleep, but come on, can’t we go without it for a while? Sort of, but it’s not pretty. The most famous record holder for sleep deprivation — although he doesn’t hold the current record — is Randy Gardner, who is widely considered to have undergone the best-documented period of extreme sleep deprivation by a human: 264 hours, or about 11 days. … His record was broken multiple times after that, most recently in 1986, with a nearly 19-day sleepless stretch by stuntman Robert McDonald. That’s the last documented world record. … [Here’s] what happens when you’re extremely sleep deprived…”

@nathan.head

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