Cybersecurity researchers reported details Monday of cases where pro-democracy activists in Thailand had cell phones and other devices infected with government-sponsored spyware.

Scientists have discovered the world's largest bacterium.

The European Space Agency released a trove of data Monday on almost 2 billion stars in the Milky Way.

Water is so low in large stretches of Italy's largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and shipwrecks are resurfacing.

Albanian officials have declared the Vjosa River and its tributaries a future national park, a move aimed at preserving what they called one of the last wild rivers in Europe.

The circle of life was on vivid display at the Jersey Shore recently in a way that even the youngest children could understand.

Thirty-five states have fewer children than they did five years ago, a situation caused by declining birth rates nationwide, but also by young families migrating across state borders in search of cheaper housing.

Eight Republican-led states this year left an interstate cooperative that seeks to maintain accurate voter registration rolls, and three more may join them — a move that election security experts say is fueled by conspiracy theories.

Over the past two years, rural Greene County in northeastern Tennessee has collected more than $2.7 million from regional and national settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. But instead of helping people harmed by addiction, county officials are finding other ways to spend it.

As the idea of free community college gains traction across the country, some lawmakers have gotten bolder in their concepts — expanding existing programs or pitching legislation that would offer free college to anyone.

Former eight-year Army veteran Wilma Fiddmont’s dreams of settling into a comfortable life in Georgia took a sharp detour that left her homeless and sleeping in her car. Her life was in shambles as the little money she had saved up quickly disappeared while she was living in hotel rooms, but she would quickly rebound in 2021 after searching phone book listings led to her discovering a new Warner Robins shelter that is aiming to end chronic homelessness for women who served in the military.

In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion protections, state legislatures have passed new laws to shape abortion access in their states. While some states aimed to severely restrict access to abortions, states such as Maryland are seen as “access points” due to more lenient abortion laws.

Do-it-yourselfers and repair shops are celebrating a victory in Minnesota with the enactment of a new law that requires many manufacturers to share parts and information with tinkerers and small businesses.

Across much of the country, the jobs market is as strong as it’s ever been, and Black women, young people and people with disabilities are among the workers benefiting, recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

The latest in a series of new Biden administration rule changes that charge higher fees to certain home buyers with good credit and lower fees for buyers with worse credit went into effect this week despite pushback from Republicans and many financial experts.

I wanted to see what the AI bot ChatGPT had to say about interest rates and inflation, so I asked it a couple questions. Photo by jpvalery

Buybacks and stock splits are tools for corporate financial engineering. They waste the capital of profitable companies at the expense of long term shareholders. They also distort investment decisions to maximize income from incentive stock options. They should be regulated.

For years, Congress has abdicated oversight of inflation, leaving it to the Federal Reserve to address it, usually by increasing interest rates, while the party not in power blames the president. With inflation at its highest level in decades, the Fed is using its favorite tool - raising interest rates. It's 2022, there are better, less painful ways to address inflation.

I took this shot a couple hours after arriving in Madrid.

If you drive along the coastof Gibraltar, you'll see this ship that must have run aground not far off the shore.

I forget the name of this building, but I took this shot on my phone from a park far away.

In my previous post, I asked ChatGPT to write me a recipe using five random cooking ingredients that are easy to find. In this post, I bring you results. Spoiler alert: It's pretty good.

Well, I was going to write about this yesterday, on Valentine's Day, but I spent a large portion of my day with my love (my cat) at the doctor (the vet) and then spent the rest of the night trying to get him to take his meds. Thankfully, this is still great and I think you'll still appreciate it.

As with many people, I'm a decent cook, but I never know what to cook. As a result, I end up eating the same things all the time, and I'm getting bored. I thought maybe ChatGPT could help me out.