https://www.metafilter.com/ The past 24 hours of MetaFilter Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:02:24 GMT Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:02:24 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 Writeup at wiz.io A critical vulnerability in the PHP programming language has been recently discovered which can grant remote code execution on affected hosts. Almost all current versions of PHP (from 5.4 all the way up to current 8.x releases) are affected - just about all PHP-backed web apps can offer gateways to exploitation - Wordpress, Roundcube, Joomla, phpBB, etc Patches to mitigate the vulnerability have been released as of this morning.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214911/Major-PHP-Vulnerability-Discovered tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214911 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:02:24 GMT signsofrain hacking php programming security vulnerability https://www.metafilter.com/214911/Major-PHP-Vulnerability-Discovered/rss Spell X Sword is an ongoing webcomic by Robin Books about modern city life with magic and monsters, where seers busk on street corners and quests are the foundation of a shitty gig economy. Two adventurers meet cute and surely neither of them have any dark secrets lurking in their pasts. Updates Fridays.

She's written various autobiographical comics, as well as a completed fantasy webcomic Experience Boost, although by her own admission it's something of a journeyman work.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214910/Frankly-questing-is-exploitative tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214910 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:00:21 GMT Lorc comic comics ExperienceBoost fantasy gigeconomy modernfantasy quest questing RobinBooks SpellXSword urbanfantasy webcomic webcomics https://www.metafilter.com/214910/Frankly-questing-is-exploitative/rss Politico: The Trump administration's disaster chief told state officials Tuesday they must increase their financial reserves and emergency capabilities to handle most disasters on their own, without federal help.

Previously, from Samantha Montano's Disasterology blog: State, territorial, tribal, and local governments would face a staggering increase in financial responsibility for emergency management. In cases where federal disaster funding will still be made available, decisions about who receives help, when, and how much would fall to state officials, including those with little disaster experience and minimal resources and capacity. The Council's recommendations would disproportionately harm smaller, poorer, and rural states and deepen discriminatory outcomes along class and racial lines. The FEMA Review Council provides no evidence that their recommendations would create a more effective, efficient, and equitable emergency management system.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214909/sauve-qui-peut tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214909 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:51:56 GMT mittens collapse disaster FEMA uspol uspolitics https://www.metafilter.com/214909/sauve-qui-peut/rss private keys so weak they could allow anyone to mint trusted browser and app credentials for any site on the Internet.

The compromised eMudhra keys were defective at a level that's challenging the imagination of many of the engineers studying the incident. A normal size for a NIST P-384 elliptic curve cryptography private key contains roughly 384 bits of entropy, a size allowing almost 2384, or a number with 116 digits, different possibilities. The private key sizes of the compromised keys ranged from 3 to 8 bits. Astonishingly, the private keys were 4, 56, 66, 115, 155, 156, 230, 237.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214908/Big-Mess-in-TLS tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214908 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:27:02 GMT postcommunism ChosenByFairDiceRoll eMudhra infosec tls uhoh https://www.metafilter.com/214908/Big-Mess-in-TLS/rss This was undoubtedly a scam. Genuine book clubs don't ask for money from authors. But who was behind it? Had these individuals actually read my work, they would have wanted to stay away from me. I have spent the last 10 years reporting on transnational fraud. –The Lucrative World of Literary Scams by Snigdha Poonam. The story also links to I Got Scammed by a Fake Book Club ON PURPOSE! by Marsh Rose. Poonam interviewed M. L. Stark, who wrote her own account of being scammed.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214907/Not-every-author-is-a-narcissist-but-they-all-want-to-be-recognized tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214907 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:46:04 GMT Kattullus Books Fraud Literature MarshRose MLStark Poonam Scams SnigdhaPoonam https://www.metafilter.com/214907/Not-every-author-is-a-narcissist-but-they-all-want-to-be-recognized/rss chocolate is a parable for the modern world. That at this particularly bleak end stage of capitalism, everything we once treasured has or will lose its essential essence and MrBeast will always be involved somehow. [Grub Street; ungated]]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214906/But-what-were-the-old-formulas-exactly tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214906 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:01:11 GMT chavenet Cacao Candy Chocolate Cocoa Cooking Flavor Hershey Industry Reeses https://www.metafilter.com/214906/But-what-were-the-old-formulas-exactly/rss exhibition and archive remembering the tragedy, and the National Library of Wales has an archive. Nuffield College has an online research project. The BBC: 60 years on: The Aberfan disaster through the eyes of those who survived. The Guardian writes about the legacy of the disaster, and links to its 1966 coverage. ITV has a video, The trauma and tragedy of Aberfan (28min).]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214905/Aberfan-60 tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214905 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:52:53 GMT paduasoy 1966 Aberfan AmgueddfaCymru anniversary BBC BethanMcKernan DenisFrost disaster history HuwThomas ITV mining mourning NationalCoalBoard NationalLibraryOfWales NationalMuseumOfWales NuffieldCollege TheGuardian TonyBrown TonyGeraghty tragedy trauma UK UnitedKingdom Wales YouTube https://www.metafilter.com/214905/Aberfan-60/rss The masts of the SS Richard Montgomery have been removed in an effort to decrease the risk of catastrophic explosion. In 1944, the SS Richard Montgomery ran aground on a sandbank in the Thames Estuary carrying large volumes of munitions. If the ship exploded it would be one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts of all time and would hurl a huge volume of water, mud, metal and munitions 10000 feet in the air, devastate the nearby port of Sheerness, and sink any nearby craft in the Thames Estuary. When the similar SS Kielce exploded near Folkestone, it had a tenth of the explosives aboard and was in deeper water, yet still caused an explosion the size of a minor earthquake. The wreck's position has endangered plans to build an airport, has a no-fly zone above it and an exclusion zone around it to prevent anyone approaching, but despite this a paddle boarder still managed to get to the wreck last year. There currently appears to be no long term plan to deal with the wreck other than to try to keep people away from it and hope that it doesn't explode.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214904/SS-Richard-Montgomery tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214904 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:51:21 GMT BigCalm bombs explosion montgomery munitions richard ship ww2 https://www.metafilter.com/214904/SS-Richard-Montgomery/rss The Geltwood shipwreck has long been part of the Limestone Coast's history. A documentary is giving it new life.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214903/Documentary-brings-stories-of-150-year-old-shipwreck-to-life tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214903 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:36:34 GMT chariot pulled by cassowaries Geltwood Shipwrecks TheGeltwood TheGeltwoodShipwreck https://www.metafilter.com/214903/Documentary-brings-stories-of-150-year-old-shipwreck-to-life/rss I Teach at a Business School. It's Time to Shut Them Down. (archive)]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214902/I-have-watched-students-abandon-their-altruistic-intentions tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214902 Tue, 20 Oct 2026 22:44:17 GMT clawsoon mba https://www.metafilter.com/214902/I-have-watched-students-abandon-their-altruistic-intentions/rss delightful longread, The Madness of Roland, a review of Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal's memoir. It's so fun.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/214901/welcome-to-your-longread tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.214901 Tue, 20 Oct 2026 18:45:35 GMT mittens 80s eighties music philchristman rolandorzabal substack tearsforfears https://www.metafilter.com/214901/welcome-to-your-longread/rss