Elizabeth Yuko

EarthCam offers free live streams of New Year's Eve celebrations from cities and destinations around the world, including Rio de Janeiro, Queenstown, Seoul, Cape Town, Amsterdam, and numerous locations across North America. Its Times Square coverage begins with a special at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by the countdown at 10 p.m., allowing viewers to celebrate without leaving home or staying awake until midnight.

Works published or released in 1929—including Popeye, Tintin, major novels, films, musical compositions, and additional Mickey Mouse cartoons—enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2025, allowing people to copy, share, and adapt them without permission or fees. Sound recordings from 1924 also become public-domain works. Highlights include The Sound and the Fury, A Farewell to Arms, Blackmail, The Cocoanuts, Singin’ in the Rain, and recordings by Marian Anderson, George Gershwin, Louis Armstrong, and others.

The 2025 Academy Awards will air on ABC and stream live on Hulu for the first time, giving viewers another way to watch without an antenna or local-channel access. The ceremony is scheduled for March 2, 2025, at 7 p.m. ET from Los Angeles's Dolby Theatre, with the live red-carpet show beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET. Conan O'Brien will host, and the broadcast will be available in more than 200 territories worldwide.

Several at-home checks can help distinguish solid gold, silver, or platinum from plated and costume jewelry, including inspecting purity stamps, using a magnet cautiously, examining color and tarnishing, checking wear and weight, and trying an unglazed ceramic test for gold. Pearls can be assessed by texture, size, weight, and branding; diamonds by fog clearance, sparkle, durability, and possible laser inscriptions. Colored gemstones are harder to authenticate without professional equipment, though visible air bubbles may indicate synthetic stones. A jeweler, appraiser, or pawn shop remains the most reliable option, and costume jewelry can still be beautiful and valuable despite not containing precious materials.

After hitting a deer, drivers should move the vehicle to a safe location if possible, turn on hazard lights, remain inside, call 911, document the scene, and photograph the damage. Comprehensive—not collision—insurance may cover the incident. Vehicles should be towed when they have leaking fluids, deployed airbags, impaired visibility or lighting, significant smoke or steam, compromised brakes, or parts touching the ground or tires. Drivers should keep their distance from the deer and contact authorities or wildlife officials rather than approaching it. To reduce collision risks, drivers should slow down, take extra care at dawn and dusk, use high beams appropriately, watch for reflected eyes, and assume more deer may follow. If a collision is unavoidable, braking while maintaining a straight path is safer than swerving into traffic, trees, or a ditch.

The 2024–2025 winter is expected to be influenced by La Niña, with warmer-than-average temperatures across much of the United States and cooler conditions in northern areas. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts a particularly cold period from late January into early February, while NOAA and the Almanac anticipate above-normal precipitation in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest. The South, Southeast, Atlantic Coast, and Southwest are generally expected to be warmer and drier, although forecasts remain predictions rather than guarantees.

NerdWallet’s analysis of Transportation Security Administration checkpoint data from 2021–2023 identifies Saturday, November 23, Monday, November 25, and Thursday, November 21 as the best days to fly before Thanksgiving in 2024, with Wednesday, December 4, Tuesday, December 3, and Black Friday among the best options afterward. Thanksgiving Day itself is expected to have the lightest airport crowds, especially for morning flights. Travelers are advised to avoid Wednesday, November 27 and Tuesday, November 26 before the holiday, and Sunday, December 1 and Saturday, November 30 afterward, with the Sunday after Thanksgiving typically among the busiest travel days of the year. Booking in early October is recommended because last-minute fares are unlikely to improve while popular flights may sell out.

A grill brush can be useful for household and DIY tasks beyond cleaning grills, including removing peeling paint, light rust, soot, embedded debris, dried paint, grout stains, and dirt from gardening or hand tools. Brass and nylon brushes are recommended for most surfaces because stainless steel can scratch, and users should test an inconspicuous area, wear appropriate protection, and monitor brushes for broken or loose bristles.

Clothing pills form when surface fibers break from wear, friction, and washing, with shorter-fiber fabrics such as wool, fleece, polyester, nylon, acrylic, and viscose rayon especially susceptible. Pilling can be reduced by removing lint before washing, fastening zippers and buttons, turning garments inside out, sorting laundry by fabric weight, using a gentle cycle and cold water, choosing detergent containing cellulase, and air-drying vulnerable items.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s 2024 Summer Reliability Assessment found that all North American regions have adequate power supplies under normal peak demand, but many areas could face electricity shortfalls during extreme heat. The states identified as having elevated outage risk from June through September include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Residents are advised to prepare for outages and consider a properly used generator or battery backup system.

AAA reported a nationwide average gasoline price of $3.50 per gallon on July 24, 2024—six cents higher than the previous month but six cents lower than a year earlier. California, Hawaii, and Washington had the highest average prices, while Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had the lowest. The figures are presented as a reference for travelers planning late-summer road trips, with AAA’s TripTik planner suggested for checking current prices along specific routes.

Certain full-sized liquids may be carried through U.S. airport security despite the TSA’s 3.4-ounce rule. Exceptions include medically necessary liquids, baby and toddler items, duty-free purchases sealed in tamper-evident bags, scientific specimens, frozen gel packs, and live fish, coral, or lobster in suitable containers. Travelers should notify TSA officers, keep items organized, and remember that the final decision rests with the checkpoint officer.

With the typical U.S. home selling slightly below asking price, sellers can improve their chances of attracting multiple offers by pricing below comparable properties, hiring an effective realtor, using professional photography, making cosmetic improvements, and enhancing curb appeal. Additional tactics include setting an offer deadline once interest exists, responding to low offers to emphasize competing bids, listing around the holidays when competition is lower, and hosting a highly themed open house with distinctive food, entertainment, giveaways, or local touches. Realtors Dana Hall-Bradley and Joe Muck say memorable open-house events have helped generate bidding wars and sales above asking price.

Ghost job postings advertise nonexistent or no-longer-available positions, often using vague qualifications, stale posting dates, or duplicate listings. Job seekers can investigate them by looking for specific role details, checking how long the listing has been active, reviewing the employer’s other openings for duplicates, and contacting HR or the hiring manager. Companies may post such jobs to survey available talent, collect résumés for future roles, boost employee morale, create pressure by suggesting workers are replaceable, or appear to be growing.

A window air conditioner that stops cooling effectively, makes unusual noises, leaks, cycles frequently or drives up energy bills may be affected by extreme heat, electrical problems, a dirty filter, blocked or damaged coil fins, restricted airflow, a clogged condensate drain, incorrect settings, inadequate BTU capacity or a mechanical failure. Owners should inspect these issues before assuming the unit is broken. Units older than eight to ten years are generally more economical to replace, while newer units are better replaced when repairs would cost more than half the price of a new, more efficient model.

AAA expects a record 70.9 million people to travel at least 50 miles from home during the expanded June 29–July 7 Independence Day travel period. Traffic delays are expected to be worst when travelers leave on July 3 and return on July 7, with some holiday-week road trips taking up to 67% longer than usual. INRIX and AAA recommend traveling outside peak periods, especially early in the morning or later in the evening, and monitoring local traffic updates.

The appropriate water temperature for removing a fabric stain depends on the substance involved. Warm or hot water is generally recommended for dirt, mud, oil, grease, sweat, dye, grass, tomato-based products, and similar stains, while cold water is better for blood, chocolate, wine, water-based paint, and many dairy, beverage, and protein-based stains because heat can set them. Stains should be treated quickly, care labels followed, cleaning solutions tested on hidden areas, and fabrics blotted rather than rubbed. Upholstery should be lightly misted or dabbed without oversaturating it, and boiling water should be reserved for select durable fabrics and used cautiously.

LinkedIn Learning is offering 55 AI-upskilling courses free of charge through July 8, 2024, without requiring users to start a subscription trial. The courses cover AI literacy, workplace applications, the OpenAI API, deep learning and neural networks, and cybersecurity. The offer is positioned as a practical response to rapidly increasing workplace use of generative AI, alongside concerns about accuracy and job displacement. Users can access the courses by ignoring the subscription prompt and selecting individual courses directly.

Sling Freestream provides more than 500 live, ad-supported TV channels and over 40,000 on-demand shows and movies without requiring a credit card, paid Sling subscription, or even an account. Users can access it through Sling’s website or app by selecting “Stream Free.” Creating an account enables favorites, user profiles, parental controls, and personalized recommendations. The service includes news, sports, lifestyle, true-crime, children’s and entertainment channels, while Sling’s Premium Pass remains a separate paid offering.

Creaky floors in older homes are commonly caused by loose fasteners, gaps between the subfloor and joists, or floorboards rubbing against one another as the house settles and wood expands or contracts. The article recommends first locating the source with help from someone on another floor, then using methods such as shims and adhesive from below, flooring nails or talcum powder from above, subfloor cleats and screws, or temporary lubrication with beeswax or floor lubricant.

Uber and Walgreens launched a pilot program providing free Uber rides to eligible COVID-19 vaccination appointments at Walgreens locations and off-site clinics in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and El Paso, Texas. People with confirmed Walgreens appointments are notified by email if they qualify to schedule a ride. The initiative builds on Uber’s commitment to provide up to 10 million free or discounted vaccine-related rides and receives assistance from the National Urban League, while questions remain about whether free return trips will also be offered.

A live underwater camera operated by Polar Bears International and Explore.org offers viewers a close-up look at beluga whales migrating from the Arctic to Manitoba’s Churchill River during the summer. The stream includes a hydrophone capturing the whales’ clicks, chirps, grunts, and whistles, with additional boat-camera footage and educational live chats featuring scientists, researchers, and the boat captain.