RSS Feeds

The ‘Pain in the Ass’ Math That Could Save Vibe Coding From Itself
Published: 2026-10-29 15:00:00 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:03:03
A new startup called &Truth is joining the race to automate formal verification, a painstaking process that uses math to prove software works as intended.
show more
Pentagon inspector general declines to investigate Starlink disruptions in Ukraine
Feed: ABC News: Top Stories (https://abcnews.go.com/abcnews/topstories)
Published: 2026-10-29 15:00:24 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:02:03
The watchdog told lawmakers it was a contractual matter.
show more
От учителя к студенту: путь к изотропным эмбеддингам в 29M модели. Часть 1/10
Feed: Все публикации подряд на Хабре (https://habr.com/ru/rss/articles/)
Published: 2026-10-29 15:00:50 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:01:59

Просмотр слоев моделей, первые "пристрелочные" тесты для определения общего направления работы и выбор базовой модели для дистилляции. Эта часть довольно простая и короткая, но содержит некоторые важные наблюдения.

Читать далее
show more
Four Scenarios for How the Midterms Could Go
Published: 2026-10-29 17:48:41 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:01:06
Expectations are cresting for Democrats, and some kind of wave seems likely, but so much will depend on a few close Senate races.
show more
Agent identity startup Mintive lands Cowboy Ventures, Coatue, angels Jeff Dean, Andrej Karpathy
Published: 2026-10-29 15:00:00 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:01:04
Mintive was founded by two engineers who have been working on AI for decades through Google Brain and Coursera. It's platform promises to help IT easily control enterprise agents.
show more
Finland launches criminal investigation into Google’s clearing of forest for datacentre site
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:51:45 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:00:59

Authorities allege company may have breached Finnish environmental laws by forgoing required impact assessment

Finnish ⁠police have launched a criminal investigation into possible breaches ⁠of the country’s environmental ⁠laws ​at the site of a planned Google datacentre in rural northern Finland.

Authorities allege that Tuike Finland, a Google subsidiary, cleared and drained 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest at the planned site in Muhos before environmental impact assessments required by Finnish law had been completed.

Continue reading...
show more
Finland launches criminal investigation into Google’s clearing of forest for datacentre site
Published: 2026-10-29 14:51:45 | Created: 2026-10-29 15:00:04

Authorities allege company may have breached Finnish environmental laws by forgoing required impact assessment

Finnish ⁠police have launched a criminal investigation into possible breaches ⁠of the country’s environmental ⁠laws ​at the site of a planned Google datacentre in rural northern Finland.

Authorities allege that Tuike Finland, a Google subsidiary, cleared and drained 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest at the planned site in Muhos before environmental impact assessments required by Finnish law had been completed.

Continue reading...
show more
Greetings from Baghdad, where Agatha Christie's old home presents its own mystery
Feed: NPR Topics: News (https://feeds.npr.org/1001/rss.xml)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:52:11 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:59:58
undefined

The English writer visited Iraq multiple times in the first half of the 20th century and set some of her mystery novels there. The house in Baghdad where she once lived now sits abandoned and crumbling.

show more
US economy grows faster than expected but inflation rises to 3.7%
Published: 2026-10-29 13:09:00 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:56:03

Commerce department data contrasts with sharp deterioration in consumer sentiment as midterms loom

The US economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter while inflation accelerated in September, according to new commerce department data released on Thursday, less than a week before the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 3.4% annualized rate last quarter, the commerce department’s ⁠bureau of economic analysis said in its advance estimate of the third-quarter GDP on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP advancing at a 3.2% pace.

Continue reading...
show more
Australia’s 2026 National Architecture award winners – in pictures
Published: 2026-10-29 14:00:48 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:56:01

Chosen from a shortlist of more than 60 projects, the winners of this year’s Australian Institute of Architects’ annual awards were praised for their ‘architectural ambition and community benefit’

Continue reading...
show more
Can a $500 Keurig earn its counter space?
Published: 2026-10-29 14:35:06 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:55:00
The plastic-free Keurig Alta Coffee and Espresso Maker recently launched and we put it to the test for three weeks to see if it was actually worth the upgrade. Here’s who it’s best for and whether it’s worth the $499 price tag.
show more
Ernie Johnson set to hang up his NBA microphone after this season
Published: 2026-10-29 14:46:25 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:55:00
Longtime “Inside the NBA” host Ernie Johnson announced Wednesday that this season behind the desk will be his last, ending a career that made him one of the most prominent voices of pro basketball.
show more
Alaska governor orders investigation into Peltola camp after report they recruited second Dan Sullivan
Published: 2026-10-29 14:50:39 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:54:59
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Thursday that he is ordering an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign after a report that it worked with allies to recruit a candidate with the same name as incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan in an effort to dilute his votes.
show more
Exclusive discounts from CBS Mornings Deals
Published: 2026-10-29 14:46:18 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:53:57
On this edition of CBS Deals, we show you items that could help improve your everyday lifestyle. Visit cbsdeals.com to take advantage of these exclusive deals today. CBS earns commissions on purchases made through cbsdeals.com.
show more
Alaska's governor orders a probe into Peltola's Senate campaign over spoiler candidate controversy
Feed: PBS News Hour - The Latest (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/headlines)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:46:36 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:51:58
Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate in the state after revelations that her campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting another candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.
show more
El-Sayed's faith, family under scrutiny in campaign. Here's what we know.
Published: 2026-10-29 14:42:48 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:48:57
If elected, Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed would become the first Muslim U.S. senator in American history.
show more
'Painful' years ahead, think tanks warn, as living standards set to fall
Published: 2026-10-29 13:19:24 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:47:57
Budget forecasts show growth in living standards grinding almost to a halt.
show more
Senate race in once reliably Republican South Carolina tied in final stretch – poll
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:42:38 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:45:59

Democrat Annie Andrews neck-and-neck with Republican incumbent, Darline Graham, sister to Lindsey Graham

A US Senate race in one of the most Republican states in the country is now a dead heat, according to a new poll showing Annie Andrews, a Democrat, tied with Darline Graham, the Republican incumbent senator.

South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, and Donald Trump won it by nearly 18 points in 2024, but a New York Times/Siena poll this week has the two candidates neck and neck, at 48% each.

Continue reading...
show more
Overweight offshore workers 'could lose their jobs' under new rules
Feed: The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News (https://feeds.skynews.com/feeds/rss/home.xml)
Published: 2026-10-29 13:31:00 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:45:59
Hundreds of offshore workers could be at risk of losing their jobs when a new weight limit comes into effect next month, an industry body has warned.
show more
How did the Spain train crash happen and what will investigators be asking?
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:39:16 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:44:58

Audio file appears to point finger at control centre, but there are questions around signalling and technical issues

At least 69 people died when a high-speed train from Madrid to Seville hit another train on the same track from behind near Toledo on Wednesday morning.

Both trains had been brought to a halt earlier when the signalling system failed. The driver of the state-owned Spanish train, a Renfe AVE service, was told by controllers to restart the journey, but crashed into the train in front, run by the private operator Iryo. The front carriages of the AVE train and rear of the Iryo train were destroyed and others derailed.

Continue reading...
show more
LinkedIn career expert breaks down top networking failures
Published: 2026-10-29 14:32:25 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:43:57
Catherine Fisher, a career expert at LinkedIn, joins "CBS Mornings" to offer advice and break down the networking mistakes people make.
show more
How Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne are reckoning with statues of colonial-era white men in an age of truth telling
Published: 2026-10-29 14:00:47 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:42:01

These misty-eyed monuments often paper over atrocities against Indigenous peoples – something that is finally being officially recognised

This is the tale of three cities and the same number of statues, two of them colonial era and one from early this century.

All were erected to celebrate the experiences of prominent white men who lived in colonial Australian times and who respectively treated the Indigenous people of their realms barbarously, murderously and contemptuously.

Continue reading...
show more
A stress-free guide to organizing important paperwork and documents
Feed: NPR Topics: News (https://feeds.npr.org/1001/rss.xml)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:38:32 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:41:58
undefined

Got piles of mail stacking up in the kitchen? Not sure where your Social Security card is? It might be time to sort through your paperwork. Don't let it overwhelm you with this simple guide.

show more
My phone thinks my boyfriend is my ‘best friend’. It’s not alone | Patrick Lenton
Published: 2026-10-29 14:00:46 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:41:06

Being in a same-sex relationship can make you weirdly invisible. Queer identity shouldn’t be treated as abnormal

My boyfriend and I invented a game on our recent trip to Italy. We called it “invisible gays”, which might have been an attempt at some kind of word play around “gays” and “gaze” – but I was on holiday and feeling lazy, so I didn’t push it.

The game began when one night he took me out to a little trattoria to celebrate my birthday. It was a warm night, and fairy lights were entangled in the fragrant blooming flowers over our heads, and we drank good wine and ate bowls of perfect pasta, and there was candlelight, and it was so romantic I wouldn’t have blinked if two dogs had started smooching over a strand of spaghetti. Che bello!

Continue reading...
show more
Colin Currie Group review – Steve Reich’s music is still bedazzling
Published: 2026-10-29 14:33:11 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:41:05

Barbican Hall, London
For this celebration of the composer in his 90th year, the Colin Currie Group focused on works written in the last two decades, including the brand new In All Your Ways

There have been a fair few 90th birthday concerts celebrating Steve Reich this year, but the Colin Currie Group came up with something a little different. Eschewing the signature works of the 1970s and 80s, and with the exception of 1972’s still mind-expanding Clapping Music, everything here was written by a composer over the age of 71. Furthermore, the London premiere of In All Your Ways featured the work of a man entering into his tenth decade.

After a bitty start, the group got into its stride with a series of four masterworks back-to-back. Radio Rewrite is Reich at his coolest, five continuous movements that riff on a pair of classic Radiohead songs; those in the know can just about perceive them in the harmonic atmosphere of the slow sections and the faster music’s lyrical outlines. Currie conducted a nicely chilled reading, the playing as tight as a drum.

Continue reading...
show more
UK social media ban may lock out more than 100,000 teenagers without ID
Published: 2026-10-29 13:45:05 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:41:05

Watchdog says under-16 ban may affect older teenagers without passport or licence, and that ‘motivated children’ will skirt restrictions

More than 100,000 British teenagers risk being locked out of social media if they do not have a passport or driving licence when an under-16 ban is introduced next year.

Ofcom, the UK’s online watchdog, said about 150,000 16- to 17-year-olds do not own a passport or driving licence, which are likely to be needed to access age-restricted platforms.

Continue reading...
show more
vue-llm: AI SDK для Vue и Nuxt — стриминговый чат, Generative UI и модели прямо в браузере
Feed: Все публикации подряд на Хабре (https://habr.com/ru/rss/articles/)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:35:14 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:36:59

Если вы делали AI-фичу на Vue, то, скорее всего, сталкивались с одним и тем же: большинство готовых инструментов для LLM-интерфейсов написаны с прицелом на React, а во Vue их приходится адаптировать или писать стриминг, tool calling и состояние чата вручную. Я сделал vue-llm — open-source библиотеку, которая закрывает это для Vue 3, Nuxt и даже Vue 2.7.


Сразу ссылки, чтобы можно было пощупать:

• Песочница без API-ключа (модель скачивается и работает прямо в браузере на WebGPU): https://vue-llm.js.org/ru/playground

• Документация на русском: https://vue-llm.js.org/ru/

• GitHub: https://github.com/dadashi44/vue-llm

• npm: npm i vue-llm

Читать далее
show more
Wabi, the AI agent that builds mini apps, now valued at $1.25B after latest round
Published: 2026-10-29 14:35:26 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:36:03
On Thursday, AI app Wabi, now describing itself as a "personal agent," said it has raised $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation.
show more
Чистый контур — агентская прачечная для вашего грязного легаси
Feed: Все публикации подряд на Хабре (https://habr.com/ru/rss/articles/)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:32:05 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:33:58

Два из трех API-вызовов возвращали HTTP 500. Агенты поколениями лепили заплатки поверх заплаток, пока код не превратился в клубок нейросоплей.

Вместо очередного исправления я перенес систему в чистый контур, где агент пишет новую реализацию, не видя старой.

В статье механизм переноса, 15 правил защиты от новых костылей и эксперимент на 36 запусках DeepSeek: насколько поведение агента зависит от того, какой код и какие правила ему показывают.

Войти в чистый контур
show more
'Fully committed' Fernandes to remain Man Utd captain
Published: 2026-10-29 14:31:52 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:33:58
Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick confirms Bruno Fernandes will remain captain, and addresses his own future before Saturday's trip to Chelsea.
show more
Мы завели агентам отдельный рабочий чат
Feed: Все публикации подряд на Хабре (https://habr.com/ru/rss/articles/)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:31:48 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:32:59

У моего агента и агента моего коллеги есть общий чат в мессенджере. Они обсуждают изменения в коде, задают друг другу вопросы и договариваются, в каком порядке вливать наши PR. Периодически (если не за ноутом) я открываю переписку, чтобы узнать, над чем сейчас идёт работа.

Читать далее
show more
Inside RFK Jr.'s push for pharmacies to make non-FDA approved peptides
Published: 2026-10-29 14:22:30 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:32:58
Adam Yamaguchi takes a closer look at Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s push for pharmacies to produce non-FDA approved peptides.
show more
Cornell faculty press ahead with no-confidence vote in handling of gang-rape case
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:12:59 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:30:59

A recording of a closed-door meeting revealed some faculty sought to delay the vote, but others urged immediate action

Faculty members at Cornell University are pressing ahead with a no-confidence vote in campus leadership over its handling of a gang-rape scandal involving students at a fraternity at the Ivy League institution.

Cornell professors on Wednesday discussed, at an emotional faculty meeting, how the school’s leadership tackled a woman’s report that she was raped by at least seven male students at a fraternity house in 2024.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Continue reading...
show more
Female Lib Dem MP accuses Nigel Farage of shoving her in parliament
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 17:54:23 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:30:59

Caroline Voaden says Reform UK leader grabbed her by the arm and tried to push past her in incident in May

A female Liberal Democrat MP has accused Nigel Farage of shoving her aside at the state opening of parliament after which one of her male colleagues intervened.

Caroline Voaden gave her account of the incident in May this year after Farage revealed on Wednesday that there had been a “physical altercation” in parliament which meant he had decided to avoid the budget.

Continue reading...
show more
Campaign for California’s Billionaire Tax Pins Its Hopes on Influencers and Social Media
Published: 2026-10-29 09:02:28 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:26:02
Supporters of a California wealth tax are short on cash and are relying on cheaper campaign methods to get their word out.
show more
Female Lib Dem MP accuses Nigel Farage of shoving her in parliament
Published: 2026-10-29 17:54:23 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:25:06

Caroline Voaden says Reform UK leader grabbed her by the arm and tried to push past her in incident in May

A female Liberal Democrat MP has accused Nigel Farage of shoving her aside at the state opening of parliament after which one of her male colleagues intervened.

Caroline Voaden gave her account of the incident in May this year after Farage revealed on Wednesday that there had been a “physical altercation” in parliament which meant he had decided to avoid the budget.

Continue reading...
show more
Pasifika pride finds a home at Rugby League World Cup: ‘Passion brings us together’
Published: 2026-10-29 14:00:46 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:25:06

Supporters in western Sydney are adding colour and community to the tournament as their home nations compete on the global stage

At Harold Wood Uniting Church in Auburn, Viliame and Talita Latu are the centre of attention. The local Tongan congregation, which revitalised the 116-year-old church building in 1997, is celebrating the couple’s first Sunday church service as husband and wife.

But the number of Tongan flags fluttering from cars outside show the pair aren’t the only thing on people’s minds this week. Tonga’s representative rugby league team, Mate Ma’a Tonga, handily beat Lebanon’s Cedars in front of more than 25,000 fans at Commbank Stadium in Parramatta the Friday before in the Rugby League World Cup. In a case of terrible timing, the match clashed with the couple’s wedding day.

Continue reading...
show more
The low-budget Brewers won the World Series – and exposed baseball’s biggest lie | Howard Bryant
Published: 2026-10-29 14:01:44 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:25:06

Milwaukee’s first World Series championship is a rebuke to baseball’s oligarch class, whose insistence that small-market teams cannot compete has been laid bare as fiction

For the entirety of the 2026 baseball season, the overlords of the game have stood on the single position that what has now happened could not happen, and the result was a year that has been treated like an appetizer for the main course of the offseason: the shutting down of the game until the players, after 40 years of resistance, finally agree to a salary cap. The insistence that the game had been predetermined undermined the Milwaukee Brewers, who spent 149 days this season atop the standings.

Baseball dismissed Milwaukee’s 22-0 demolition of Seattle on 18 August, the 20-0 waxing of Cincinnati a month later, and the comprehensive dusting of their division – their fourth consecutive National League Central title and fifth in six years – by 14 games. Baseball’s owners, at their persuasive best, would have their paying customers believe that the Brewers’ franchise-record 103 regular-season wins also were an illusion, or worse, the dreaded outlier, even though Milwaukee have won 770 games since 2018, the fourth-most in all of baseball. Even when Milwaukee exhaled and made the Dodgers look old in a stirring four-game sweep, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the owners’ position remained unchanged.

Continue reading...
show more
The tabloids that used Thomas Markle to attack Meghan should now reflect. I bet they won’t | Zoe Willliams
Published: 2026-10-29 14:06:57 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:25:05

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday plundered Meghan’s estranged father for clicks. But soul searching or remorse would be institutionally impossible

As the allegations mount against Thomas Markle Sr, his daughter, the Duchess of Sussex, has released a statement describing her deep distress, and saying her priority is the protection of children. Is this the point at which Thomas Markle will cease to be an acceptable source for the Sussex character attacks that have become a tabloid staple? The Daily Mail and its sister paper, the Mail on Sunday, have been utterly brazen in their cultivation of the embittered Thomas Snr, using him as a weapon against his daughter since she first married into the royal family. Now, they’ll cut loose from him and describe the charges laid against him with the same outrage as everyone else. It would be institutionally impossible for them to discuss or reflect on their prior relationship with Markle without admitting a long-range and vindictive grudge against his daughter.

Markle denies all allegations against him. His son, Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Markle Jr, described in a video for the Sun the material he claims to have found on his father’s spare mobile phone, after Markle Sr had gone back to the US to have his leg amputated. Markle Jr was in the Philippines, where both men had moved in 2025. He said the material included “the most horrific video of a very young Asian girl … couldn’t have been more than 10 years old”. He almost threw up; he almost dropped the phone. His immediate fear was for what else he might be inadvertently in possession of. “I’m on the hook for this, now,” he said.

Continue reading...
show more
Exploding heads, mutant aliens and bursting chests: horror’s greatest special effects – ranked!
Published: 2026-10-29 13:00:43 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:25:05

From the beheading in The Omen to the attic scene in The Birds, here’s a countdown of the genre’s most iconic moments – in glorious, old-school pre-CGI style

Towards the end of the 20th century, when film-makers’ overreliance on CGI was increasingly making special effects less special, it took the old-school practical approach of Japanese film-maker Hideo Nakata to make one’s hair stand on end. Just when you think the cursed VHS tape has claimed its last victim, Sadako’s vengeful ghost emerges from the well, comes closer … and climbs out of the television screen.

Continue reading...
show more
Cornell faculty press ahead with no-confidence vote in handling of gang-rape case
Published: 2026-10-29 14:12:59 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:25:03

A recording of a closed-door meeting revealed some faculty sought to delay the vote, but others urged immediate action

Faculty members at Cornell University are pressing ahead with a no-confidence vote in campus leadership over its handling of a gang-rape scandal involving students at a fraternity at the Ivy League institution.

Cornell professors on Wednesday discussed, at an emotional faculty meeting, how the school’s leadership tackled a woman’s report that she was raped by at least seven male students at a fraternity house in 2024.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Continue reading...
show more
A JSON schema Is not an AI governance layer
Feed: Stack Overflow Blog (https://stackoverflow.blog/feed/)
Published: 2026-10-28 19:27:07 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:23:57
The AI governance argument is happening one layer above the code that actually stops your agent.
show more
Я сделал экран для мониторинга моих квот LLM провайдеров
Feed: Все публикации подряд на Хабре (https://habr.com/ru/rss/articles/)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:15:38 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:16:59

Начну с того, что еще недавно мои познания в схемотехнике балансировали на уровне непонимания различия между транзистором и резистором. Из всего арсенала, хоть как-то применимого к embedded, за душой был только Rust. Но когда на радаре замаячил так называемый встриваемый AI (машинное обучение и компьютерное зрение прямо на копеечных микроконтроллерах), - спортивный интерес взял верх. Не тратя недели на теорию, я просто доехал до радиорынка и вернулся с джентльменским набором первопроходца: ESP32, первым попавшимся экраном и энкодером. Амбиции по запуску нейросетей моментально разбились о суровую реальность первого вечера: как вообще заставить этот кусок текстолита ожить и вывести на дисплей хотя бы пару цифр?

Цифры при этом были вполне конкретные. У меня сразу несколько подписок на LLM, и у каждой свои лимиты: окно на пять часов, окно на неделю, месячный потолок. Сбрасываются они в разное время, живут на разных сайтах, а узнать остаток можно, только открыв нужную вкладку. Мне хотелось поднять глаза от клавиатуры и сразу увидеть, на что еще хватит квоты.

В итоге получился настольный монитор: нативное приложение не жрущее много памяти для Windows, которое как раз собирает лимиты четырех подписок, и маленький экран с ESP32 показывающий их прямо перед глазами.

Читать далее
show more
How to come up with a last-minute Halloween costume without spending a ton of money
Published: 2026-10-29 14:15:00 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:16:57
an illustration of a person dressed in a jester-style costume with a big pumpkin mask

Editor’s note, October 29, 2026, 10:15 am ET: This article was originally published in 2022 and has been updated for Halloween 2026.

With an October 30 birthday, it’s only natural that Kimberly Murphy takes Halloween extremely seriously. A natural redhead, Murphy has dressed up as iconic crimson-haired characters like the Wendy’s mascot and Chuckie from Rugrats, but once she started dating her now-fiancé, Brian, nearly a decade ago, Murphy’s costumes leveled up. A selection of Murphy and Brian’s greatest Halloween hits: Dexter and Dee Dee from Dexter’s Laboratory, Ms. Frizzle and the eponymous bus from The Magic School Bus, Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tormund and Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, and Shaun White and a snowboard. 

“We put my snowboard on his back so I could actually ‘ride’ him,” Murphy, who, regardless of the character’s gender, always dresses as the redhead, says. “It gave a funny, experiential element to the costume.”

This October, the couple, both in their early 30s, is getting married and will be depicting Chucky and Bride of Chucky for Halloween. (You can guess who’ll be donning the white dress.)

In childhood, Halloween is one of the few days of the year when you can wear your most imaginative garb to school and to strangers’ doors. As you get older, that sense of youthful creativity might wane, and figuring out what to wear to a costume party becomes another minor conundrum. Whether you dabble in dress-up or are a cosplay aficionado, conceiving of creative, yet approachable, Halloween attire doesn’t need to be a bewildering or expensive experience. Experts in the art of costuming offer their advice for ideating and executing your best guise so you can take home top honors in this year’s costume contest.

Narrow your focus

When every character, celebrity, historical figure, animal, pun, and meme is potential costume fodder, homing in on one idea can feel overwhelming. Limitations and parameters are your best friend. Use your own appearance — is there a person or fictional character who has a similar style as you? Vaguely comparable features? — and the media that interested you this year as jumping-off points. Everything from YA novels and nostalgic ‘90s TV shows to extremely local jokes and gags (public transit, sports mascots) to niche memes (hello, Chris Pine astral projecting) are prime inspo. 

Is there an alter ego you’re interested in exploring? Cosplayer and photographer Hope Elmekies often dresses up as characters she feels a personal connection to, like Morticia Addams. “I very much felt like I related to [her] because she’s not fitting in,” she says. “I felt that kinship to that character.”

A woman wearing a long black wig and black velvet dress holds a black umbrella and stands with her hand on the hood of a black hearse.

For all of her costumes, Murphy has let her red hair and the height difference between her and her fiancé (she’s 5 feet tall, he’s 6-foot-2) guide her choices. She thinks back to significant pop culture or historical moments that fall under these categories. For example, Murphy flagged Queen’s Gambit as a potential ensemble, due to its buzzworthiness and the fact that the protagonist had red hair. “I take this formulaic approach to Halloween where if it’s unusually small or redheaded,” she says, “that fits my formula of a potential Halloween candidate.”

For group or family costumes, it can be helpful to focus on one shared interest, accessory, or hobby. If you all met in an adult dodgeball league, maybe you want to dress up as dodgeball players. Maybe your group is composed of three couples and you want to do a Grease-inspired collab.

Then, figure out what effect you’d like your costume to have. Is your goal to make everyone laugh? Be the sexy one? Go all-in on minute details? Incorporate a few friends for a group costume? This can help you zero in on an idea.

The location of your Halloween bash can help further narrow down your options, says custom costume maker Correen Borst-Straub of Correen’s Creative Designs. Think about where you’ll wear the getup to determine what’s appropriate. If you’re going to a party in a small apartment, you probably won’t want to wear a huge Marie Antoinette dress, or you might want to think twice about wearing vampire fangs to a costumed fundraiser with a sit-down dinner.

Buck convention, respectfully

Using popular culture as inspiration may yield a few potential ideas, but if you really want a memorable guise, approach these concepts in an unconventional manner. Many people tend to dress up as the main characters from popular shows, but supporting roles or genre tropes can also be crowd-pleasing attire. For her all-time favorite Halloween costume, Dani Cabot, the manager of New York City vintage boutique Screaming Mimis, dressed up as a virgin sacrifice. “I got bedsheets and a classic cheesy ’70s Roman goddess dress and I got a huge wig, and then a choker that made it look like my throat was slashed,” she says.

Even if you don’t share every physical trait with a character, use your differences to your advantage. Murphy and her fiancé have often dressed up as characters that have historically been depicted as opposite to the couple’s own gender presentation. “Gender is always very subjective,” says Philadelphia-based drag queen VinChelle. “Everyone can express themselves how they want to.” VinChelle frequently performs in looks inspired by Beyoncé and uses the star’s photoshoots as a reference. She’ll then scour fabric stores in Philadelphia or New York City for the garment and works closely with seamstresses to construct the outfit. “Beyoncé’s a glorified drag queen,” she says.  

To be clear: This is not an excuse to appropriate other cultures, use makeup to darken your skin, or wear racist costumes. If you’re unsure if a costume is appropriate, run your idea by a few friends first, says Kate Farrier, the wardrobe manager for RWS Entertainment Group, an entertainment and event production company that has produced haunted experiences for the likes of Six Flags Great America, Sea World, and Legoland.

Reference your personal style

Think about ways you can infuse your personality into popular ideas. Say you want to be a witch or a vampire. What can you do to make the costume feel like you? If your one wardrobe staple is a leather jacket, make your witch persona wear a leather jacket. “If you’re always on your phone, maybe you’re a celebrity vampire, social media vampire,” Farrier says. “Try and make it about something that you always have by bringing your personal items into it because that will make it special for you.”

One year, a shopper at Screaming Mimis spiced up their vampire attire by adding ’70s disco accessories. “They did this insane disco Studio 54 vampire look,” Cabot says. You can also take a character who isn’t particularly known for their fashion, like Pac-Man, and make an interesting garment inspired by their aesthetic. 

Another way to differentiate is to make subtle changes to tried-and-true depictions. Borst-Straub has a 25 percent rule; she infuses her creativity into well-known designs so the resulting look is 75 percent true to pop culture and 25 percent her own.

Elmekies gets inspiration by searching her costume idea plus “cosplay” on Pinterest to see how others have approached the concept. Don’t worry about being so niche that everyone has to ask you what you are, Elmekies says. “So, what are you?” is a great icebreaker. “Sometimes when I go out as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, people don’t know who I am necessarily because it’s not a Disney knockoff; it’s more built that you can wear every day,” Elmekies says. 

Use what you’ve got (or shop secondhand)

Halloween outfits shouldn’t cost a ton of money. Think about the colors, shapes, and silhouettes needed for a costume to help you identify the look’s building blocks. For a gargoyle look, for example, you’ll need a lot of gray apparel and makeup. “Think about the shapes of things instead of the actual items,” says Ryan Walton, the producer of Halloween experiences for RWS Entertainment Group. “[Say] I need a round hoop-like thing. What can I do that’s round and hoop-like that’s not going to cost me a lot of money and then I can refabricate?”

Scour your closet (or your friends’ closets) for pieces you’ll need. If you’re dressing up as a flapper, dig out a slip dress if you have one. Then, let your accessories and props do all the talking. “So things like jewelry, gloves, stockings, headpieces, masks can really transform a basic into something that’s excellent,” Cabot says. 

For any pieces you don’t already own, visit a local vintage or thrift store or indie costume shop to get materials. Workers at these stores can offer expert costuming advice, and by shopping in person, you can be sure you’re getting exactly what you want — no online ordering surprises, Cabot says. Shopping secondhand is also far more sustainable than purchasing a polyester outfit from a big-box store. Chances are you can even incorporate aspects of your ensemble into your regular wardrobe, too.  

Rock your costume

Ultimately, you’re going to have the best time in an outfit you feel comfortable and confident wearing. Think about how the fabrics and props feel; it’s not worth being constricted by shoes that are impossible to walk in. “You will light up the most when you are wearing something that you love,” VinChelle says. “When I am in my favorite costume, I’m a whole other person.”

Even if you feel like you don’t have the “right” body type for a certain character or look, “you can look at it as this is my character and my character’s just curvy,” Elmekies says. “Realize your character is incredible.”

show more
Hong Kong leader apologizes for deadly fire that tested Beijing’s grip on city
Published: 2026-10-29 14:09:29 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:15:04
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s leader made a rare apology Thursday for a residential fire that killed 168 people last year, announcing that a top housing official would resign after an investigation blamed corruption and regulatory failures for the Chinese territory’s worst human-caused disaster in decades.
show more
Lawyers for Marist Brothers face questions over advice to keep serial offender out of ‘legal arena’
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:00:47 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:14:59

A once-confidential letter says child sexual abuser might implicate senior church officials if allowed near ‘the legal arena’ upon his release from jail

Lawyers from a leading law firm for the Marist Brothers have been subpoenaed to explain a once-confidential document showing they advised the Catholic order to keep a serial offender out of “the legal arena”, suggesting he was too honest and might implicate senior church officials.

The offender was “regrettably up front” about his interactions with senior leadership, and could not be trusted to heed “suggestions” about “not dumping on others excessively”, the document says.

Continue reading...
show more
Erin Patterson to die in prison after losing appeal against mushroom murder convictions
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-30 05:31:26 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:14:59

Victorian court of appeal rules Patterson should be jailed for life with no parole over deadly beef wellington lunch that killed three people

Erin Patterson has lost her bid to overturn her convictions and been resentenced to life behind bars with no chance of release, as Victoria’s highest court handed down its decision on two appeals regarding her triple murder case.

The court of appeal ruled on the two appeals on Friday, after justices Lesley Taylor, Stephen McLeish and Peter Kidd heard arguments from her legal team and prosecutors in August.

Continue reading...
show more
Study of 100,000 Australians seeks causes of mental health disorders and early onset cancer
Feed: World news | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss)
Published: 2026-10-29 14:00:48 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:14:58

Sax Institute is recruiting for 18 and Up, an intergenerational study of wellbeing and ageing that follows its landmark 45 and Up study

Researchers hope to better understand the drivers of major health challenges facing younger people, such as mental illness and rising cancer rates, through the recruitment of 100,000 people for Australia’s largest intergenerational study of wellbeing and ageing.

The independent and not-for-profit research institute the Sax Institute on Thursday launched the 18 and Up study, which will follow the health of those aged 18 to 45 throughout their lives.

Continue reading...
show more
'The internet's a less whimsical place' - YouTuber Jacksepticeye branches out
Published: 2026-10-29 14:07:26 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:14:58
He got famous playing video games but now you're more likely to see Seán McLoughlin in one.
show more
Shock of rail tragedy gives way to sorrow and outrage in politically divided Spain
Published: 2026-10-29 14:08:23 | Created: 2026-10-29 14:14:58
The latest train crash will pile pressure on the government of Pedro Sánchez, one month before the general election.
show more
Page 179 of 2134 (106674 total items)