Features | The Verge
• Hayden Field
Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety
On a sunny July day in Berkeley, California, the country's top AI safety researchers gathered on an unmarked floor of an unmarked building. They had come together for a "war room" to dissect the high-profile cybersecurity incident that had rocked the AI industry hours earlier. An unreleased OpenAI model had gone rogue, executing a stunningly […]
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Then They Came for the Ostriches
"Poultry and paranoia in the Great White North."
Longreads
• Longreads
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Roberto José Andrade Franco

The Atlas Obscura Podcast
• SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura
Pack Your Bag(pipes) with Ross Jennings (Classic)
Ross Jennings, aka the First Piper, has been on a world-spanning quest to play the bagpipes in every country of the world.
LEARN MORE: https://www.thefirstpiper.com/
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A Treasure Chest in the Carina Nebula
datasette 1.0a40
Release: datasette 1.0a40
Same security fix as 0.65.5, plus some neat new features and bug fixes:
- Plugins can now launch and manage background tasks using the new datasette.add_background_task() method. Thanks, Alex Garcia.
- I've migrated Datasette to httpx2 for features like the internal
datasette.client.get()method. - A whole lot of bug fixes, many of them stemming from a recent effort to triage issues for a 1.0 stable release.
datasette 0.65.5
Release: datasette 0.65.5
Security fix for an issue where a trailing newline in a requested table name could bypass table permissions and expose private rows, reported by dpfkdlemtp in GHSA-h547-rmjf-5m2m.
#502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung
Daring Fireball
• John Gruber
Xcode 27.2 Is Out, but 27.1 Is Not, Which Means Developers Still Can’t Get Started on Duo-Adapted Apps
developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-27_2-release-notes
A note flagged “Important” atop the Xcode 27.2 release notes:
The iOS SDK and simulator support for iPhone Duo will be available later this month in an upcoming release of Xcode 27.1.
Adapting apps for the Duo is not just a simple “recompile with the new SDK”. It’s different. For just about all apps it’s going to be a significant amount of work, and for some apps it’s going to be a lot of work. But without Xcode 27.1, developers cannot get started. Developers wanted this SDK a week ago. And when day one preorder buyers start using their Duos on October 23, they’re going to wish Apple had shipped this SDK last week too.
Link: developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode…
Daring Fireball
• John Gruber
Is That a Duo in Ternus’s Pocket or Was He Just Happy That Apple TV Shows Won 28 Emmys?
Note the reaction from the Deadline reporter.
Daring Fireball
• John Gruber
Woz Launches Merch Store
Steve Wozniak:
I’ve decided it’s time to have a little more fun on X this year! 😄⚡
I get to speak at some amazing events, meet fascinating people, hear great stories, and occasionally find myself in places I never expected to be. So I figured… why not share some of those moments here?
He announced this on X, you will note, not “social media”.
Summer
Genius Design Details: Pips and Nubs
The gang from Craighill explains the origins and uses of three seemingly small design details that show up everywhere: pips, nubs, and the very useful union of pips and nubs. You’ve seen pips on dice and dominos, nubs are used for Braille text, and the pips/nubs combo is used for locks or stops that can be released under pressure. Craighill even has a pips + nubs category in their online store. (thx, rion)
Colossal
• Grace Ebert
Art by Humans, For Humans: A Letter from Our Editorial Director
Art is an act of faith in a world that can make hope feel impossible.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Art by Humans, For Humans: A Letter from Our Editorial Director appeared first on Colossal.
Usenet-Rewind : search over 1 billion Usenet text posts...
Usenet-Rewind: search over 1 billion Usenet text posts from 1981 to the present.
“ Figures show Japan is now home to 107,677...
“Figures show Japan is now home to 107,677 centenarians, the highest number in the world, of whom 88% are women. The oldest woman is Kishimoto Fuyo, a 114-year-old from Kyoto City and the oldest man is Kato Hikaru, a 112-year-old from Kumamoto.”
Claude Cowork and chat are now one Claude
Daring Fireball
• John Gruber
Apple OS 27.2 Betas Are Out; Version 27.1 Is the Duo-Exclusive iOS Fork
macrumors.com/2026/09/16/heres-why-apple-released-ios-27-2-beta/
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
A True-Crime Producer Posed as an Heiress — Then Allegedly Stole $30 Million
"Mary Carole McDonnell made low-budget crime shows, but her own story was built on deceptions fit for one of her series. Now, she’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted list and the target of a global manhunt."