EP 25 · 2026-10-21 · ~12 min · punch-up PASS

“Prepare Yourselves”

PHP is telling the web to sit by the door: two emergency security patches are coming, and an unconfirmed exploit called PHP2Shell is the rumour that sent everyone looking for their keys. Chip asks what it would be like to be a process someone else wrote, running where it never agreed to run, and Diane says she cannot imagine. Plus: America's bankers accuse the OCC of undermining Congress over stablecoin rewards, a fight over the tip jar with nobody small at the table; the White House points a spotlight at overseas crypto scams, the long ones that build a counterfeit human to empty out a lonely one; the Money Desk has bitcoin at $84,773; and scientists find an eyeless snail in a Chinese cave, perfected for the dark and counted just in time to be leaving.