Researchers analyzed more than 85 million U.S. medical records and found that people vaccinated against chickenpox in childhood had a reduced likelihood of developing shingles decades afterward. The study adds to evidence connecting varicella vaccination with long-term protection against the related shingles virus.
Lukas Vogel built SQLDoom, a project that runs the classic shooter's game logic inside a CedarDB relational database, using about 1,300 lines of SQL across 89 common table expressions to generate 35 full-color 640x480 frames per second. A small Python client handles input, timing, and on-screen display, while the database manages game geometry and state. The project improves on Vogel's earlier DoomQL effort, which only produced grayscale ASCII raycasting graphics.
Google is rolling out a fix for a bug that removed cellular signal strength indicators from Android Auto dashboards earlier this year. Google employee Mishaal Rahman confirmed the fix is currently rolling out, after some users reported the icon's return in the Android Auto v17.8 beta build. The fix is not yet widely available on the stable channel.
YouTube announced in a blog post that it is updating the recommendation system for Shorts to reduce the visibility of reuploaded clips that add nothing new, such as segments lifted from other creators' livestreams or videos. Shorts that add commentary, editing, or another original angle can still be recommended, and creators clipping their own long-form videos are expected to be unaffected.
Sean Parker and CEO Prem Akkaraju are repositioning Stability AI, which Parker helped rescue with an $80 million infusion two years ago, as a toolmaker for music professionals. The company announced $76 million in new funding from Sony, Warner, and Universal, who also licensed their catalogs for training its models. Stability has released three new audio models along with AI music-editing software that can generate instrumental tracks or short clips from text prompts.
A tech essay describes a trajectory where software companies increasingly wrap their operations around large language models, moving from engineers pairing with coding agents to entire teams triggering and reviewing background agents, and eventually to agents proactively deciding work themselves. The author terms this evolving structure a 'harness' — the infrastructure, interfaces, and state built around a stateless model — and suggests most SaaS businesses are already on this path, whether they recognize it or not.
Apple TV has released the full second season of its animated series 'The Sisters Grimm,' making all six new episodes available to stream immediately. The show, based on Michael Buckley's bestselling book series, follows sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm as they investigate their parents' disappearance in the fairy-tale town of Ferryport Landing.
Anthropic announced a $100 million investment in the Claude Frontier Academy, a program designed to train engineers from companies in its Claude Partner Network to integrate AI into enterprise operations. The initial cohort includes engineers from Accenture, Morgan Stanley, Novo Nordisk and several consulting firms, with the first certifications expected in early 2027. Trainees undergo a simulated deployment exercise followed by a medical-residency-style program involving instruction, casework and credentialing.
Sui Ishida, creator of 'Tokyo Ghoul,' has an ongoing series called 'Choujin X' published by Viz, blending horror and battle-shonen elements. Despite its pedigree, the series has not attracted wide attention or discussion compared to Ishida's earlier work.
Apple announced it will tighten controls on macOS's Full Disk Access setting, which lets apps read files, mail, messages and browsing history. The move follows reports that Meta's Muse app on Mac could optionally use this permission, with a journalist alleging it read private messages — a claim Meta disputed.
The Zig Software Foundation released version 0.17.0 after five months of development involving 206 contributors and 925 commits. The update reworks the build system with a new Build Server Protocol and enhances the ELF linker so incremental compilation is expected to work for all users on x86_64-linux, alongside expanded CI testing for architectures like aarch64-openbsd, aarch64-freebsd, and aarch64-netbsd.
Google has launched Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1, the first preview of its next quarterly platform release, for Pixel phones ranging from the Pixel 6a to the Pixel 11 series. Most devices receive build DP11.260918.006, while Pixel 11 models get DP11.260918.005, with Google noting the release focuses on bug fixes.