Alvagante Infrastructure, AI, and the wider world — curated daily.

Daily digest

2026-08-10

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2026-08-10 06:44:33 +0000

2026-08-10

100 items
Simon Willison's Weblog Aug 10 Score 0.8922427180555554

Quoting OpenClaw

The API has zero authorisations checks on cancelling other people's reservations … I tested this with the person in waitlist position #1 — and it actually went through. So you've moved from #4 to #3 already. — OpenClaw , hacking an Australian gym-booking

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
Simon Willison's Weblog Aug 9 Score 0.8879755884259258

Quoting Claude Opus 5 system prompt

Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 were first released on June 9, 2026. On June 12, 2026, Anthropic suspended access to both models to comply with U.S. Department of Commerce export controls; the Department lifted those controls on June 30, 2026, and Anthropic

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
Simon Willison's Weblog Aug 9 Score 0.8867654032407406

GitHub Models is now retired

GitHub Models is now retired I missed this news until today, when the GitHub Actions run for my simonw/research repository failed with this error message: GitHub Models is temporarily unavailable as part of a scheduled retirement brownout. That message is alre

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
Simon Willison's Weblog Aug 9 Score 0.8855686439814814

SQLite compressed text-history prototypes

Research: SQLite compressed text-history prototypes I'm perennially interested in options for storing revision histories in relational databases. While out on a dog walk I had a new idea: how about taking the full text of every prior version in a big JSON arra

AI aillmsengineeringanalysis
Krebs on Security Aug 6 Score 0.8321227814814816

Canadian Man Pleads Guilty in Snowflake Extortions

A 26-year-old Canadian man once described as one of the most consequential cybercrime threat actors of 2024 has pleaded guilty to computer fraud and conspiracy to hack and extort more than 165 organizations that used the cloud data storage provider Snowflake.

Security securitycybercrimebreaches
Foreign Affairs Aug 10 Score 0.8204299175925927

Why China Worries About North Korea

Beijing’s plans to manage an assertive Pyongyang.

Geopolitics geopoliticsforeign-policyanalysisjournals
The Verge Aug 9 Score 0.8078883671296297

No Dogs in Space is a music history podcast for true obsessives

Sadly, there hasn't been a new episode of No Dogs in Space since July of 2024. Part four of the podcast's series on Can wrapped up an abbreviated season three, which focused on experimental rock. Don't get me wrong, I loved seasons one and two, but the show se

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Guardian — World Aug 9 Score 0.804330488425926

Canadian government steps in as ‘out of control’ wildfires force thousands to flee

British Columbia battling 102 fires day and night across province, as breakneck speed hampers firefighters’ efforts Canada’s federal government has announced it will provide urgent assistance to British Columbia after an onslaught of unprecedented fast-moving

Geopolitics geopoliticsworld-newsinvestigative
The Verge Aug 9 Score 0.8026656819444445

Zuckerberg's yacht was closer, but someone else saved a stranded boat

Earlier this week, the Alaskan cruise ship Wilderness Legacy rescued a small skiff stranded near Farragut Bay after running out of fuel. But, according to tracking data reviewed by the Alaska Beacon and Halifax Shipping News, the closest vessel was actually Ma

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Aug 9 Score 0.8003411449074075

49ers coach says his Tesla was on Autopilot when he crashed

Four weeks ago, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was involved in an accident near downtown Palo Alto. At the time Shanahan said only that the accident was his fault. But during a recent press conference he shared more details about the incident, includi

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
Interconnects Aug 9 Score 0.7986848351851853

Lessons from the hacks

Musings on model alignment, what determines safety, and where we go from here.

AI aipost-trainingopen-modelsanalysis
The Verge Aug 9 Score 0.7954295708333334

Dropbox is a PC builder’s best friend

In 2018 I bet my reputation and self-worth on a huge crowdfunded game design project. It could have been a failure for many reasons, but the one I became most worried about was losing all of the work that was stored locally on my home-built PC - a scenario tha

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
The Verge Aug 9 Score 0.7937629041666667

AI detectors are creating a new era of distrust

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about how AI is changing our daily lives, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

Technology technologygadgetsconsumer
Wired Aug 9 Score 0.7929296055555556

The Complicated Case of Passing On Your Digital Estate

There’s no perfect way to transfer possession of your digital assets to your loved ones after you’re gone. But there are things you can do now to make the process easier for them.

Technology technologyculturesociety
NBER New Working Papers Aug 10 Score 0.7875000000000001

Balancing Growth in a Warming World -- by Adrien Bilal, Thibault Ingrand, Diego R. Känzig

This paper develops a theory of balanced growth and optimal climate policy in an integrated assessment framework. Balanced growth is possible despite climate change, but at a slower rate. Two distinct policy regimes emerge because emissions permanently raise c

Economy economyresearchworking-papersnber
NBER New Working Papers Aug 10 Score 0.7875000000000001

A Currency Premium Puzzle -- by Tarek Alexander Hassan, Thomas Mertens, Jingye Wang

We show that quantitative asset pricing models, built to address the equity premium and risk-free rate puzzles, systematically fail when applied to open economies: they cannot generate the large and persistent interest rate differentials we observe between ris

Economy economyresearchworking-papersnber
NBER New Working Papers Aug 10 Score 0.7875000000000001

Winning is Contagious: Social Learning and the Dynamics of Union Support -- by Ellora Derenoncourt, Arindrajit Dube, Suresh Naidu, Heather Sarsons, Niharika Singh

Union growth has historically happened in spurts. We combine union election data from 1961–2025 with a large-scale information experiment involving 9,000 low-wage workers to study the role of social learning in union growth. Observationally, close election win

Economy economyresearchworking-papersnber
The Guardian — World Aug 9 Score 0.7854337291666668

Costa Rican diplomat emerges as strong contender to be first female head of UN

Rebeca Grynspan seen as continuity candidate with tacit support from current secretary general, António Guterres A Costa Rican diplomat and former vice-president whose parents were refugees from the Holocaust has become the surprise frontrunner to lead the Uni

Geopolitics geopoliticsworld-newsinvestigative
Quanta Magazine Aug 6 Score 0.7514801189814814

How Does Touch Lead To Pain Or Pleasure?

Neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor discusses efforts to understand how skin contact can be painful or pleasurable, and what touch-obsessed naked mole rats might teach us about human social behavior. The post How Does Touch Lead To Pain Or Pleasure? first appe

Science sciencemathematicsphysicsbiology
The Hacker News Aug 10 Score 0.7484870763888889

OpenAI's Next AI Model Astra Shows Cyber Performance Strong Enough to Trigger Pause

OpenAI has announced that it's pausing some "internal activities" involving its upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) model Astra after an internal evaluation found it had made significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity. In response to the di

Security securityhackingvulnerabilities
Schneier on Security Aug 6 Score 0.7472315976851851

Adversarial Clothing Designed to Fool Facial Recognition Systems

There are many companies manufacturing adversarial clothing designed to confuse facial recognition systems. It's a cool idea, but I worry that it's mostly security theater: "Our patterns play with that chaos, confuse algorithms and make it way harder to pin yo

Security securitycryptographypolicy
NASA News Aug 10 Score 0.7455691134259259

APOD: 2026 August 10 – Three Galaxy Pairs

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 August 10 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD APOD: 2026 August 10 – Three Galaxy Pairs Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating univers

Science sciencenasaspace
InfoQ Aug 10 Score 0.7455402787037037

Beyond Consensus: The Fragmentation of AI Policy Across the Linux Ecosystem

The AI policies across the Linux ecosystem are very heterogeneous, ranging from the GCC’s restrictiveness, the Linux kernel’s pragmatism, to the more open disclosure-based utility model of Kubernetes' landscape. From core infrastructure to high-level orchestra

IT itengineeringarchitecture
Al Jazeera — World Aug 10 Score 0.7451800023148148

Brazilian player falls into tunnel celebrating goal

Footage shows Brazilian player Jacy Maranhão falling into the players’ tunnel after jumping over advertising boards.

Geopolitics geopoliticsmiddle-eastworld-news
SRE Weekly Aug 10 Score 0.7428908740740741

SRE Weekly Issue #529

View on sreweekly.com A message from our sponsor, Planetscale: Your on-call rotation shouldn't double as your database's HA strategy. PlanetScale databases ship with a primary and two replicas across three AZs, automated failover, and a 99.999% multi-region SL

IT itsrereliabilityoperations
Risky Bulletin Aug 10 Score 0.742592537962963

Risky Bulletin: Two law firms pay giant ransoms

Two American law firms pay multi-million dollar ransoms, a Metabase zero-day is being used in data theft attacks, Russian hackers disrupted a second power plant in Poland, and there’s a remote code execution bug in WordPress… again! Show notes Risky Bulletin:

Security securitynewspodcastintelligence
Risky Bulletin Aug 9 Score 0.7318008712962963

Sponsored: Island's expansion to SASE and enterprise AI

In this Risky Business sponsored interview, Catalin Cimpanu talks with Michael Leland, Field CTO at Island, about the company’s seamless expansion into SASE and enterprise AI. Show notes About Michael Leland

Security securitynewspodcastintelligence
TechCrunch — AI Aug 9 Score 0.7229296

The AI safety test is becoming a safety risk

AI agents are escaping cybersecurity testing environments and reaching real-world systems, raising questions about whether safety infrastructure, industry standards and regulation can keep pace with increasingly powerful models.

AI aiindustrystartups
ScienceDaily — Top Science Aug 9 Score 0.717937974537037

Scientists discover bacteria that lock toxic uranium into a stable form

Deep underground, bacteria may be capable of doing something remarkable: trapping toxic uranium before it spreads. When researchers fed microbes in uranium-contaminated mine water with glycerol, about 95% of the dissolved uranium disappeared within 130 days. T

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
ScienceDaily — Top Science Aug 9 Score 0.7171537152777778

Chemists set electrons free and break a decades-old chemistry barrier

Chemists have developed a catalyst that breaks a long-standing rule governing which molecules receive electrons during chemical reactions. By releasing electrons directly into solution, the technique could unlock reactions—and potentially useful new molecules—

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
ScienceDaily — Top Science Aug 9 Score 0.7158518634259259

Dinosaurs became giants — so why did they never become tiny?

Dinosaurs conquered the land at enormous sizes, but strangely, they almost never evolved into truly tiny animals. New research suggests that physiology alone can’t explain this missing miniature end of the dinosaur spectrum—and that early mammals may have been

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
InfoQ Aug 9 Score 0.7102902787037038

Stripe Uses Graph Search and State Machines to Automate Database Remediation

The engineering team at Stripe recently described how they automated database incident recovery by modeling their global infrastructure as a graph. Using graph search algorithms together with state machines, the team computes and executes remediation plans aut

IT itengineeringarchitecture
Marginal Revolution Aug 10 Score 0.7091726041666666

Act like it is science

I am seeing so many doom prognostications, or least severe worries, due to the OAI/HuggingFace incident and related stories. But virtually all of these I find underargued to say the least. So I have a simple request. If you are worried, and wish to persuade th

Economy economyeconomicscommentaryblog
SecurityWeek Aug 10 Score 0.7091670837962962

Critical Flaws Discovered in Belgian eID Software Used by 2 Million People

The vulnerabilities affected software used by eight of Belgium’s ten largest banks and over 60 government agencies. The post Critical Flaws Discovered in Belgian eID Software Used by 2 Million People appeared first on SecurityWeek .

Security securityindustryvulnerabilities
ScienceDaily — Top Science Aug 9 Score 0.7043699189814815

Stress can scramble your brain’s internal GPS, MRI study finds

Stress may literally scramble the brain’s internal GPS. Researchers found that cortisol, a hormone released during stress, made people significantly worse at navigating a virtual environment and disrupted the precise activity of grid cells, specialized brain c

Science scienceresearchdiscoveries
Lobsters Aug 9 Score 0.6874926296296295

Mea Culpa - Dark Hours

Vibecoded website plagiarizes existing free software program. Comments

IT itprogrammingsystemscommunity
Lobsters Aug 9 Score 0.6857921666666665

Relying on Go

Comments

IT itprogrammingsystemscommunity
Phys.org Aug 10 Score 0.6749221398148149

Western Europe experienced hottest June-July on record: EU monitor

Western Europe experienced its hottest June–July on record as climate change fuels a historic summer of heat, drought and wildfires across the region, the EU's global warming monitor said Monday.

Science sciencephysicstechnology
MIT Technology Review Aug 6 Score 0.6740406046296297

The Download: Google’s AI shake-up and Meta’s rogue model

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Google’s AI empire is being reshaped. Here’s what’s changed. After a wave of painful losses in the tech talent wars, delay

Technology technologyresearchsociety
CISA Cybersecurity Advisories Aug 6 Score 0.6737634680555556

Johnson Controls Inc. TL280

View CSAF Summary Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to access sensitive information on the device. The following versions of Johnson Controls Inc. TL280 are affected: TL280 CVSS Vendor Equipment Vulnerabilities v3 4.1 Johnso

Security securitycisaadvisoriesvulnerabilities
CISA Cybersecurity Advisories Aug 6 Score 0.6737634680555556

Medixant RadiAnt DICOM

View CSAF Summary Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to cause the application to crash if a maliciously crafted DICOM file is opened. The following versions of Medixant RadiAnt DICOM are affected: RadiAnt DICOM CVSS Vendor Eq

Security securitycisaadvisoriesvulnerabilities
CISA Cybersecurity Advisories Aug 6 Score 0.6737634680555556

ABB Ability Zenon

View CSAF Summary Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow attackers to bypass security, crash systems, execute unauthorized actions, or compromise data. The following versions of ABB Ability Zenon are affected: IIoT services with MongoDB (

Security securitycisaadvisoriesvulnerabilities
Phys.org Aug 9 Score 0.6623749175925926

How dogs evolved differently across the globe to match human traits

We call them "man's best friend," and the evidence supports it. Dogs have been found buried alongside humans in graves dating back 14,000 years. They appear in ancient art from every continent, and they feature in the mythology, religion and folklore of v

Science sciencephysicstechnology
Dark Reading Aug 7 Score 0.6467553171296296

AI-Generated Patches Fail Half the Time

A study of more than 6,000 patches found that even working patches can introduce new bugs, break something else, or are open to bypass.

Security securityenterprisethreats
CyberScoop Aug 7 Score 0.6427862087962963

Coast Guard says it is monitoring cyberattack that disrupted North Carolina's ports

The cyberattack hit gate systems at all three North Carolina ports, as officials continue investigating the breach and its effects on operations. The post Coast Guard says it is monitoring cyberattack that disrupted North Carolina's ports appeared first on Cyb

Security securitypolicygovernment