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2026-10-19

100 ranked items

Simon Willison's Weblog Oct 18 Score 0.8928352245370369

llm-tools-datasette 0.1.1

Release: llm-tools-datasette 0.1.1 When I switched LLM over to httpx2 in LLM 0.33 I forget that this would break any plugins which used httpx without directly depending on it. llm-tools-datasette was one of those plugins, now fixed. Tags: datasette , llm

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
Simon Willison's Weblog Oct 18 Score 0.8920884652777777

llm-echo 0.5

Release: llm-echo 0.5 I'm working towards a new LLM release, and testing PRs caused me to revisit the llm-echo debug plugin. This plugin provides a "model" which doesn't involve an LLM at all - it just repeats back the prompts that have been fed to it. The new

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
OpenAI News Oct 15 Score 0.839969850925926

Bringing GPT-Rosalind to academic research labs

Introducing the Rosalind Academic Plan, offering eligible academic labs sponsored access to GPT-Rosalind and tools to advance life sciences research.

AI aiopenaimodels
The Verge Oct 18 Score 0.8155500486111111

A Savannah police officer gave her Flock login to her ICE agent husband

Now, former Savannah police officer Amber Harpe was fired in August following a department investigation that found she had shared her Flock login information with her husband, Tyler Harpe, an ICE agent. SPD does not share its Flock data with ICE and said shar

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Oct 18 Score 0.810803289351852

Mister Organ is one of the most unsettling documentaries I’ve ever seen

Mister Organ doesn't reach the level of societal horror of The Act of Killing or the creepypasta-meets-true-crime gruesomeness of Beware the Slenderman, but there's something deeply unsettling about Michael Organ and his intimate campaign of terror against eve

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Oct 18 Score 0.8090856967592593

A woman was arrested in Philly for blocking a delivery robot

Carolyn Marvin was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after blocking the path of an Uber delivery robot and refusing to get out of the way. Marvin told Philadelphia's ABC13 "I know they're taking the jobs of human delivery workers and so, I have been

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Oct 18 Score 0.8057435671296297

Video game ownership bill introduced in Congress

Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York's 15th congressional district in the Bronx introduced the Power To The Players Act this week. If passed, the bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish regulations that guarantee consumers ownership of a game wh

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Oct 18 Score 0.8033032893518519

Lenovo’s fast, comfy SteamOS handheld is hundreds off

The Legion Go S with SteamOS is a pretty solid alternative to the $789 Steam Deck OLED. It runs identical software, but ships in a design with two-stage triggers, a bigger eight-inch IPS screen (1080p and up to 120Hz versus 800p and 90Hz in the Deck OLED), and

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
BleepingComputer Oct 18 Score 0.8022827824074075

Hackers exploit SiteGuard WAF flaw to run commands as admins

Attackers are targeting an OS command injection vulnerability in SiteGuard Server Edition that lets them execute commands as root or SYSTEM on affected servers. [...]

Security securitymalwarevulnerabilities
The Guardian — World Oct 18 Score 0.7899942069444446

An extraordinary life: descendant welcomes biography of woman ‘gifted’ to Queen Victoria

A girl called Àìná was captured by an African king and later taken to England to become Sarah Forbes Bonetta, protege of the imperial monarch When she was seven years old, Bayo Randle’s great-great-grandmother Sarah Forbes Bonetta was presented to Queen Victor

Geopolitics geopoliticsworld-newsinvestigative
NBER New Working Papers Oct 19 Score 0.7875000000000001

How Knowledge Crosses Borders: Evidence from Semiconductor Manufacturing -- by Pinelopi K. Goldberg, Réka Juhász, Giulia Lo Forte, Jeff Thurk

We show that cross-border learning is an important feature of modern semiconductor manufacturing and that several important channels – such as knowledge sharing along global supply chains, the movement of engineers within multinational firms, and foreign direc

Economy economyresearchworking-papersnber
Schneier on Security Oct 15 Score 0.7606499074074073

Measuring Human Cryptanalysis Effort

Matthew Green has a new site that tries to estimate the number of cryptanalyst-hours that have been spent analyzing different public-key algorithms: Abstract: We estimate how much public cryptanalysis each public-key assumption has received, using the literatu

Security securitycryptographypolicy
Quanta Magazine Oct 15 Score 0.7560868166666666

How Do Fungi Keep the Planet Healthy?

Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers explains how fungal networks in soil trade nutrients with plants, help keep carbon underground, and strike bargains without having a brain. The post How Do Fungi Keep the Planet Healthy? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Science sciencemathematicsphysicsbiology
Politico Europe Oct 19 Score 0.7491363254629629

Wie die Hauptstadt für die Bundesregierung zur Belastungsprobe wird

Ein mögliches rot-grün-rotes Bündnis in Berlin schlägt bundespolitisch hohe Wellen. Während z.B. Grünen-Chef Felix Banaszak vor radikalen Kräften warnt und die Tür zur CDU taktisch offen halten will, ist Friedrich Merz wiederum hart und unerbittlich im Ton geg

Geopolitics geopoliticseuropepoliticspolicy
SRE Weekly Oct 19 Score 0.7490789430555556

SRE Weekly Issue #539

View on sreweekly.com A message from our sponsor, Incident.io: AI made shipping code faster. Now reliability is the bottleneck. Hear how Netflix and OpenAI handle that challenge at SEV0, the reliability conference in SF and London. Free for SREWeekly readers w

IT itsrereliabilityoperations
Econbrowser Oct 19 Score 0.7489027527777777

Wall Street Expectations for Treasury Yields: Higher for Longer

From the October WSJ survey: Figure 1: Ten year Treasury yields (black), October WSJ survey mean (blue square), July WSJ survey mean (light green triangles), all in %. Source: Treasury via FRED, WSJ. A mix of improving growth, new inflationary pressures and co

Economy economymacroeconomicsenergyresearch
Risky Bulletin Oct 19 Score 0.7468889763888888

Risky Bulletin: Linux patches PwnEscape KVM vulnerability

A serious vulnerability lets attackers escape Kernel-based virtual machines, OpenCode users become collateral damage in a distillation attack, supply chain incidents hit AOMEI and ConnectWise and Intel will discontinue SGX. Show notes Risky Bulletin: PwnEscape

Security securitynewspodcastintelligence
Risky Bulletin Oct 18 Score 0.7414417541666667

Sponsored: Agents don’t care about human ideas of right and wrong

In this Risky Business sponsored interview James Wilson chats with Sondera co-founder and CEO, Josh Devon, about how AI agents are highly capable, but they’re not the best rule followers or decision makers. The pair find themselves in the philosophical weeds a

Security securitynewspodcastintelligence
Econbrowser Oct 18 Score 0.7335837712962963

Nowcasts and WEO, WSJ Forecasts

Recent releases: Figure 1: Reported GDP (bold black), October WSJ mean forecast (blue), GDPNow (light blue square), NY Fed nowcast (red *), October WEO (tan +). Source: BEA 2026Q2 3rd release, WSJ, Atlanta Fed, NY Fed, IMF, and author's calculations.

Economy economymacroeconomicsenergyresearch
TechCrunch — AI Oct 18 Score 0.7308032814814814

Disney agrees to hire the majority of Character.AI’s workforce

The filing also says that the “vast majority” of Character.AI employees who were offered jobs at Disney accepted them. However, this is a stalking horse bid, so another company could come forward with a higher offer.

AI aiindustrystartups
InfoQ Oct 18 Score 0.7283024314814814

Google Adopts Pyrefly for Faster, More Accurate Python Type Checking

Google has replaced its long-standing Python type checker, Pytype, with Pyrefly, an open-source tool originally developed by Meta. The decision was driven by Pyrefly's advantages, including faster and more accurate type checking, and lower infrastructure costs

IT itengineeringarchitecture
InfoQ Oct 18 Score 0.7274413203703703

AWS Introduces Preview of Well-Architected Agent

AWS recently announced the preview of the Well-Architected Agent, a service that analyzes environments against Well-Architected best practices and provides prioritized recommendations across cost, security, performance, and reliability. The AI agent can also s

IT itengineeringarchitecture
ScienceDaily — Top Science Oct 18 Score 0.726263099074074

Scientists discover a natural compound that could protect the brain from too much salt

Eating too much salt may do more than raise blood pressure. It could also harm memory and social behavior. In a new study, Japanese researchers discovered that a soy-derived compound called LPC70 helped protect mice from several damaging effects of a high-salt

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
ScienceDaily — Top Science Oct 18 Score 0.7260070805555555

Physicists create a bizarre new quantum state called a fractional fermi sea

Physicists have discovered a strange new state of quantum matter in which ultracold atoms defy familiar organizational rules, forming a highly excited yet surprisingly orderly configuration called a "fractional Fermi sea." The discovery challenges established

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
ScienceDaily — Top Science Oct 18 Score 0.7255918027777778

Eating blueberries every day may have a surprising effect on your mood

Eating blueberries every day could have surprising effects on mood, according to a small study that found greater reductions in depressive symptoms among older adults who consumed the fruit for three months. Researchers also detected changes in gut microbial e

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
ScienceDaily — Top Science Oct 18 Score 0.7247533768518518

Magic mushroom ingredient takes the fight out of aggressive fish

A psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms appears to have an unexpected effect: calming highly aggressive fish. Researchers discovered that low doses of psilocybin significantly reduced aggressive attacks in mangrove rivulus fish without disrupting their

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
ScienceDaily — Top Science Oct 18 Score 0.7243126361111111

Scientists discover a surprising twist in Japan's 7,300-year-old volcanic apocalypse

A catastrophic volcanic eruption 7,300 years ago devastated Japan, but new research reveals that its impact on prehistoric populations was far more complex than previously believed. While some communities disappeared or declined, others unexpectedly flourished

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
The Hacker News Oct 18 Score 0.7172762435185185

ConnectWise Suspends Cloud Backup After Attackers Compromise Microsoft 365 Tenants

ConnectWise on Saturday said it has disabled seven ConnectWise application identities as it continues its investigation into an incident in which unknown threat actors obtained unauthorized access to the application identities and compromised Microsoft 365 ten

Security securityhackingvulnerabilities
NASA News Oct 18 Score 0.7101087763888889

APOD: 2026 October 18 – Sonified: Eagle Nebula Pillars

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 18 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is feature

Science sciencenasaspace
Lobsters Oct 19 Score 0.7082714662037036

Updates to site guidelines and AI/LLM tags

Hey folks, I've been having to perform an increasing number of moderation actions surrounding the vibecoding tag and AI/LLM related content. I started reading Lobsters because it had the most interesting viewpoints related to computing. During that time, I've

IT itprogrammingsystemscommunity
Marginal Revolution Oct 18 Score 0.7025532532407407

*You Can See Everything* (no spoilers)

An excellent and also original movie, you all should see it. There are different interpretations, but I read it as a story between two autistic people, and the bond they have but also the great difficulties they have in understanding each other, because they a

Economy economyeconomicscommentaryblog
Lobsters Oct 18 Score 0.6977487810185184

QML for C & Zig

Comments

IT itprogrammingsystemscommunity
Nautilus Oct 18 Score 0.6891364444444443

Early Humans in America Endured Climate Chaos

Footprints found at White Sands, New Mexico, were dated to the height of the last ice age The post Early Humans in America Endured Climate Chaos appeared first on Nautilus .

Science scienceessaysculturephilosophy
Microsoft Research Blog Oct 15 Score 0.6849696037037037

Proof-based general-purpose computing with Magnetar

Zero-knowledge proofs can verify computing results without rerunning workloads or exposing sensitive data. Magnetar helps bring them into the mainstream with support for standard programming languages, major speed gains, and quantum-resistant security. The pos

AI aimicrosoftresearch
SecurityWeek Oct 18 Score 0.6841361689814814

US Cybersecurity Job Postings Fall 26% as AI Security Engineer Demand Soars

CyberSN’s Cybersecurity Jobs Report provides visibility into the US cybersecurity job market. It’s a mixed bag. The post US Cybersecurity Job Postings Fall 26% as AI Security Engineer Demand Soars appeared first on SecurityWeek .

Security securityindustryvulnerabilities
CISA Cybersecurity Advisories Oct 15 Score 0.6783030231481482

Thermo Fisher Torrent Suite Software

View CSAF Summary Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to read arbitrary files on the Torrent Server. The following versions of Thermo Fisher Torrent Suite Software are affected: Torrent Suite Software CVSS Vendor Equipment v3

Security securitycisaadvisoriesvulnerabilities
Phys.org Oct 18 Score 0.6644145560185185

Early humans in America endured climate chaos—new research

Some 23,000 years ago, during the coldest part of the last ice age, people walked across the muddy margins of an ancient lake in what is now White Sands National Park, New Mexico.

Science sciencephysicstechnology
Dark Reading Oct 16 Score 0.6543539189814815

AI Takes Control of Robotic Arm in 16 Minutes Flat

Most OT devices at utilities, factories, and elsewhere have been deployed for a decade or more, but operators need to get agile and deploy new cyber defenses.

Security securityenterprisethreats
The Hacker News Oct 16 Score 0.6529905953703704

Researchers Demonstrate OpenBSD Root Exploit Chaining 37-Year-Old Shared-Memory Bug

A local privilege escalation exploit published today gains root on OpenBSD 7.9 by chaining a roughly 37-year-old integer overflow with a separate kernel flaw, bypassing OpenBSD's KARL kernel-address randomization and its SMAP and SMEP hardware protections.Secu

Security securityhackingvulnerabilities
Unit 42 (Palo Alto Networks) Oct 16 Score 0.6529669532407407

Top 5 Initial Access Threat Vectors Observed by Unit 42 in September 2026

Unit 42 details the top initial access vectors adversaries use to breach organizations, led by edge exploits, credential abuse and phishing The post Top 5 Initial Access Threat Vectors Observed by Unit 42 in September 2026 appeared first on Unit 42 .

Security securitythreat-researchmalware
CyberScoop Oct 16 Score 0.6518905990740741

Prolific Chinese espionage group exploits BeyondTrust zero-day

Researchers said the first known attack by Armory Castle, also known as UNC5221, occurred almost seven weeks ago. The threat group previously compromised Ivanti and Citrix customers. The post Prolific Chinese espionage group exploits BeyondTrust zero-day appea

Security securitypolicygovernment