ProPublica wants inside FanDuel and DraftKings accounts to see how the apps dole out VIP perks and boost offers versus when they flash responsible-gaming warnings. Only 5 people have shared betting histories so far; the goal is 250, using a browser extension that keeps the data out of the sportsbooks' hands.

— via ProPublica, [email protected]

The Pentagon is dropping "Havana Syndrome" for a new label: "directed energy biological effects." Dr. James Giordano argues the rename signals the military now treats such attacks as real, deployable weapons, not mystery ailments, and he's pushing for a joint center to build sensors, shielding and standardized care.

— via Small Wars Journal, SWJ Staff

A Gonzales jury convicted Kalvin Forcell of shooting his girlfriend and their 13-month-old daughter in the head, killing the baby as she sat in her walker. He fled, broke into a stranger's home in Sorrento, and was held at gunpoint until deputies arrived; he now faces two mandatory life sentences on December 7.

— via Hoodline, Hannah Mitchell

A new report warns Bay Bridge traffic delays could double if voters kill two transit tax measures. The team also checks in on canal-top solar panels, the Valkyries' playoff run, and bids farewell to senior editor Alan Montecillo.

— via KQED, Ericka Cruz Guevarra

OpenAI's Codex Pets turn a coding agent into a desktop mascot, but strip the sprite away and it's just a status light with a tail. One developer built Mochi instead: a Linux desktop companion with a real state machine, memory, and a rule-based awareness layer that never reads your keystrokes.

— via dev.to, Mika Flowers

Recklessness Rewarded: I blew $1,800 in one night by chasing my losses with bigger bets, a classic sign of problem gambling. The next day, DraftKings invited me to audition for its VIP program.

Casino Craze: Sportsbooks want to expand into online casinos, where you can lose a lot fast. I played 500 rounds of blackjack in a weekend — about half of my total bets over 10 weeks.

Profit Over Protection: The responsible gaming prompts telling me to pump the brakes were no match for the product design and promotions pushing me to do more gambling

With 50mph winds bearing down this weekend, the MTA's top worry isn't flooding but old trees crashing onto exposed subway tracks. Nearly 800 trains were delayed by downed trees in just the first half of 2024, mostly along Brooklyn's tree-lined Brighton Line.

— via The City, Jose Martinez

Will Warren struck out seven of 11 batters he faced in his final regular-season relief outing, racking up 13 whiffs on just 28 swings as the Yankees audition arms behind their three trusted late-inning relievers.

— via NY Post, Greg Joyce

Medically tailored meals help Medicaid patients recover and cut healthcare spending, studies show. Federal budget cuts now threaten the programs some states rely on to deliver them.

— via NPR, Priyanka D McCluskey

A journalist gets her own AI clone built by a $4 billion avatar startup, trained to field questions about one of her own stories. She walks through the film studio, the voice recordings, and the tech stack behind it, then lets you talk to her digital twin yourself.

— via TechCrunch, Dominic-Madori Davis

Meta's unreleased audio-only glasses ditch the camera entirely, six microphones instead, aimed squarely at "pervert glasses" backlash. A hands-on test also found the AI agent gets confused if you talk to anyone else while wearing them, and a separate $150 hearing-aid version undercuts $1,600 devices.

— via TechCrunch, Lucas Ropek

Anthony Volpe made his first career start at third base Friday, and one ball actually came his way in the ninth: it hit the bag and sailed over his head. Aaron Boone still called the experiment worthwhile, part of a broader push to make Volpe a Swiss Army knife before the wild-card series against Boston.

— via NY Post, Greg Joyce

A single-producer single-consumer (SPSC) queue is a great example of how far constraints can take a design. In this post, you will learn how to implement a ring buffer from scratch: start with the simplest design, make it thread-safe, and then gradually remove overhead while preserving FIFO behavior and predictable latency. This pattern is widely used to share data between threads in the lowest-latency environments.

A murder trial ground to a halt after prosecutors played AI love songs the defendant made for his mistress, and courtroom video shows everyone straining not to laugh. Forensic tools also pulled his Oura Ring sleep data and a deleted "AI music song generator" app off his phone.

— via 404 Media, Jason Koebler

One New Jersey mayor is bracing for flooding up to 6 feet deep, calling it an "Irene-scale" event. Winds could hit 65 mph on Cape Cod, hundreds of flights are grounded, and leaves still on trees are raising the risk of downed limbs and outages.

— via NY Post, Associated Press

Bear reports on the North Shore are running more than 50 per cent above normal this year, with bruins turning up from Ambleside to Lonsdale. Three have already been shot in West Vancouver, and wildlife officials say unsecured dumpsters and garbage are drawing them into deadly encounters.

— via Vancouver Is Awesome, author

A House Democrat's bill would scrap ICE and CBP entirely, replacing DHS with a "Department of Community Safety." DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin calls it radical and cites a 1,300% spike in assaults on his officers as proof the rhetoric has gone too far.

— via NY Post, Fox News

Coastal New Jersey towns are flooding and thousands along the East Coast have lost power as the storm moves through.

— via NPR, The Associated Press

Trump has barred CNN from Air Force One after failing to shut the network out of the White House entirely. A 2025 D.C. Circuit ruling on AP's own ouster suggests he's within his rights: spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One aren't public fora, and viewpoint-based exclusion there is fair game.

— via Volokh Conspiracy (Reason), Eugene Volokh

A kick returner who once played high school quarterback threw a lateral off a punt return to set up the winning field goal, sealing a 30-28 Argonauts win over Winnipeg with 27 seconds left. Earlier that same night he'd returned a missed 45-yard field goal 128 yards for a touchdown, the fourth-longest such return in CFL history.

— via Vancouver Is Awesome, author