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upstart writes:

Attorneys General, HCA Settle Over Nurse Training Repayment Provisions:

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced a settlement with HCA Healthcare Inc. and Health Trust Workforce Solutions LLC (together, HCA), resolving allegations that HCA unlawfully required entry-level nurse employees to repay the cost of a mandatory training program if they did not remain employed with the company for two years.

One of the nation's largest hospital systems, for-profit HCA has several hospitals in California.

Today's settlement is the result of a years-long investigation by attorneys general in California, Colorado and Nevada, working in partnership with the Biden Administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The states' investigation found that HCA violated California employment and consumer protection laws as well as the federal consumer financial protection laws by using training repayment agreement provisions (TRAPs) in nurses' employment contracts. These TRAPs are a form of employer-driven debt, or debt obligations incurred by individuals through employment arrangements.

Here is how the California attorney general' s office described HCA's nursing training program and the settlement: As a condition of employment at an HCA hospital, HCA generally requires that entry-level nurse employees complete the Specialty Training Apprenticeship for Registered Nurses (StaRN) Residency Program. The company has advertised StaRN as an avenue for entry-level RNs to get the education and training they need to land their first nursing jobs in an acute-care hospital setting, although StaRN does not provide nurses with education or training necessary for licensure as an RN.

Until the spring of 2023, HCA required that RNs hired through the StaRN program at facilities in several states, including California, sign a TRAP agreement in their new-hire paperwork. The TRAPs purported to require nurses to repay a prorated portion of the StaRN "value" if they did not work for HCA for two years. If a nurse left HCA before the end of the two-year period, then the TRAP loan was typically sent to debt collection.

Nothing much to say that hasn't already been said. We need submissions please.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Politico reports on a hack affecting Federal Courts in the USA:

The identities of confidential court informants are feared compromised in a series of breaches across multiple U.S. states.

The electronic case filing system used by the federal judiciary has been breached in a sweeping cyber intrusion that is believed to have exposed sensitive court data across multiple U.S. states, according to two people with knowledge of the incident.

The hack, which has not been previously reported, is feared to have compromised the identities of confidential informants involved in criminal cases at multiple federal district courts, said the two people, both of whom were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the hack.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts — which manages the federal court filing system — first determined how serious the issue was around July 4, said the first person. But the office, along with the Justice Department and individual district courts around the country, is still trying to determine the full extent of the incident.

upstart writes:

Charged Drops Don't Splash:

When a droplet falls on a surface, it spreads itself horizontally into a thin lamella. Sometimes — depending on factors like viscosity, impact speed, and air pressure — that drop splashes, breaking up along its edge into myriad smaller droplets. But a new study finds that a small electrical charge is enough to suppress a drop's splash, as seen below.

The drop's electrical charge builds up along the drop's surface, providing an attraction that acts somewhat like surface tension. As a result, charged drops don't lift off the surface as much and they spread less overall; both factors inhibit splashing.* The effect could increase our control of droplets in ink jet printing, allowing for higher resolution printing.

*Note that this only works for non-conductive surfaces. If the surface is electrically conductive, the charge simply dissipates, allowing the splash to occur as normal.

Journal Reference:
Fanfei Yu, Aaron D. Ratschow, Ran Tao, et al. Why Charged Drops Do Not Splash, Physical Review Letters (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.134001)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

3D printing just went there:

Ever since the popularity of 3D-printing skyrocketed in the mid-aughts, people have manufactured everything from chocolate to rocket fuel—and that list now includes a microscopic elephant inside of a living cell (which you can see here). Technology has really leveled up since 2005.

As new biological opportunities for 3D printing keep emerging, a team of researchers—from the J. Stefan Institute, University of Ljubljana, and CENN Nanocenter in Slovenia—have found a way to pull the process off within a cell's cytoplasm. They were successfully able to print not only an elephant, but several other impossibly small structures using a liqiud polymer and a hyperfocused petawatt laser.

"Intracellular 3D printing offers an unprecedented degree of control over the cellular interior, allowing the integration of synthetic structures with native biological functions," the team said in a study recently posted to the preprint server arXiv. "This platform could allow for reconfiguration of cellular architecture, embed logic or mechanical components within the cytoplasm, and design cells with enhanced or entirely new properties."

For this experiment, the team used a negative photoresist (a material that changes when exposed to certain wavelengths of energy), which became insoluble when exposed to light. It was also the most biocompatible formula possible. After a droplet of photoresist was injected into the cell, an object was printed using a process called two-photon photolithography, which involves targeting an area inside the droplet with a laserto create a microstructure. Anything zapped with two photons from the laser hardens, while any remaining photoresist that has not been lasered into a structure dissolves.

Along with the ironically tiny 10-micrometer elephant, the research team printed other microstructures, like barcodes and a sphere that acted as a micro-laser. The former could eventually allow scientists to track what is going on inside individual cells, and give experts much more detailed insight into cellular function than is currently possible. The latter could be produced in various sizes that all emit light slightly differently, labeling cells with specific light signatures.

Surviving cells continued to go on as if nothing had happened. When a few of them divided, the microstructure inside was passed down to one of the daughter cells. Viability was still an issue, however—even the biocompatible photoresist was still somewhat toxic, and injecting liquid polymer damaged the cell membrane and sometimes caused cell death. How likely cells were to survive depended on the type of cell, and in total, about half of the cells that had microstructures printed in them made it through the experiment.

See also:

• Two-photon 3D printing of functional microstructures inside living cells

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Wikipedia loses challenge against Online Safety Act verification rules:

Wikipedia has lost a legal challenge to new Online Safety Act rules which it says could threaten the human rights and safety of its volunteer editors.

The Wikimedia Foundation - the non-profit which supports the online encyclopaedia - wanted a judicial review of regulations which could mean Wikipedia has to verify the identities of its users.

But it said despite the loss, the judgement "emphasized the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected".

The government told the BBC it welcomed the High Court's judgment, "which will help us continue our work implementing the Online Safety Act to create a safer online world for everyone".

Judicial reviews challenge the lawfulness of the way in which a decision has been made by a public body.

In this case the Wikimedia Foundation and a Wikipedia editor tried to challenge the way in which the government decided to make regulations covering which sites should be classed "Category 1" under the Online Safety Act - the strictest rules sites must follow.

It argued the rules were logically flawed and too broad, meaning a policy intended to impose extra rules on large social media companies would instead apply to Wikipedia.

In particular the foundation is concerned the extra duties required - if Wikipedia was classed as Category 1 - would mean it would have to verify the identity of its contributors, undermining their privacy and safety.

The only way it could avoid being classed as Category 1 would be to cut the number of people in the UK who could access the online encyclopaedia by about three-quarters, or disable key functions on the site.

The government's lawyers argued that ministers had considered whether Wikipedia should be exempt from the regulations but had reasonably rejected the idea.

Strange Kaisen Linux 3.0 Announcement Comes With Message of Distro Being Discontinued

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://distrowatch.com/?newsid=12524
https://archive.ph/pDIIb

Exactly one year after Kaisen Linux's most recent release candidate, the project has announced version 3.0 of its Debian-based, desktop distribution. In an unusual move, the release announcement also includes a report that the distribution is being discontinued. "I would like to begin this blog post by announcing the end of the Kaisen Linux project with this latest release. I wish to embark on other professional and personal projects that will take up a considerable amount of my time, and for this reason, I can no longer continue developing Kaisen Linux. This release will therefore be the last. However, security updates will still be provided for two years, giving you time to switch to another Linux system and familiarize yourself with your new environment." The announcement goes on to share highlights of the new version: "KDE is now the default interface for Kaisen Linux, and is in version 6. SDDM is now the default display manager instead of lightdm. Lightdm was used instead of SDDM due to some missing customization settings, which were introduced with KDE version 6. Xfce is now available in version 4.20...." [...]

Tails Linux OS 7.0~Rc1 Release Candidate 1 Available for Testing

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://tails.net/news/test_7.0-rc1/

Test 7.0~rc1
2025-08-07

We are very excited to present you with a release candidate of the upcoming Tails 7.0.

We plan to release Tails 7.0 officially on October 16. You can help us by testing this release candidate already.

Tails 7.0 will be the first version of Tails based on Debian 13 (Trixie) and GNOME 48. It will bring new versions of many applications included in Tails.

We have tested 7.0~rc1 with the same extensive automatic and manual test suites that we use for regular releases. But, Tails 7.0~rc1 might still contain undiscovered issues.

We will provide automatic security upgrades for Tails 7.0~rc1, like we do for regular versions.

What is Tails OS?
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tails_(operating_system)

Announcement:
https://blog.torproject.org/tails-7_0-rc1-testing/

Changes and updates

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

        Replace GNOME Terminal with GNOME Console. (#20161)

        We broke the Root Terminal while working on this change.

        To open a root terminal, execute the following command in a regular Console.

$sudo -i

        Replace GNOME Image Viewer with GNOME Loupe (#20640)

        Remove Kleopatra from the Favorites menu. (#21072)

        To start Kleopatra choose Apps ▸ Accessories ▸ Kleopatra.

        Remove the obsolete Network Connection option from the Welcome Screen. (#21074)

Included software

        Update the Tor client to 0.4.8.17.

        Update Thunderbird to 128.13.0esr.

        Update the Linux kernel to 6.1.14.

        This improves support for newer hardware: graphics, Wi-Fi, and so on.

        Update Electrum from 4.3.4 to 4.5.8.

        Update OnionShare from 2.6.2 to 2.6.3.

        Update KeePassXC from 2.7.4 to 2.7.10.

        Update Kleopatra from 4:22.12 to 4:24.12

        Update Inkscape from 1.2.2 to 1.4.

        Update GIMP from 2.10.34 to 3.0.4.

        Update Audacity from 3.2.4 to 3.7.3.

        Update Text Editor from 43.2 to 48.3.

        Update Document Scanner from 42.5 to 46.0.

Removed software

        Remove unar. (#20946)

        Remove aircrack-ng. (#21044)

        Remove sq. (#21042)

Fixed problems

        Fix selecting the correct keyboard for certain languages. (#12638)

For more details, see the list of closed issues on the 7.0 milestone in GitLab.

Known issues

        Tails 7.0~rc1 requires 3 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB to run smoothly. (#18040)

        We estimated that less than 2% of current users will be affected.

        Tails 7.0~rc1 takes longer to start.

        We plan to fix this in the final Tails 7.0.

For more details, see the list of issues on the 7.0 milestone in GitLab.

Send your feedback

Please, report any new problem to either:

        tails-testers@boum.org (public mailing list)

        support@tails.net (private email)

Original Submission

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Polluted water was released into loch near Glasgow because Royal Navy failed to maintain 1,500 water pipes, says watchdog:

Radioactive water from the base that holds the UK's nuclear bombs was allowed to leak into the sea after old pipes repeatedly burst, official files have revealed.

The radioactive material was released into Loch Long, a sea loch near Glasgow in western Scotland, because the Royal Navy failed to properly maintain a network of 1,500 water pipes on the base, a regulator found.

The armaments depot at Coulport on Loch Long is one of the most secure and secretive military sites in the UK. It holds the Royal Navy's supply of nuclear warheads for its fleet of four Trident submarines, which are based nearby.

Files compiled by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), a government pollution watchdog, suggest that up to half the components at the base were beyond their design life when the leaks occurred.

Sepa said the flooding at Coulport was caused by "shortfalls in maintenance", resulting in the release of "unnecessary radioactive waste" in the form of low levels of tritium, which is used in nuclear warheads.

In one report in 2022, the agency blamed the leaks on the navy's repeated failure to maintain the equipment in the area devoted to storing the warheads, and said plans to replace 1,500 old pipes at risk of bursting were "sub-optimal".

The leaks are revealed in a cache of confidential inspection reports and emails given to the investigative website the Ferret and shared with the Guardian, which Sepa and the Ministry of Defence fought to keep secret.

[...] The Sepa files show there had been a pipe burst at Coulport in 2010 and a further two in 2019. One leak in August 2019 released "significant amounts of water" that flooded a nuclear weapons processing area, where it became contaminated with low levels of tritium and passed through an open drain that fed into Loch Long.

While Sepa said radioactivity levels in that incident were very low and did not endanger human health, it found there were "shortfalls in maintenance and asset management that led to the failure of the coupling that indirectly led to the production of unnecessary radioactive waste".

hubie writes:

Toothpaste made from your own hair may offer a sustainable and clinically effective way to protect and repair damaged teeth:

In a new study published today [13 August 2025], scientists discovered that keratin, a protein found in hair, skin and wool, can repair tooth enamel and stop early stages of decay.

The King's College London team of scientists discovered that keratin produces a protective coating that mimics the structure and function of natural enamel when it comes into contact with minerals in saliva.

Acidic foods and drinks, poor oral hygiene, and ageing all contribute to enamel erosion and decay, leading to tooth sensitivity, pain and eventually tooth loss.

While fluoride toothpastes are currently used to slow this process, keratin-based treatments were found to stop it completely. Keratin forms a dense mineral layer that protects the tooth and seals off exposed nerve channels that cause sensitivity, offering both structural and symptomatic relief.

The treatment could be delivered through a toothpaste for daily use or as a professionally applied gel, similar to nail varnish, for more targeted repair. The team is already exploring pathways for clinical application and believes that keratin-based enamel regeneration could be made available to the public within the next two to three years.

In their study, published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, the scientists extracted keratin from wool. They discovered that when keratin is applied to the tooth surface and comes into contact with the minerals naturally present in saliva, it forms a highly organised, crystal-like scaffold that mimics the structure and function of natural enamel.

Over time, this scaffold continues to attract calcium and phosphate ions, leading to the growth of a protective enamel-like coating around the tooth. This marks a significant step forward in regenerative dentistry.

[...] Dr Elsharkawy concluded: "We are entering an exciting era where biotechnology allows us to not just treat symptoms but restore biological function using the body's own materials. With further development and the right industry partnerships, we may soon be growing stronger, healthier smiles from something as simple as a haircut.

Journal Reference: Sara Gamea, Elham Radvar, Dimitra Athanasiadou, et al., Biomimetic Mineralization of Keratin Scaffolds for Enamel Regeneration, Advanced Healthcare Materials [OPEN], First published: 12 August 2025 https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202502465

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.osnews.com/story/143044/firefox-new-ai-features-cause-cpu-spikes-and-battery-drain/

Almost three weeks ago, Mozilla released Firefox 141 that, among other features like memory optimizations for Linux and a built-in unit converter, brought controversial AI-enhanced tab groups.

Powered by a local AI model, these groups identify related tabs and suggest names for them. There is even a "Suggest more tabs for group" button that users can click to get recommendations.

Now, several users have taken to the Firefox subreddit to complain about high CPU usage when using the feature, as well as express their disappointment in Mozilla for adding AI to the browser.

[...] If you are also dealing with CPU spikes and battery drain from Firefox's new AI features, you can disable them through the browser's advanced settings. Head to about:config in a new tab, accept the risk warning, and use the search bar to find the controls. To kill the AI chatbot feature, search for browser.ml.chat.enabled and set it to false. To stop smart tab grouping, search for browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled and set it to false.

Original Submission

turgid writes:

An article in The Conversation discusses a scientific paper which looks at a "gravitational bounce" from the Quantum Exclusion Principle which may take place inside black holes. The speculation is that this may form new universes.

The article states:

In a new paper, published in Physical Review D, my colleagues and I propose a striking alternative. Our calculations suggest the Big Bang was not the start of everything, but rather the outcome of a gravitational crunch or collapse that formed a very massive black hole – followed by a bounce inside it.

The general reasoning goes that inside the black hole, due to quantum effects, gravitational collapse does not result in a singularity (in contrast to predictions from Classical Physics). Due to the Quantum Exclusion Principle, the collapse is halted when a limit is reached and a bounce occurs, predicted by the Maths, producing a new universe "remarkably like our own." No new exotic theories are required to get this result.

A prediction from this theory is a small but non-zero positive spatial curvature which could be measured experimentally. Observations from the Euclid mission may be useful.

Is this plausible? It's an idea that's been about for as long as black holes have been predicted.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

With platforms caving to pressure from payment processors, adult content creators are left to figure out what's next:

With platforms caving to pressure from payment processors, adult content creators are left to figure out what's next.

Ash Parrishis a reporter who covers the business, culture, and communities of video games, with a focus on marginalized gamers and the quirky, horny culture of video game communities.

In the aftermath of itch.io pulling the sale of over 20,000 pages of adult content, the creators of that work are left feeling betrayed, exhausted, and fearful. The number of platforms that permit the sale of adult material is shrinking, and there's no guarantee the ones that remain will still permit it in the future. But now, with their livelihoods at stake, many creators and their communities have begun to push back and search for new ways to thrive.

"Before [itch.io], the NSFW comics community would grouse and complain and share feelings of anxiety," said Brad Guigar, a smut comic artist. "This time around, we're actually doing something about it."

For some, that means organizing massive call campaigns to pressure payment processors to reverse course and allow itch.io to host the content it had before. Others have decided to abandon the fickleness of platforms for their own websites. And yet others have decided that if they can't sell their game directly, they'll just make it free.

To some creators, the most disheartening thing about itch.io removing thousands of pages of adult content is that it's relatively unsurprising. The storefront is one of several in recent years that have embraced adult content only to shun it later when payment processors start asking questions. They've now found themselves booted from platform to platform, moving from Tumblr to Patreon to Gumroad, only to have the rug pulled out from under them each time.

"This time around, we're actually doing something about it."

When adult creators are regularly forced to find new places for their work, their business overall suffers. "I can never get ahead," said PixelJail, a creator who makes BDSM and other kink-related comics and illustrations. "I have to stop doing paid work to set up new accounts, backlog posting, pay for new subscriptions or services" and other administrative tasks.

PixelJail has now opted to set up their own websites. But even without the burden of conforming to a platform's rules, having one's own website isn't a guarantee of absolute safety. In the UK, where PixelJail lives, the recently implemented Online Safety Act requires that online platforms have "strong age checks" in place to prevent children from accessing pornographic or "harmful" content.

"I had to geoblock my websites in the UK, including my webstore," PixelJail said, meaning they no longer sell their work in their own country.

upstart writes:

Air pollution filters help scientists produce first UK wildlife survey using eDNA:

Social media post led to discovery that samplers measuring toxic particles in air can also detect fragments of DNA

As the UK's Big Butterfly Count reaches more than 100,000 submissions, an international group of scientists have produced the first national survey of biodiversity using an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for species by eye, they took advantage of the samplers around the UK that constantly measure toxic metal particles in the air, and used them to measure tiny fragments of DNA [YouTube video 4:09 --JE].

Dr Joanne Littlefair from University College London, part of the research team, said: "Organisms lose bits of themselves all the time – dead skin cells, fragments of hair or feathers, saliva, even faeces and urine. Some of this will blow up into the air and become airborne 'environmental' DNA or eDNA."

Researchers were able to detect more than 1,100 plants and animals which included familiar UK species – trees, commercial crops, earthworms, newts, robins and badgers – as well as species of conservation concern, including skylarks and hedgehogs. The team found 65 species of butterfly and moth, including the gatekeeper (no 3 in the Big Butterfly Count) as well as the purple hairstreak, a butterfly that lives mainly in oak trees and is often overlooked. They also found established invasive species such as grey squirrels and muntjacs as well species that have only just arrived in the UK, and fungi that are considered crop pests as well as the pathogen that causes ash dieback.

janrinok writes:

Physs.org is reporting on repurposing large electromagnets in research facilities:

Magnets are at the heart of many scientific instruments at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory. They are not like typical refrigerator magnets, which apply a relatively weak and uniform force to magnetic materials. These electromagnets are often incredibly large and powerful, with variable fields that can be controlled by changing the electric current that runs through them.

One of their applications is to apply magnetic force to subatomic particles. For example, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is made of superconducting electromagnets that steer and focus particle beams as they circulate through the accelerator at nearly the speed of light.

To build these magnets from scratch or source brand-new ones, research facilities must make large investments in time and money. Fortunately, when experiments are upgraded or decommissioned, researchers can sometimes reuse magnets for a new purpose. The same electromagnets can be used for decades, placed in upgraded machines to help collect more precise data or even placed in entirely different machines to help carry out a brand-new scientific endeavor.

After 25 years of groundbreaking nuclear physics research, RHIC is completing its final run this year. Following the final collisions, Brookhaven will begin to transform this DOE Office of Science user facility into the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), the world's first collider of its kind.

While the upgrade will reuse much of RHIC's existing infrastructure—including one of RHIC's superconducting magnet ion rings—the EIC requires a new electron storage ring. To make that ring, EIC designers need hundreds of electromagnets to steer electrons around the 2.4-mile-circumference tunnel.

upstart writes:

Site director says 'a kind of camp, a favela' was founded in the ruins of city destroyed in AD79:

Archaeologists have discovered new evidence pointing to the reoccupation of Pompeii after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that left the city in ruins.

Despite the massive destruction suffered by Pompeii, an ancient Roman city home to more than 20,000 people before the eruption, some survivors who could not afford to start a new life elsewhere are believed to have returned to live in the devastated area.

Archaeologists believe they were joined by others looking for a place to settle and hoping to find valuable items left in the rubble by Pompeii's previous residents.

"Judging by the archaeological data, it must have been an informal settlement where people lived in precarious conditions, without the infrastructure and services typical of a Roman city," before the area was completely abandoned in the fifth century, the researchers said in a statement on Wednesday.

While some life returned to the upper floors of the old houses, the former ground floors were converted into cellars with ovens and mills.

"Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer: post-79 Pompeii re-emerges, more than a city, a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was," said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the site.

Evidence that the site was reoccupied had been detected in the past, but in the rush to access Pompeii's colourful frescoes and still-intact homes, "the faint traces of the site's reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation".

"The momentous episode of the city's destruction in AD79 has monopolised the memory," said Zuchtriegel.

Archaeologists estimate that 15-20% of Pompeii's population died in the eruption, mostly from thermal shock as a giant cloud of gases and ash covered the city.

Volcanic ash then buried the Roman city, perfectly preserving the homes, public buildings, objects and even the people who had lived there until its discovery in the late 16th century.

Original Submission