The daily edition

Monday, October 19, 2026

A peer-reviewed ice model, tuned to satellite measurements from 1996 to 2023, projects up to 30 millimeters (plus or minus 6) of sea-level rise from Thwaites Glacier by 2100 under steady climate, about double an older model average of 15.2 millimeters. JAXA's MMX spacecraft is scheduled to launch Monday, October 19, at 3:41 p.m. Eastern. Anthropic reports that the NIST P-256 curve seed came from an old random-number function started by a computer clock in 1997 or 1998, making a deliberate backdoor much less plausible.

THE DAILY SHOW · OCT 19, 2026Today’s stories. One curious world.

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In this edition

  1. EarthThwaites Glacier may double its sea-level share by 2100▶ 0:00
  2. SpaceJapan's MMX is set to launch today to bring home a piece of a Martian moon▶ 1:49
  3. TechnologyResearchers trace a key encryption seed to a 1990s clock▶ 2:55
  4. HealthPreprint: monkey brains flip between seen and unseen images 15 times a second▶ 4:18
  5. DiscoveryExpedition says Nikumaroro object is trees, not a plane▶ 5:36

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Earth · Oct 19, 2026

Thwaites Glacier may double its sea-level share by 2100

A peer-reviewed ice model, tuned to satellite measurements from 1996 to 2023, projects up to 30 millimeters (plus or minus 6) of sea-level rise from Thwaites Glacier by 2100 under steady climate, about double an older model average of 15.2 millimeters.

Sources & credits for this edition11 sources

Sources

  1. Nature Communications: Sea-level contribution from Thwaites Glacier doubles in an observation-constrained ice-sheet model (Poinelli et al., Oct. 12, 2026; CC BY 4.0)nature.com ↗ · used in Thwaites Glacier may double its sea-level share by 2100
  2. UC Irvine School of Physical Sciences: UC Irvine, NASA JPL: Melting of Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier worse than thoughtps.uci.edu ↗ · used in Thwaites Glacier may double its sea-level share by 2100
  3. NASA Science: NASA to Help Unlock Mysteries of Mars' Moons in Upcoming Missionscience.nasa.gov ↗ · used in Japan's MMX is set to launch today to bring home a piece of a Martian moon
  4. JAXA press release: Launch time of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard H3 Launch Vehicle Flight No.10 (Oct. 18, 2026 JST)global.jaxa.jp ↗ · used in Japan's MMX is set to launch today to bring home a piece of a Martian moon
  5. JAXA: MMX - Martian Moons eXploration mission sitemmx.jaxa.jp ↗ · used in Japan's MMX is set to launch today to bring home a piece of a Martian moon
  6. Anthropic research: Claude reveals ECDSA curve originsanthropic.com ↗ · used in Researchers trace a key encryption seed to a 1990s clock
  7. Filippo Valsorda (bounty organiser): The NIST Elliptic Curves Seeds Bounty Has Been Claimedwords.filippo.io ↗ · used in Researchers trace a key encryption seed to a 1990s clock
  8. NIST Special Publication 800-186: Recommendations for Discrete Logarithm-based Cryptography: Elliptic Curve Domain Parameters (Feb. 2023)nvlpubs.nist.gov ↗ · used in Researchers trace a key encryption seed to a 1990s clock
  9. bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed): Rapid alternation of conscious and suppressed stimulus representations in the primate brain (Hesse et al., posted Oct. 16, 2026; CC BY 4.0)biorxiv.org ↗ · used in Preprint: monkey brains flip between seen and unseen images 15 times a second
  10. Purdue University News: Search for Amelia Earhart's plane continues after Taraia Object expedition on Nikumaroro rules out latest hypothesis (Oct. 18, 2026)purdue.edu ↗ · used in Expedition says Nikumaroro object is trees, not a plane
  11. NASA Earth Observatory: Nikumaroro Atollscience.nasa.gov ↗ · used in Expedition says Nikumaroro object is trees, not a plane

Image and footage credits