The Bayeux tapestry shows Harold beside a crowd marveling at Halley's comet, but the scene is Norman framing of a doomed usurper, not a faithful record of the sighting. Modern computation puts the comet about 15 million kilometres from Earth in 1066, and medieval chroniclers disagreed on what it meant.

— via The Conversation — History, Giles Gasper, Professor in High Medieval History, Durham University

A 17th-century Wiltshire parson swore a ghost leapt up behind him on a late-night ride home, and John Aubrey, a Royal Society fellow, wrote it up as evidence. His own verdict was blunt: where one apparition report is true, a hundred are figments, and the parson's horse was the best witness he had.

— via The Conversation — History, Louise Ryland-Epton, Visiting Fellow in History, The Open University

In 1914, fewer than 1% of American Jews belonged to the largest American Zionist organisation, while around 90% now back Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Benjamin Moser's new book profiles 12 Jewish opponents of Zionism, from Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares to Nan Goldin, to show the argument was once mainstream.

— via 3 Quarks Daily, Azra Raza

Japan's MMX spacecraft launched toward Mars on Tuesday, and if it works, bits of dust, soil and rock from the moon Phobos will land in the Australian desert in 2031. No one has ever reached Phobos or fetched a sample from Mars or its moons, and the plan includes a microwave-sized rover that can't right itself once its solar panels are out.

— via Phys.org

A burned aluminum slab up to nine meters long fell into a palm oil plantation in Indonesian Borneo, about three kilometers from a company housing complex, and a second piece turned up a kilometer away a day later. Indonesia's research agency says the debris appears to come from a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket; nobody was hurt, and workers had already gone home.

— via Phys.org

A survey of 793 school-based ag teachers across 13 Southern states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands found that teachers in "urban" communities were among the groups more likely to recognize farm stressors than their "rural" counterparts. Researchers say people immersed in farming communities may simply grow used to pressures that outsiders spot faster.

— via Phys.org

Japan launched a $578 million spacecraft toward Mars on Monday with a plan to land on its largest moon, Phobos, and bring back samples, which would be a world first for the Martian moons. The attempt, up to two landings in 2029, will also test whether Phobos is a captured asteroid.

— via Ars Technica — Science, Stephen Clark

Anthropic and Nscale, which announced a $45 billion compute deal just over a month ago, are reportedly close to announcing a second one of the same size, Bloomberg says, citing people familiar with the matter. Talks are still underway and the details could change, even as Nscale faces investor pushback over its proposed $30 billion valuation in its IPO push.

— via TechCrunch, Lucas Ropek

Flipkart has grown an internal food-delivery trial from a few hundred employees to more than 8,000, with its own Ekart rider fleet, according to two people familiar with the matter. It has reportedly proposed a base commission of about 10% to restaurants, versus the 20% to 25% they typically pay Zomato and Swiggy.

— via TechCrunch, Jagmeet Singh

A poll of 2,865 people who pre-ordered the Duo found 37 percent got October delivery dates, nearly even with the 39 percent who got November. Only 10 percent were quoted December and 14 percent January, and the author bets many of the January orders will actually arrive in December, though maybe too late for Christmas.

— via Daring Fireball, John Gruber

A decade after New York named him its top tax deadbeat, ex-Merrill Lynch trader Daniel Gordon owes Albany County warrants totaling $59,141,763.16, up from $25.1 million in 2016. Meanwhile he runs a prison reform charity in California that earned a thank-you letter from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

— via NY Post, James Franey

In an unscientific survey of 1,064 Iron Horse Trail users in Danville, 80% said they feel unsafe around e-bikes and 62% had seen one speeding. The group behind it wants a pilot limiting trail use by day, but the East Bay Regional Park District says it has no plan for its own study.

— via The Oaklandside, Jose Fermoso

A Stanford graduate says the university found the student who raped her responsible, then gave him a two-year suspension instead of expelling him, leaving him eligible to graduate. In an anonymous essay, she says the process took nearly two years and that police and prosecutors lost years more to delays and errors.

— via Hoodline, Emily Johnson

Glen Cove, the city where Rep. Tom Suozzi grew up and served as mayor, has a police union that backed him two years ago and now endorses Republican Mike LiPetri. The switch comes as Suozzi holds endorsements from the Nassau County PBA and the NYC firefighters' union, and as GOP groups have put about $10 million into the race.

— via NY Post, Carl Campanile

Mayor Daniel Lurie has raised roughly $13 million to push three ballot measures that would let a mayor fold and merge city departments and make it four times harder for residents to qualify initiatives. Many of the donors are new to San Francisco politics, and most trace back to the anti-poverty nonprofit Lurie founded.

— via Mission Local, Kelly Waldron, Brandon Pho, and Christina Baris

Roxbury gave Rep. Tom Kean Jr. his biggest 2024 vote total in Morris County, but a planned 1,500-bed ICE detention center in the town is pushing lifelong Republicans like Rick Carroll toward his Democratic challenger. Roxbury's all-Republican council opposed the warehouse plan, and local officials say Kean never engaged until he voiced some opposition last month.

— via Gothamist, Mike Hayes

WorkWhile will pay $7.2 million by 2029 and must treat every worker as an employee starting Jan. 1, 2027, ending a two-year San Francisco lawsuit over contractor classification. The company did not admit wrongdoing, and the latest $2.3 million deal covers the remaining drivers.

— via Mission Local, Andrea Jiménez

Kevin Long, the hitting coach on the Mets' 2015 World Series team, is set to talk with the club Tuesday about a job, a week after the Phillies fired him following five seasons. The Mets have an opening after dismissing hitting director Jeff Albert, who lasted one year in the role.

— via NY Post, Mike Puma

ABC Vancouver went from 19 of 27 elected seats in 2022 to a single council seat, and COPE did the most damage: it elected all 12 candidates and posted the highest average vote per council candidate. Pete Fry won the mayoralty, but with the Greens holding four of 10 council seats, matched by COPE's four, governing around COPE could prove costly.

— via The Tyee, Mo Amir

Otter.ai raised $320 million from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund, a non-dilutive vehicle that earns returns on marketing spend, though PitchBook counts only $50 million raised before it. The company says 40 million people have used its product, but it gave no figures on monthly active users or churn in a crowded notetaker market.

— via TechCrunch, Ivan Mehta

Colorado's first 2026 forecast projects just 6,300 new jobs for the year, down from the 36,700 CU Boulder's Leeds College of Business predicted for 2025. A new Job's List survey of 218 highly educated professionals, a voluntary sample that may skew negative, reports months-long searches, employer silence and little more than automated replies.

— via Westword, Michael Roberts