The holidays are probably the absolute worst time for a software update to render Meta’s Quest headsets unusable, but that’s exactly the situation we’re in right now. According to posts on Reddit and Meta’s own forums, users are experiencing issues with brand new and existing Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest 3S headsets essentially locking themselves into either an error message or a never-ending black screen after installing their most recent software.

It’s not entirely clear what’s causing the bug, although a popular theory across Meta’s forums seems to center on devices that haven’t been used in a while. Essentially, while users running the most recent Quest firmware seem to be able to update their devices just fine, those updating from older versions of the firmware are more likely to encounter problems (that would include me, although my headset is currently a few hundred miles away from me, so I’ll have to rely on user reports instead).

However, the issue also seems to be common on newer headsets, according to Reddit. Here, users report that brand new headsets will attempt the update as soon as turning on, locking into an error message as soon as the update completes.

It’s possible new headsets that might have been sitting on a shelf for a while would also be running outdated firmware, but one common thread across both Reddit and Meta’s forums is that factory resets aren’t helping, and should be avoided. Chances are you’ll just be unable to boot up, instead being stuck on a black screen until you give up.

While Meta forum members say customer service originally failed to help beyond suggesting they buy a refurbished Quest as a replacement, the company has since changed its tune. Currently, Meta is suggesting Quest owners experiencing the issue attempt to reboot the headset by powering it down, then holding the power button for 45 seconds before releasing it.

It’s not a guaranteed fix, but it’s better than nothing. Supposedly, a more robust solution is on the way, as Meta says it’s working to resolve the problem “as soon as possible.”

For now, redditors experiencing the issue are advising new Quest owners avoid turning on their headsets while existing Quest owners should hold off on any updates. Presumably, new Quest owners could also turn their headset on in a location without wifi to avoid the update, although functionality on a new headset will be severely limited without internet access.

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 cat—or have feral or barn cats nearby—you 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 flu

There 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 turkey—the 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 I’m grateful for my habit of writing down every little thing—and I don’t just mean getting my thoughts and feelings down in a journal. I’m talking about tracking every book read, every mile run, and every beer crushed (approximately). So if you’re interested in documenting your life—and you should be!—I highly recommend using a wonderfully detailed spreadsheet.

I’m 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.

It’s a fun, slightly nerdy technique that helps me visualize my life in a way that traditional journaling can’t. Here’s 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 achievement

The 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 you’ve taken. A spreadsheet journal, however, is where you can appreciate how many steps you’ve 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. I’ll 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 don’t 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 spreadsheet

First 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 you’re 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 you’ve consumed, your finances/budgeting, and whatever else is significant to you:

• Hours slept

• Miles walked

• Concerts attended

• Movies watched

• Books started

• Books finished

• Dates gone on

• Places traveled

• Gifts given

• Thank you notes sent

• Time spent in traffic

• Playlists created

Make sure you include a column for adding notes to your entries—some personal commentary to spice up the statistics.

I’ve created a sample template you can download here. It shows examples of the drop-down menus and color-coding I personally use to track my travel, books read, and marathon training.

How to maximize your spreadsheet

You 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 formatting—e.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, it’s nice to be able to shift my gaze to all the green, too. Perspective!

At the end of the year, you’ll 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, you’ll 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.

If you’ve recently built a computer, congratulations! You should be proud. There’s nothing like turning a new computer on, seeing it work just fine, and breathing a sigh of relief knowing that you’re done and you won’t have to spend hours troubleshooting why it’s not working. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but if you happened to install Windows on your PC during October or November, you might not be quite finished yet.

According to an update to Microsoft’s known issues page, copies of Windows installed through USB or CD using the October 2024 and November 2024 updates are being affected by a bug that will prevent them from accepting any future security updates. These updates are vital for keeping your computer virus- and exploit-free, but luckily, there’s a fix. It’s just a bit of a hassle.

Essentially, you’ll need to reinstall Windows using new installation media that comes with the December 2024 update included. Just navigate to Microsoft’s Windows 11 download page, scroll down to Create Windows 11 Installation Media, open mediacreationtool.exe and follow the instructions in the app. It’s straightforward, if laborious.

Luckily, the company says it’s working on a resolution, so hopefully a better solution that doesn’t involve reinstalling your operating system is on the way. Still, when it comes to problems with security updates, it’s better to implement fixes as soon as possible.

On the plus side, if you downloaded the Windows 11 October or November updates through Windows Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog website, you shouldn’t need to take any further action. The issue only affects people who installed the October or November updates using physical media (which is common among IT professionals and some PC builders).

The issue joins a known list of problems with the Windows 11 24H2 update, including issues with specific audio devices, Outlook, and even some Ubisoft video games.

Aside from an NFL Wild Card game (set for Jan. 11 or 12), Prime Video’s headliner to kick off the new year is the original comedy film You’re Cordially Invited (Jan. 30). Will Ferrell stars as the father of a bride whose wedding venue has been double-booked by another bride and her wedding-planner sister (played by Reese Witherspoon).

Also on the lineup is season two of The Rig (Jan. 2) a thriller set on an oil rig in the remote North Sea; the premiere of police drama On Call (Jan. 9), a new series starring Troian Bellisario as a veteran officer tasked with training a rookie played by Brandon Larracuente; and season three of the Tracy Oliver comedy Harlem (Jan. 23).

Finally, Jennifer Lopez co-stars alongside Jharrel Jerome in Unstoppable (Jan. 16), based on the true story of Arizona State wrestler and NCAA champion Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg.

Here’s everything else coming to Prime Video in January.

What’s coming to Prime Video in January 2025

Arriving January 1

• A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)

• American Sniper (2015)

• Autumn In New York (2000)

• Barbershop (2002)

• Barbershop 2: Back In Business (1996)

• Basic (2003)

• Beauty Shop (2005)

• Benny & Joon (1993)

• Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

• Boogie Nights (1997)

• Bridesmaids Unrated (2011)

• Captain Phillips (2013)

• Coffy (1973)

• Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream (2008)

• Cutting Edge 4: Fire and Ice (2010)

• Do the Right Thing (1989)

• Dope (2015)

• Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

• Fled (1996)

• Foxy Brown (1974)

• Hoodlum (1997)

• Horrible Bosses (2011)

• Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)

• Hotel Rwanda (2005)

• Imitation of Life (1959)

• In The Heat Of The Night (1967)

• Jumping the Broom (2011)

• Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)

• Liar Liar (1997)

• Life as We Know It (2010)

• Little Nicky (2000)

• MacGruber (2010)

• Major Payne (1995)

• Mississippi Burning (1989)

• Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

• Mystery Men (1999)

• Nicholas Nickleby (2002)

• Return to Me (2000)

• Rollerball (2002)

• Santa Claus: The Movie 25th Anniversary Edition (1985)

• Scent of a Woman (1993)

• Some Like It Hot (1959)

• Something Wild (1986)

• Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

• Soul Plane (2004)

• Stomp The Yard (2007)

• Supernova (2021)

• Tag (2018)

• Ted (Unrated) (2012)

• The Blues Brothers (1980)

• The Brothers (2001)

• The Company You Keep (2013)

• The Cutting Edge (1992)

• The Cutting Edge: Going For The Gold (2006)

• The Equalizer (2014)

• The Great Outdoors (1988)

• The Grey (2012)

• The Ides Of March (2011)

• The Land Before Time (1988)

• The Last Samurai (2003)

• The LEGO Movie (2014)

• The Sixth (2024)

• The Social Network (2010)

• The Way Back (2020)

• The Woman in Red (1984)

• Touch (2024)

• Unforgiven (1992)

• Valmont (1989)

• Wedding Daze (2008)

• What’s The Worst That Could Happen? (2001)

• Wicker Park (2004)

• xXx (2002)

• xXx: State of the Union (2005)

• Yentl (1984)

Arriving January 2

• The Rig S2 (2025)

• The Fall Guy (2024)

Arriving January 10

• Focus (2015)

Arriving January 15

• Monk S1-8 (2002)

Arriving January 16

• The Calendar Killer (2025)

• Unstoppable (2025)

• Jurassic World (2015)

Arriving January 17

• Molly Mae: Behind It All (2025)

• The Liberation (2025)

• Undercover Party Crasher (2025)

Arriving January 21

• Blink Twice (2024)

Arriving January 23

• Harlem S3 (2025)

Arriving January 26

• Rampage (2018)

Arriving January 27

• Tribunal Justice S2 (2025)

Arriving January 30

• You’re Cordially Invited (2025)

Arriving January 31

• Breach (2007)

• Friday Night Lights (2004)

• Knocked Up (Unrated) (2007)

• Scarface (1983)

WASHINGTON, Dec 26, 2024 — Today, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has signed Public Land Order 7956, finalizing protections for the Pactola Reservoir–Rapid Creek Watershed on the Black Hills National Forest from the potential effects of mineral exploration and development. This order follows a request from the U.S. Forest Service to close 20,510 acres of National Forest System land to sale or exchange and mineral entry and leasing, for a 20-year period, subject to valid existing rights.

Spurred on by a New York Post story about Pope Francis opening “five sacred portals” this Christmas, the goofier corners of the social media world are breathlessly sharing warnings that the Pope is planning to open the “Tomb of Lucifer,” or the Devil’s Tomb this holiday season.

The TikTok video below, from GraceXDigital, has been viewed more than 2 million times and explains the whole conspiracy theory. Grace is asking the Pope important questions, like “Why are you doing this this year, in this economy?”

While The Pope is opening five portals to close out 2024, I regret to inform you that His Holiness is not planning to open the Tomb of Lucifer—nothing that awesome ever happens. There is a tomb of Lucifer under the Vatican, but it’s not as cool as you’d hope. Nothing in this story is not as cool as you’d hope.

What are these portals the Pope is opening?

The Pope is actually going to be opening five sacred portals as part of a ritual this year, but “portal” just means “door,” and four of the five doors lead to well known basilicas. Despite what some internet cranks are saying, it’s not the first time this has happened either: The ritual happens every 25 years, and is meant to usher in a year “renewed in hope” for Catholics. So basically, it’s the Pope doing Pope junk.

The only never-happened-before part of the story is Pope Francis putting his own spin on the ritual by opening a fifth door inside the Roman prison Rebibbia on Dec. 26. It’s meant to offer prisoners a sign to “look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence.” The door opening is symbolic, so the prisoners will not be freed to run rampant in Rome.

The Tomb of Lucifer and the Vatican Necropolis

The one slightly cool part of the story: There is a city of the dead under the Vatican that has a tomb of Lucifer, and you can visit it. The Vatican Necropolis lies 15 to 24 feet below Saint Peter’s Basilica, near the site of the Circus of Caligula. Originally an open-air cemetery, the necropolis dates back to the Roman Empire and supposedly contains the remains of the Apostle Peter along with the skeletons of various Popes and other prominent early Catholics. Also found here: the Tomb of Lucifer.

But it’s not the Lucifer, the Morning Star, the fallen angel who became the head of the demons. That Lucifer’s ultimate fate is murky. Maybe he’s still alive, subtly convincing people to cheat at Monopoly, or maybe he’s in Heaven because he found redemption, or maybe he’s in Newark. (According to Dante, Lucifer is in the deepest circle of the abyss, frozen in ice and forced to beat his wings for eternity to power Hell, so I’ll go with that.) In any case, the angelic Lucifer isn’t a person, so he doesn’t have a tomb.

According to the Vatican’s own Necropolis map, Tomb U is labeled “Lucifer.” The Vatican says: “The entrance to the tomb has been reduced because of a fault in the architrave. It is possible, however, to glimpse some of the niches with their characteristic red background and several arcosoli.” Red backgrounds? It’s gotta be Satan. But nah: The construction of this tomb pre-dates the association of the name “Lucifer” with the devil. We don’t actually know why it’s called the Lucifer tomb. It might be a reference to some graffiti found around there, or a reference to an important Catholic with that name. It’s not referring to the devil, though.

Why are there so many Catholic conspiracy theories anyway?

Why the Pope opening some doors in Vatican City became a conspiracy theory on TikTok is a complex question. America’s history of anti-Catholicism dates back to before the United States was even a thing. While those deep cultural and historical biases are probably part of it, I think the main reason people traffic in this sort of conspiratorial thinking is more innocent: the Catholic Church is really old and really weird, and people like a little spice in their Christmas eggnog.

People also like putting together puzzles, and the Catholic Church gives you a lot of pieces to play with. The Vatican is an ancient city full of tunnels, crumbling Roman ruins, and a Necropolis under a basilica. The Pope controls a city-state, can speak with God’s voice, and wears some very impressive hats. It’s the kind of set-up where anything seems like it could be happening at any time, including the Pope digging up Satan’s grave, maybe so they can fight.

Like many conspiracy theorists, the author Dan Brown, and the developers of the Assassin’s Creed video games, I want the awesome things to be real too. I want a flashy showdown in Vatican City between angels and demons (and aliens). But good and evil don’t work that way in real life. Even if you dress up the “good guys” in elaborate headgear, they’re still fallible old men—51% good on a good day.

Evil doesn’t reside in a tomb and come at you with flaming swords. It would be cool if the Pope could call on the power of his big buddy God to smite those who need smiting, but despite the hats, scepters, and symbolic authority, the best the Pope can do is throw open some old doors in the papal palace and maybe try to get people to maybe think about the plight of prisoners.