Summary: Donald Trump claims he never wanted to end the Affordable Care Act, but his previous statements and actions suggest otherwise. Despite his promises to replace the law with a better option, Trump’s Republican proposals would have weakened or eliminated its coverage rules and reduced government spending. Republicans may pursue a more piecemeal approach to weakening the law, but it could still alarm a majority of Americans.

Summary: A man was caught on video removing and destroying Harris-Walz signs outside an early voting site in Raleigh. The man claimed he was expressing his political beliefs, but removing or stealing political signs is considered theft and is a misdemeanor. Early voting continues through Saturday, with Election Day on Tuesday, November 5th.

Summary: Author Michael Wolff alleges that Jeffrey Epstein showed him photos of Donald Trump with topless young women at Epstein’s Palm Beach home. Trump’s campaign has denied the claims, calling Wolff a “disgraced” writer. Wolff also expressed skepticism about Epstein’s death, suggesting it was implausible but also questioning the possibility of a cover-up.

Summary: Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old fortified town, al-Natah, in an Arabian oasis. The town, home to up to 500 residents, suggests a transition from nomadic to urban life during the early Bronze Age. The discovery of al-Natah challenges the notion that northwest Arabia was barren desert during this period.

In a quarterly earnings call that was overwhelmingly about AI and Meta’s plans for it, Zuckerberg said that new, AI-generated feeds are likely to come to Facebook and other Meta platforms. Zuckerberg said he is excited for the “opportunity for AI to help people create content that just makes people’s feed experiences better.” Zuckerberg’s comments were first reported by Fortune.

“I think we’re going to add a whole new category of content, which is AI generated or AI summarized content or kind of existing content pulled together by AI in some way,” he said. “And I think that that’s going to be just very exciting for the—for Facebook and Instagram and maybe Threads or other kind of Feed experiences over time.”

Artist: Re | fediverse | pixiv | twitter | artstation | tumblr | danbooru

For years now, I've been watching most of the trick-or-treaters go to the house on one side of me, take one look at my house and walk right past it, and then go to the house on the other side.

I had no clue why. Maybe they were scared of my house or thought I'd give cheap candy (my house is a bit of a fixer-upper)? I completed my "curb appeal" projects; didn't help.

Maybe they thought nobody was home? I not only have the porch light on, but also have the living room TV on, clearly visible through the (open!) front window, and it makes no difference.

Maybe they think I'm not participating (despite the clear signal of the porch light and jack-o'-lantern)? I put up a bunch of Halloween decorations this year, and it still didn't help!

Well, I finally found out the reason, after hearing one kid scouting ahead yelling to tell his friends to skip my house: "there's no bowl on the porch!"

...You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Yep, unlike my neighbors, who had apparently just left unattended bowls of candy on their porches, I was actually sitting there inside the house, with the bowl of candy, waiting for kids to knock or ring the doorbell before I opened the door and handed it out. You know, like how trick-or-treating is supposed to work.

This is ridiculous. Kids these days are skipping viable houses with candy because they can't be bothered to actually knock on the damn door and say "trick or treat" to the person who answers? Residents are expected to be too lazy to answer the door, and just put out the candy without even receiving the traditional threat first? With no actual interaction with the neighbors for the kids to show off their costumes, what's even the point‽

I finally stuck a sign on the door saying "yes, you have to knock or ring for candy!" and that helped, but even then, some kids are still skipping my house because they apparently can't be bothered to read the sign.

Had to install this app which then made me sign in (using my work PC) to update the firmware on my damn controller. Wish there was a way to do this in Linux. I'm so over Microsoft's crap.

My mom's dog, Rizzo, thinks Halloween is juuuuust a little too spooky (because the doorbell rings a lot), so he stays with me tonight where there are fewer trick-or-treaters.

#dogsofmastodon @aww