Bird flu has been around for a long time, but a major U.S. outbreak of H5N1, ongoing since March 2024, has raised concern for a wider spread that will affect more than just birds. Also at risk: indoor cats, who are highly susceptible to the virus and likely to experience severe illness if infected. Several animal deaths have already been reported across Oregon and California.If you have a pet cator have feral or barn cats nearbyyou should be aware of the symptoms of bird flu in felines and take preventive measures to protect your animals from infection. What are the signs of bird flu in cats?Symptoms of bird flu infection in cats may include lethargy, fever, and loss of appetite as well as mood and behavior change (such as unusual hiding or excessive sleeping). Some cats will also develop redness in their eyes and/or discharge from their eyes and nose, and may experience respiratory difficulty (labored breathing, sneezing, and coughing) or neurological symptoms (seizures or tremors). If your cat shows any of these signs, keep them away from other cats and anyone with a compromised immune system and call your vet right away. How to protect your cat from bird fluThere are a few preventive measures you can take to minimize the risk of your cat contracting bird flu: Do not feed them raw meat or unpasteurized dairy, including raw milk. (Cooking and pasteurizing kills viruses and germs that are dangerous for animals.) Check the ingredients in your cat's food to ensure it doesn't contain any raw meat or dairy. Northwest Naturals has already recalled frozen pet food with raw turkeythe affected batches were sold in 12 states and in British Columbia, Canada. You should also keep your cat away from livestock, poultry, and wild birds, all of which may carry the virus. Keep them indoors, or at least prevent them from wandering unsupervised around outside, where they are likely to encounter and hunt birds. Finally, you should wash your hands after touching poultry and any animals, including your cat. Do not interact with sick or dead birds without sufficient protection.

New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday. I love a designated time to look forward and to reflect back, ideally while getting tipsy with friends. The turn of a new year is also a time when Im grateful for my habit of writing down every little thingand I dont just mean getting my thoughts and feelings down in a journal. Im talking about tracking every book read, every mile run, and every beer crushed (approximately). So if youre interested in documenting your lifeand you should be!I highly recommend using a wonderfully detailed spreadsheet.Im not talking about bullet journaling (which can be cool, but which I find too artistically daunting). I simply create a Google sheet full of different color-coded tabs so that I can track any number of ways to measure a year. From the most thorough travel plans to elaborate to-do lists, if you have a goal, that goal needs a spreadsheet tab. Its a fun, slightly nerdy technique that helps me visualize my life in a way that traditional journaling cant. Heres why I think this year, you should start your own spreadsheet to track all the little things in your life.How to turn anything into a trackable achievementThe spreadsheet journal is perfect for us freaks who like to combine sentimentalism with statistics. Whatever metrics you choose to jot down, you can frame them around a sense of accomplishment. Your smart watch can track how many steps youve taken. A spreadsheet journal, however, is where you can appreciate how many steps youve achieved. From there, you can have fun with the numbers, converting those steps into miles or finding patterns over time or in whatever suits your nerdy brain. Go wild. Create different tabs dedicated to different areas of your life, so you can appreciate how much you have going on. Ill throw around some ideas in the next section, but at the end of the day, a spreadsheet is a low-effort, high-reward alternative to trying to use your words all the time, so dont get too caught up in the details. The technique is really about recognizing the value in every little number that defines your life.How to create your tracking spreadsheetFirst things first: Choose your spreadsheet software. I opt for the ease of Google Sheets, but I understand you might have some privacy concerns there. Or maybe youre simply a master at Excel. For some formatting ideas, check out this post on creating the ultimate travel spreadsheet. The main takeaway is to create one master file with as many different tabs as you see fit. Include tabs tracking your health/fitness goals, books/movies/TV youve consumed, your finances/budgeting, and whatever else is significant to you:Hours sleptMiles walkedConcerts attendedMovies watchedBooks startedBooks finished Dates gone onPlaces traveledGifts givenThank you notes sentTime spent in trafficPlaylists createdMake sure you include a column for adding notes to your entriessome personal commentary to spice up the statistics.How to maximize your spreadsheetYou can dedicate a column in each tab for jotting down miscellaneous notes, but for the sake of tidiness, make sure not to overfill your boxes with text. It also helps to stay consistent with your formattinge.g. bolding the header of each metric. I color code at whim. For instance, as a stand-up comedian, I keep track of all my shows with a specific color to mark how I felt about them: Shades of green mean the show went well, and shades of red mean the show...did not go well. In times where it looks like everything in my life is red, its nice to be able to shift my gaze to all the green, too. Perspective!At the end of the year, youll be able to use all that data to visualize both the big and the little things in your life over the 12 months prior. At a glance, youll be able to pat yourself on the back for how successfully you cut back on caffeine, or upped your time outdoors, or improved your books-started to books-completed ratio. Ultimately, my own spreadsheet is about appreciating all the little things in my life, even if I do so in one of the nerdiest ways imaginable.

2023 was the hottest year on record. This past year is on track to beating it and it caused more problems this past year than just spiking thermometers.The World Weather Attribution (WWA) released its annual Extreme Weather report showing how the record-breaking 34.34 Fahrenheit increase in man-made warming from the past year caused unrelenting heatwaves, drought, wildfire, storms and floods. The WWA estimates that climate change was responsible for at least 3,700 deaths and 26 weather events in 2024 that led to the displacement of millions.The report recorded a total of 219 events from 2024 that met its trigger criteria for identifying impactful weather events. Many of the events were influenced by the natural climate pattern known as El Nio (which has only become stronger under the effects of climate change) but the WWA studies found that climate change played a bigger role than El Nio in fueling these events, including the historic drought in the Amazon.Climate change added on an average 41 additional dangerous heat days and fueled record-breaking rain and flooding across the globe. A study of 16 floods found all but one of them were caused by warming atmospheres that retained more moisture leading to heavier rainfall. These climate conditions can also fuel bigger and deadlier hurricanes and typhoons such as the Helene, the Category 4 Hurricane that hit America in September. North Carolinas Office of State Budget and Management estimates that Helene caused $53.8 billion in damage in its state alone.Two of the worlds most important ecosystems were also hit hard by climate change in 2024, according to the WWA report. The Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal Wetland, the largest tropical wetland in the world, experienced severe droughts and wildfires that created huge biodiversity loss in the past year.Both areas are critical for maintaining the strength of the Earths ecosystems, climate and economies. The Amazons plant life removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and releases water into the atmosphere that helps control the climate and circulate ocean currents. The Pantanal Wetland houses tens of thousands of species of wildlife and provides much needed flood control for the region and creates global economic activity for cattle ranching and soy production, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).The WWAs report set some critical resolutions for 2025 to combat the rising influence of climate change. The report calls for a faster shift away from fossil fuel usage, improvements in early warning systems for extreme weather events, a greater focus on reporting of heat related deaths and financing for developing countries and regions hit hardest by the effects of climate change.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/2024-is-on-its-way-to-being-the-hottest-year-ever-211524257.html?src=rss

Whether youre into shooters, fighting games or immersive RPGs, theres something for every Xbox owner out there. While Microsofts first-party output has been a bit slim lately, the company has been on a tear acquiring the likes of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, as well as pumping up the amount of worthwhile titles in its Game Pass subscription service. The result is a plethora of games to choose from, which can be either a blessing or a curse for the indecisive gamer.To make life a bit easier, weve highlighted some of the best titles available on the Xbox Series X and S (some of which are also playable on older Xbox One systems). Weve chosen a mix of old and new titles, but given the hundreds of hours weve put into these games, we can guarantee theyre well worth your time. Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games, the best PS5 games, the best Xbox games, the best PC games and the best free games you can play today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/best-xbox-games-140022399.html?src=rss

Following months of speculation, OpenAI has finally shared how it plans to become a for-profit company. In a blog post penned by its board of directors, OpenAI said Thursday it plans to transform its for-profit arm into a Public Benefit Corporation sometime in 2025. PBCs or B Corps are for-profit organizations that attempt to balance the interests of their stakeholders while making a positive impact on society.As we enter 2025, we will have to become more than a lab and a startup we have to become an enduring company, OpenAI said, adding that many of its competitors are registered as PBCs, including Anthropic and even Elon Musks own xAI. [The move] would enable us to raise the necessary capital with conventional terms like others in this space.As part of the transformation, OpenAIs nonprofit division would retain a stake in the for-profit unit in the form of shares at a fair valuation determined by independent financial advisors, but would lose direct oversight of the company. Our plan would result in one of the best resourced non-profits in history, claims OpenAI.Following the reorganization, the for-profit division would be responsible for overseeing OpenAIs operations and business, while the nonprofit arm would operate separately with its own leadership team and a focus on charitable efforts in health care, education and science.OpenAI did not state whether CEO Sam Altman would receive an equity stake as part of the restructuring. Last year, OpenAIs board of directors briefly fired Altman before bringing him back, in the process sparking the institutional crisis that led to this weeks announcement. According to some estimates, OpenAIs for-profit arm could be worth as much as $150 billion. In 2019, OpenAI estimated it would need to raise at least $10 billion to build artificial general intelligence. In October, the company secured $6 billion in new funding.The hundreds of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission, OpenAI said. We once again need to raise more capital than wed imagined. Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness.Despite this weeks announcement, OpenAI is likely to face multiple roadblocks in implementing its plan. In addition to its ongoing legal feud with Elon Musk, Meta recently sent a letter to Californias attorney general urging him to stop OpenAI from converting to a for-profit company, saying the move would be wrong and could lead to a proliferation of similar start-up ventures that are notionally charitable until they are potentially profitable.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-for-profit-plan-includes-a-public-benefit-corporation-163634265.html?src=rss

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U.S. tech investor Cathie Wood is calling on Donald Trumps incoming administration to boost economic growth and policy certainty by backdating promised corporate and personal tax cuts to Jan. 1, 2025, she told Reuters.A laggard in recent years, Woods flagship ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund has surged 17% since Trumps victory, which is expected to bring policy changes that will benefit the funds holdings.Two of its stocks, electric carmaker Tesla and crypto exchange Coinbase, are already up 54% and 7% respectively since Nov. 6, while the S&P500 has risen about 1.7% in that time.ARKKs other top holdings include Robinhood and Block, both of which could also benefit from friendlier crypto and AI policies.Wood has publicly backed Trumps economic platform, arguing that his plan to unleash deals, promote innovation in crypto and artificial intelligence, and cut red tape and government costs will make life easier for corporate America.Tax policy was also central to the election race, with Trump pledging to cut the rate paid by companies that make goods in the United States and to extend individual tax cuts Congress passed in 2017 that are set to expire next year.Thats a key area where Wood said shes pushing for more clarity.I see them saying, okay, were going to cut taxes but we will make them retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025. That would be very helpful, I think, in terms of providing certainty for the markets, Wood said in an interview.If they dont, youre going to get companies and individuals perhaps holding back. Im trying to communicate that pretty regularly to anyone who will listen.While Wood said she does not generally support tariffs, which act as a tax increase on goods, Trumps threat to hike them on major trading partners appears to be a negotiating strategy.TAX REFORMAnalysts expect the new Republican-controlled Congress to pursue tax reform next year, but Trump will kick start other key policies with executive orders upon his Jan. 20 inauguration. He has also announced new regulators who can start to implement his pro-innovation agenda.Campaign finance records indicate that Wood did not financially back Trump in the 2024 election cycle.She told Reuters that she has only met Trump once, earlier this year at his Florida home, but is in contact with Tesla boss and billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk and crypto enthusiast Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, both of whom are helping to shape Trumps policies.Wood has been one of Musks top cheerleaders, investing 16% of ARKKs $6.4 billion in assets in Tesla. That oversized bet reflects her confidence in Musk and her conviction that AI, including autonomous vehicles, will be a major driver of investment returns going forward, she said.He understands that technologies are converging, that artificial intelligence is the biggest catalyst, said Wood.However, she is selling some Tesla shares to reinvest in other companies likely to benefit from the same trend, like Archer Aviation, a developer of autonomous aircraft.Florida-based ARK has also been a leading proponent of crypto, launching a spot bitcoin ETF in January. Wood said a crypto crackdown under President Joe Biden put the United States in a vulnerable position, but the new administration will not want to lose innovation to the rest of the world.Lummis said in a statement that engaging with stakeholders was a priority and that Wood is a leader in digital assets and someone who has shared feedback with me on a number of issues related to innovation.Although some of the market exuberance over Trumps victory has fizzled, Wood said she believes the Trump bump, which has benefited crypto, small-cap and financial stocks, will eventually spill over into more of the market.I do think that the market is going to continue broadening out. Itll definitely favor innovation and anything that has been held back by policies in the last several years, she said.Neither Musk nor Trumps transition team responded to requests for comment.CONTRARIAN PATTERNWoods outsize bets on stocks like Zoom generated a 152% return at the height of the pandemic and won her a huge retail investor following but she has struggled to sustain that outperformance.Investors have pulled roughly $3.5 billion from ARKK over the past two years, with $300 million flowing out in the past month, according to data from Morningstar and VettaFi.Thats an atypical pattern for most ETFs and mutual funds, but typical of the contrarian pattern weve seen for Cathie Woods funds, said Robby Greengold, a Morningstar analyst.Wood said that even the most favorable new policies wont end that volatility.Were telling people that, hey, we offer a highly differentiated exposure to innovation. As a result, she added: yes, were going to be volatile.Suzanne McGee, Reuters

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. rose for the second week in a row to its highest level since mid-July, reflecting a recent jump in the bond yields that lenders use as a guide to price home loans.The rate rose to 6.85% from 6.72% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate on a 30-year mortgage averaged 6.61%.The average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now the highest its been since the week of July 11, when it was at 6.89%. It dipped as low as 6.08% in September a 2-year low and as high as 7.22% in May.Most economists forecast the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% next year, with some including an upper range as high as 6.8%. That range would be largely in line with where rates have hovered this year.Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners seeking to refinance their home loan at a lower rate, also rose this week. The average rate increased to 6% from 5.92% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.93%, Freddie Mac said.Elevated mortgage rates and rising home prices have kept homeownership out of reach of many would-be homebuyers. While sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in November for the second straight month, the housing market remains in a slump and on track for its worst year since 1995.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including the moves in the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds.Bond yields climbed last week after the Federal Reserve signaled that it will likely deliver fewer cuts to rates next year than it forecast just a few months ago. While the central bank doesnt set mortgage rates, its actions and the trajectory of inflation influence the moves in the 10-year Treasury yield.The biggest wildcard for mortgage rates next year is whether President-elect Donald Trumps policy initiatives will contribute to higher inflation and swell the national debt, which could keep mortgage rates elevated. Thats because what happens with inflation, the U.S. deficit and the economy can have an effect on the 10-year Treasury yield.The yield, which was below 3.7% as recently as September, was at 4.61% in midday trading Thursday.Matt Ott, AP Business Writer

This holiday season has come with a hefty price tag: record-high credit card debt.Over a third of (36%) of American consumers took on holiday debt, according to anew surveyfrom LendingTree, with average balances of $1,181, up from $1,028 in 2023. The good news? That is still down from $1,549 in 2022.Heading into the peak shopping season, credit card balances rose by $24 billion in the third quarter of 2024 and are 8.1% higher than a year ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New Yorksreport on household debt. Collectively, Americans currently owe a record $1.17 trillion on their credit cards.However, record-breaking debt didnt stop Americans from hitting a consumer spending high this holiday. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported last week that spending between November 1 and December 31 is clearlyon track to reach a record, between $979.5 billion and $989 billion.Job and wage gains, modest inflation and a healthy balance sheet is to thank for solid holiday spending, according to the NRFs chief economist, Jack Kleinhenz.Less than half (44%) of those who took on debt expected to find themselves in the red this year. Those most likely to take on debt were parents of young children, at 48%; millennials ages 28 to 43, at 42%; and individuals who earn $30,000 to $49,999, at 39%, according to LendingTree.To add insult to injury, 28% of credit card users still have not paid off last years bill when it comes to gifts, according to another holiday spending report byNerdWallet, which polled more than 1,700 adults in September.Credit cards continue to be one of the most expensive ways to borrow money, with the average credit card rate currently more than 20% and some retail card APRs even higher. Looking to 2025, it will come as no surprise that paying down debt is at thetop of many new year resolutions.