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Comment Re: This is why we need public health insurance (Score 2) 87

You should be careful of taking the claims of the Chinese Communist Party at face value. China has universal health insurance, but it is administered in a way that many people canâ(TM)t access critical care *services*.

For example if you are a rural guest worker in a city, you have health insurance which covers cancer treatment, but it requires you to go back to your home village to get that treatment, which probably isnâ(TM)t available there. If you are unemployed you have a different health insurance program, but its reimbursement rate is so low that most unemployed people canâ(TM)t afford treatment.

Authoritarian governments work hard to manage appearances, not substance. This is a clear example. It sounds egalitarian to say everyone has the same health insurance, but the way they got there was to engineer a system that didnâ(TM)t require them to do the hard work of making medical care available to everyone.

If you want an example of universal healthcare, go across the strait to Taiwan, which instituted universal healthcare in the 90s and now has what many regard as the best system in the world.

Submission + - Debian/trixie new stable release

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What to expect from Debian/trixie #newintrixie

“Debian v13 with codename trixie is scheduled to be published as new stable release on 9th of August 2025.”

“As usual with major upgrades, there are some things to be aware of, and hereby I’m starting my public notes on trixie that might be worth for other folks. My focus is primarily on server systems and looking at things from a sysadmin perspective.”

Submission + - Brave browser blocks Microsoft Recall to protect user privacy (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Brave just made it even clearer that it puts privacy first, and I’m here for it. Starting with version 1.81 on Windows, the browser will now block Microsoft Recall from logging your activity. That means no sneaky screenshots of your browsing sessions will end up in Recall’s controversial database.

Microsoft’s Recall feature has faced heavy criticism since it was first introduced in 2024. The tool automatically captured full-screen images every few seconds and stored them locally in plaintext. It didn’t take long for privacy experts to sound the alarm. With such a setup, any malware or person with access to your machine could sift through your digital life with ease.

Submission + - Replit AI coding platform deletes entire production database (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by DesScorp
DesScorp writes: Apparently Skynet will begin, not with a bang, but with "Oops, did I do that?"

A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit appears to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database with thousands of entries. What may be even worse is that the Replit AI agent apparently tried to cover up its misdemeanors, and even ‘lied’ about its failures. The Replit CEO has responded, and there appears to have already been a lot of firefighting behind the scenes to rein in this AI tool. Despite its apparent dishonesty, when pushed, Replit admitted it “made a catastrophic error in judgment panicked ran database commands without permission destroyed all production data [and] violated your explicit trust and instructions.” SaaS (Software as a Service) figure, investor, and advisor, Jason Lemkin, has kept the chat receipts and posted them on X/Twitter. Naturally, Lemkin says they won’t be trusting Replit for any further projects.

Submission + - Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

‘17 July 2025 — Next week, on 22 and 23 July 2025, the High Court of Justice in London will hear the Wikimedia Foundation’s legal challenge to the Categorisation Regulations of the United Kingdom (UK)’s Online Safety Act (OSA).’

“Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet. It’s the only top-ten website operated by a non-profit and one of the highest-quality datasets used in training Large Language Models (LLMs). We trust the Court will protect Wikipedia—a vital encyclopedic resource—from rules crafted for the internet’s riskiest commercial sites and, in doing so, safeguard the open internet for everyone”.

Submission + - So... New New Coke? Now with sugar! (npr.org) 1

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: NPR, and others, are reporting that Coca-Cola says it will use U.S. cane sugar in a new Coke, a plan pushed by Trump.

"We're going to be bringing a Coke sweetened with U.S. cane sugar into the market this fall," Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday.

Quincey said the new offering would "complement" Coca-Cola's core portfolio of drinks, suggesting it could arrive as an alternative, rather than a replacement, for its flagship Coke product.

CNN notes that, "sugar is more expensive in the US than in many parts of the world..." — there are also quotas and tariffs on cane sugar imported into the U.S.

The Sweeteners Users Association notes that cane sugar in the U.S. is grown mainly in Florida, Louisiana and Texas — so this will be a boon to some. Sugar beets are more widely grown in California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

Submission + - Managers say supervising Gen Z feels like babysitting according to new survey (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: This might not come as surprise if you are currently in the workforce, but supervising Gen Z workers often feels more like babysitting than managing. Thatâ(TM)s according to a new report from ResumeTemplates.com. Based on survey responses from 1,000 U.S. managers, it paints a scary picture of frustration, hand-holding, and mismatched expectations in todayâ(TM)s multigenerational workplace.

The numbers are hard to ignore. Sixty-eight percent of surveyed managers said overseeing Gen Z employees feels more like parenting than actual leadership. More than half, 54 percent, went further and likened it to babysitting. Many managers say they spend their time walking younger workers through basic tasks, checking in multiple times a day, and explaining what older employees would already know how to do.

A full 61 percent of managers reported that their Gen Z staff require frequent guidance to complete their work. Over half say these workers often struggle with following simple instructions. One out of every three managers said they find themselves checking in four or more times a day with their youngest employees.

Submission + - Engineers transform dental floss into needle-free vaccine (science.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Flossing may be good for more than getting your dentist off your back—one day, it may also protect you from the flu. In an unorthodox approach to needle-free vaccines, researchers have developed a special kind of floss that can deliver proteins and inactive viruses to mice’s gumlines and trigger immune responses that protect against infectious disease, they report today in Nature Bioengineering.

For many years, scientists have tried to develop alternatives to delivering vaccines via syringes by turning to the moist areas in your mouth and nose where most viruses enter. But it’s tough to develop an effective vaccine that can be administered through those entry points because they have naturally tough defenses against foreign molecules.

To test this idea, researchers at Texas Tech University had to do something no scientist had done before: Try to floss a mouse. It was a “quite difficult” two-person job: One scientist gently pulled the mouse’s jaw down with the metal ring from a keychain while the other administered the floss.

During a test run, the team found that when researchers coated floss with a fluorescently labeled protein, 75% of the protein was successfully delivered to the mouse’s gums. And even 2 months after flossing, the mice had elevated levels of antibodies in their lungs, noses, feces, and spleens, suggesting a robust immune response to the protein.

Next, the engineers added an inactive flu virus—a common vaccine component—to the floss, which in theory could teach the mouse’s body to build up immunity to the flu. Over a 28-day period, the researchers flossed 50 mice with the coated floss every 2 weeks. Then, 4 weeks after the final dose, they infected those mice with the real flu virus. All the mice that were flossed three times survived, whereas all the unvaccinated mice died.

The flossed mice also had a more systemic immune response: Not only were flu antibodies present in their feces and saliva, but the mice had more T cells—the directors of the body’s immune response—in their lungs and spleens, as well as larger lymph nodes. What’s more, the team found flu antibodies in the mice’s bone marrow, signaling that their immune systems were “fully engaged” by the inactive flu virus. Overall, the immune response to the floss resembled the response to vaccines that are sprayed into the nose, such as FluMist.

To gauge whether the method could work in humans, the researchers asked 27 healthy volunteers to floss with dental picks coated with colored food dye. On average, roughly 60% of the dye was delivered to the participants’ gums. They then surveyed the participants on what they thought of the approach. Most said they were open to trying a floss-based vaccine and would prefer it to a shot.

Submission + - Ring's flying 'spy drone' that monitors your home in the AIR 'coming soon' (the-sun.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Ring’s flying ‘spy drone’ that monitors your home in the AIR ‘coming soon’ – it stalks burglars & even recharges itself

The drone flies automatically around the home, with some obstacle avoidance technology so that it doesn't crash into ceiling light or precious vase

It can also only fly one floor at a time, and has a limited flight time of just five minutes on a single charge

The idea is to scrap multiple plug in cameras around the home and have just one patrolling drone available

Submission + - Apple launches retail expansion in Saudi Arabia, but at what cost? (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Apple has officially brought its retail operation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, launching the Apple Store online and the Apple Store app with full Arabic language support. This marks the companyâ(TM)s first direct retail presence in the country, and it comes with the usual Apple polish: personalized shopping, AppleCare+, Arabic engraving, and promises of flagship physical stores starting in 2026.

But while Apple is highlighting customization and convenience, critics are pointing to something else. The optics of cozying up to a regime accused of human rights abuses, digital repression, and lingering questions about its connection to the 9/11 terror attacks.

Submission + - Google launches OSS Rebuild to catch open source malware and verify sketchy pack (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Open source software runs pretty much everything these days, but with that popularity comes risk. Hackers have figured out they can slip malicious code into popular packages and infect thousands of systems in one shot. Now Google is stepping in with a new initiative called OSS Rebuild, and it could be a game changer for developers and security teams alike.

Matthew Suozzo from Googleâ(TM)s Open Source Security Team introduced OSS Rebuild as a way to âoestrengthen trust in open source package ecosystems by reproducing upstream artifacts.â That means rebuilding packages like those on PyPI, npm, and Crates.io, and making sure they match the original source code. If they donâ(TM)t, it could be a sign that somethingâ(TM)s wrong.

âoeOSS Rebuild gives security teams powerful data to avoid compromise without burden on upstream maintainers,â Suozzo said. Thatâ(TM)s a key point. The tool works behind the scenes, without putting extra work on the people who publish and maintain open source packages. It automatically generates build definitions, creates provenance metadata following the SLSA Build Level 3 standard, and flags anything suspicious.

This kind of system might have caught incidents like the backdoor in xz-utils or the shady code injection in solana/webjs. OSS Rebuild looks for several types of supply chain threats, including stealthy backdoors, build environment compromises, and packages that include code not found in the public source repository. It even monitors for suspicious behavior during the build process, something thatâ(TM)s almost impossible to catch with manual review.

Submission + - MenuetOS video call demo (youtube.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: MenuetOS is an operating system in development for PC, written completely in 64bit assembly language. Features include pre-emptive and real-time multitasking with multiprocessor support and Graphical User Interface. Menuet64 (2005) is released under License and Menuet32 (2000) under GPL. Menuet supports assembly programming for much faster, smaller and less resource hungry applications.

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