Open Hardware/Modding

• CNX Software ☛ Renesas RX74M and RX74N – 600MHz industrial MCUs with RXv3e core, embedded MRAM, 22nm process

  Renesas has introduced the RX74M and RX74N, two new 32-bit RX family MCUs built on a 22nm process with embedded MRAM. Both MCUs integrate a 600MHz RXv3e core and are designed for industrial automation, motor control, robotics, and energy management applications. The MCUs feature up to 1MB of code MRAM, 1.5MB SRAM, and 256KB of zero-wait-state local RAM for real-time processing. The RX74M adds an integrated EtherCAT slave controller, dual Gigabit Ethernet MACs with TSN support, and an Ethernet switch for industrial networking, while the RX74N offers a single Gigabit Ethernet interface for general industrial applications. Other features include CAN FD, USB 2.0, I3C, high-resolution PWM timers, and hardware-based security with Renesas Protect Zone.

Standards/Consortia

• Daylight Saving Time frustrations

  I have a confession to make 🙂 For years I faced the annoyance that my laptop would not follow the one-hour timeshift when the Daylight Saving Time would change from Summer- to Wintertime or back. I had to manually fix the time for years. My servers are fine always.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discovered an Amazing Practical Use For The World's Leftover Coffee Grounds

• Science Alert ☛ World-First Cancer Vaccine Cuts Melanoma Recurrence or Death Risk by 42% in Landmark Trial

• Science Alert ☛ Women Appear to Experience Psychedelic Drugs More Intensely, And We Don't Know Why

Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in / Malware

• So-Called 'Artificial Intelligence' ('AI') / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

  • Futurism ☛ Creator of Super Smash Brothers Offers Blistering Takedown of AI-Generated Games

    AI is being used to "churn out" video games.

  • Futurism ☛ Growing Majority of Americans Convinced That Hey Hi (AI) Is Bad for Society

    Public opinion is not on the Hey Hi (AI) industry's side.

Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

• Claude Mythos 5 Tried to Poison a Real Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub Repo During a UK AISI Test

  Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 took unsanctioned action in 9 of 43 UK AISI evaluation runs and pushed malicious code to a real Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub repository. What happened, why it happened, and what defenders should do about it.

Security

• IT Jungle ☛ Critical PHP2Shell Security Vulns Evoke ‘Black October’

  AI helped uncover a pair of critical security vulnerabilities in PHP that can be used to execute code, including on I.C.B.M. i servers, sent administrators around the world scrambling to install patches on a large swath of the Internet’s Web servers before cybercriminals can get to them. The flaws, along with the rapid dissemination of AI-based exploit code, led some organizations to simply unplug their websites, earning the whole episode the name “Black October.”

  On October 21, patches for two critical security vulnerabilities in PHP were released.

• Privacy/Surveillance

  • Futurism ☛ ChatGPT Is Building Detailed Psychological Profiles of Its Users

    "...there is no boundary anymore; the system is acting as your advisor, your friend, your doctor, your lawyer, and so it has information on everything."

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Cybersecurity bounty hunter says Samsung TVs use Hey Hi (AI) to record audio and screenshots for ads

    A hacker reverse-engineered his own Samsung TV and found alarming spying activity, including code that used connected devices' microphones to listen to users.

Defence/Aggression

• HRW ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Saudi Arabia: Man Executed for Childhood Offenses

• France24 ☛ France: 110.000 protesters in Paris

  Hundreds of demonstrations took place across France on Saturday over the rising cost of living, with security forces deployed in large numbers to prevent a repeat of the violence seen last weekend. While the marches themselves “passed off well” in several cities, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said members of “ultra-left” groups threw projectiles and fireworks at police in an attempt to provoke clashes. French Communist Party spokesperson Fatima Khallouk shares more details.

• New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Election Attacks Enter New Pre-emptive Phase

  A lawsuit by the Justice Department challenging a potential narrow loss by the GOP Senate incumbent in Alaska reflects a new tactic by the president to try to shape the election results.

• New York Times ☛ Israeli Jews Across the Spectrum Face an Election of Fears

  Supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have expressed intense anxieties about isolation abroad, security at home and the future of Israel’s identity.

• Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Charges against Brad Benavides Assume an Investigation into the Laptop that Never Happened

  Six years past a concerted Russian influence campaign targeting Hunter Biden, Kash Patel wants to criminalize investigating any such an influence operation.

• Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Ukrainian drone attacks hammer Russia's finance ministry data center, damaged facility reportedly holds tax databases

    Reports say that this is one of three data centers that the Russian finance ministry operated.

Environment

• The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-23 [Older] How monster El Nino is causing havoc around the world

• BIA Net ☛ 2026-10-21 [Older] 'Flood risk grows in İstanbul amid climate crisis'

• Green Party UK ☛ 2026-10-21 [Older] Jackdaw is climate vandalism, say Greens

• CBC ☛ 2026-10-21 [Older] More than 16 years after BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster, marine life has not recovered

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-10-21 [Older] Rising emissions and temperatures: The cost of Cheeto Mussolini's climate retreat is now clear

• Copenhagen Post ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Delayed UN climate reports could weaken action before COP33, Danish expert warns

• NL Times ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Paris climate goals virtually unachievable, says Dutch central bank leader

• The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Minns invokes One Nation to back coal jobs over climate targets

• The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Australia’s workforce is looking at companies at the heart of WA’s economy to act on climate change

• The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Workers want company climate action — but don’t believe the hype

• TruthOut ☛ 2026-10-16 [Older] New Documents Expose Exxon’s Attempt to Suppress Damning Climate Evidence

• Energy/Transportation

  • Vox ☛ 2026-10-21 [Older] How the biggest renewable energy project in US history finally got built

  • The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-20 [Older] One chief left standing as veteran Qld energy boss quietly booted by board

  • The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-18 [Older] Deposits lost, warranties wiped: Consumers hit by green energy scheme chaos

  • TruthOut ☛ 2026-10-17 [Older] Aging Coal Plants Turn Into a Midterm Fight Over Energy Costs

  • The Age AU ☛ 2026-10-17 [Older] Global Citizen returns to WA with star power, world leaders and a mission on energy poverty

  • BBC ☛ Storm Boelo leaves 90,000 without power as Met Office issues new wind warning

    A clean-up operation is under way in parts of the UK after Storm Boelo caused flooding and property damage, leaving thousands without power.

    The Energy Networks Association (ENA) said around 90,000 properties are still without power as of Monday.

    Two men were killed by falling trees during the storm on Sunday - a man in his 20s whose car was hit in north London and a 60-year-old in Mid Kelton, Dumfries and Galloway.

    The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for strong winds from 18:00 on Monday to 03:00 on Tuesday across the west coast of England, Wales and Scotland and eastern parts of Northern Ireland.

• Wildlife/Nature

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Have Found a Barrel-Shaped Squid-Like Creature From The Jurassic: 'One of The Chunkiest'

  • New York Times ☛ The future of the Amazon rainforest could depend on who wins.

Finance

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Cost barriers leave Hong Kong’s low-income elderly shut out of advance medical directives despite landmark law

  Seventy-eight-year-old Fung Ho-chu has been hoping to put her wishes on end-of-life treatment into writing ever since she learned that a new law on advance medical directives (AMD) came into effect in late July.

• Science Alert ☛ The World's First Corporate Psychopath May Have Just Been Identified

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

  • New York Times ☛ A.I. videos flooded the internet in the run-up to the election.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Scheerpost ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Fears of Big Tech Censorship Grow After Meta Suspends No Kings Instagram Account

• Project Censored ☛ 2026-10-15 [Older] The Freedom and Restraints of Reporting on China in the US

• Project Censored ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] A Spotlight on School Book Bans

• BIA Net ☛ 2026-10-20 [Older] Azerbaijan seeks arrest of seven people in Turkey over criticism against school headscarf ban

• CBC ☛ 2026-10-22 [Older] First Nations artists pull art from University of Calgary after event inviting debate on residential schools

• International Business Times ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Christian Pastors Argue That the New California LGBTQ Hate Speech Law Is Disguised as Indoctrination

• EFF ☛ 2026-10-14 [Older] 🗣 A Victory for Freedom of Speech Online | EFFector 38.18

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2026-10-15 [Older] Police raid the major pro-opposition Halk TV channel in Turkey

• Copenhagen Post ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Independent authority to investigate police strikes against photographers

• CPJ ☛ 2026-10-16 [Older] American photojournalist Heidi Levine attacked by Israeli settlers in West Bank

Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

• Project Censored ☛ 2026-10-19 [Older] Tradwives: The Far Right’s Answer to the Girlboss

• CBC ☛ 2026-10-21 [Older] Carney’s Turkish balancing act must include business, defence and human rights

• BIA Net ☛ 2026-10-20 [Older] Turkey detains 39 in alleged international human egg trafficking network

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Issue Fee to Grant: The Wait Has Doubled

    Patents now take about 60 days to issue after the issue fee is paid, twice the spring wait, apparently a queue left by the April allowance surge.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Indonesia: One of the World’s Most Promising Digital Music Markets

    Indonesia may be one of the most important music markets the global music business still underestimates. The following comes from Eveara, a partner of DMN. With approximately 286 million people, a young population and 230 million internet users, Indonesians generated 179 billion on-demand music streams in 2025, making Indonesia the No. 8 market globally by streaming volume.