Philly AIDS Thrift has raised more than $5 million for Delaware Valley HIV and AIDS groups in 21 years, including over $350,000 to more than 30 organizations last year. Its executive director says federal HIV funding has dried up significantly, which makes that giving matter more.

— via WHYY, Andrew McGurl

Greek and Roman sex lives were far more inventive than the Victorians let on, with orgies, olive oil, lucky phalluses, leather dildos and pigeon-powered love potions all part of the picture. Dr Jean Menzies argues that what the ancients got up to reveals a good deal about how their societies worked.

— via HistoryExtra (BBC)

Hegseth says the Pentagon expects to field hundreds of thousands of autonomous systems this year and millions after, and wants the prime contractor base widened from roughly five firms to ten or fifteen. He told the Army's annual meeting that about $50 billion for autonomy sits in the reconciliation bill, while the administration seeks at least $350 billion.

— via Small Wars Journal, SWJ Staff

Rivian is building its own AI models, a 5 nm chip with Arm and TSMC, and a self-driving stack for robotaxis with Uber, and CEO RJ Scaringe wants to license the tech to "many different brands." Rivian already owns 31% of an industrial robotics startup, and the $5.8 billion VW joint venture could grow to cover AI and autonomy.

— via TechCrunch, Kirsten Korosec

At Pitch-A-Friend Los Angeles, singles don't write their own dating profiles. Their friends stand up in a Koreatown bar and sell them to about 300 strangers with a four-to-five-minute slideshow. The LA offshoot started nearly two years ago to small crowds and now draws hundreds.

— via LAist

Nathan Tankus first met Anwar Shaikh as an intellectual challenge, a Marxist economist whose camp seemed to look down on the Keynesianism he'd embraced in high school. He spent the summer of 2010 reading "Monopoly Capital" while deliberately holding himself in a zone of intellectual uncertainty.

— via 3 Quarks Daily, Robin Varghese

The No Kings coalition has dropped the message-sending protests for a nationwide push to get people to vote early in the midterms. Saturday's events ranged from a Lincoln Memorial rally with a giant inflatable donkey to dog marches, block parties and a superhero-themed gathering in Texas.

— via KQED, Samantha Kennedy

Rozina Ali, a New York Times Magazine contributing writer and 2026 Robert Silvers Prize winner, will talk about her new book, Seasons of Fury, in a free-to-join Zoom event on October 26 from 5 to 6pm Arizona time. The talk is co-sponsored by the ASU Humanities Institute and the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict.

— via Small Wars Journal, SWJ Staff

Melissa Granum, running under the Delta First banner, has unseated incumbent mayor George Harvie, who was first elected in 2018. She also beat city councillor Dylan Kreuger, and her platform promises to restore trust in Delta City Council.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Amir Ali

Linda Buchanan won a third term as mayor of the City of North Vancouver, leading Mike McGraw by 6,056 votes to 5,163 in preliminary results, with Dave Kurvers at 1,602. She campaigned on housing, transit and childcare, and called for a public inquiry into cost overruns at the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Kenneth Chan

Green Party leader Pete Fry jumped to an early lead and never gave it up, unseating incumbent Ken Sim as Vancouver's mayor. At 10:42 p.m. he had 57,194 votes to Sim's 41,040, and Sim has already conceded.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Amir Ali

The Giants sit alone atop the NFC East at 3-1-1 after last week's 27-27 overtime tie with Washington, and a slightly favored 1-4 Saints team comes to MetLife Stadium at 1 p.m. ET on FOX. Jameis Winston, who threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns in the tie, faces his former team.

— via NY Post, Angela Tricarico

Rob Howard won Richmond's mayoral race by roughly 1,000 votes, with nearly 20,000 to Alexa Loo's nearly 19,000, ending Malcolm Brodie's 25 years in the job. The former councillor and MLA ran under Richmond Forward on a slate that includes banning supervised injection sites in the city.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Amir Ali

The Jets' win over Cleveland turned on a punter fumbling a wet snap in the rain, which Trevin Wallace recovered at the Browns' 23 before Braelon Allen ran 22 yards for the winning touchdown. Now they visit a 3-2 Patriots team whose Drake Maye has thrown seven touchdown passes in two games, with kickoff at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.

— via NY Post, Angela Tricarico

Mike Little won a third term as District of North Vancouver mayor with 10,431 votes, well ahead of Stephan Nieweler's 6,145 and Max Zahedi's 1,934. Next door in West Vancouver, newcomer Kirk Lapointe unseated incumbent Mark Sager.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Kenneth Chan

NYCFC's new Queens stadium won't open until July 17, 2027, but premium hospitality tickets are already on sale while general admission prices remain unannounced. The club's COO says the goal is an affordable price point for everyone, even as the team has won once in its last 12 league matches.

— via NY Post, Christian Arnold

When an AI company updates its model, some users of companion chatbots grieve the old personality as a death, even though they know the bot isn't real. MIT Media Lab researchers who analyzed Reddit posts from companion communities found the grief runs deeper the more users anthropomorphize their companions, and those who hope the change is reversible get stuck coaxing and pleading with the new model to become the old one.

— via 3 Quarks Daily, Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad

The Rangers went 0-for-3 on the power play in the third period, managing just four chances in a scoreless 1-0 overtime loss to Columbus. They're 1-for-11 over their last stretch and down to 20 percent on the season, even with 20-goal man-advantage scorer Pavel Dorofeyev now on the unit.

— via NY Post, Andrew Crane

The Islanders beat the Maple Leafs 4-1 while playing most of the game with 10 forwards, but losing Calum Ritchie and Matias Maccelli in the first period may cost them more than the win gained. The two were one-third of their top six, and the team has few ready replacements in the organization.

— via NY Post, Ethan Sears

NYCFC says it has "no concern" after sister club Manchester City was found guilty of more than 100 Premier League financial-rule charges, with the COO insisting construction on Etihad Park is on track for a July 17, 2027 opener. MLS commissioner Don Garber says the league won't look into the club's ownership.

— via NY Post, Christian Arnold

Kirk Lapointe, the former CTV News and Vancouver Sun editor, has unseated incumbent Mark Sager to become mayor of West Vancouver. He ran on financial discipline, public consultation and "a clearer plan for the future," a dozen years after losing Vancouver's 2014 mayoral race to Gregor Robertson by just over 10,000 votes.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Hanna Hett

Dylan Garand turned aside his first 30 shots a night after getting pulled in a 7-1 loss, but Kent Johnson's overtime goal beat him and Columbus won 1-0. The Rangers have scored twice in their last seven periods, with a 5-on-5 drought stretching back to Tuesday.

— via NY Post, Andrew Crane