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It took me an embarrassingly long time to connect the title of today’s Strands puzzle with its topic. The title of the puzzle is, « It’s lit! » which I understand as a Gen Z phrase for something that’s exciting or fun, like a party. But as an English major, I should have seen immediately that « lit » is also short for « literature. » Anyway, if you need more hints and answers for today’s Strands puzzle, read on.
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Sections in a bookstore.
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
CRIME, FANTASY, ROMANCE, WESTERN, HISTORICAL
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is FICTIONGENRE. To find it, start with the F that’s four letters down on the first row to the far left, and wind across.
The completed NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 17, 2024.
CXL has become increasingly vital in the age of AI
CXL Consortium has announced the release of its new Compute Express Link (CXL) 3.2 specifications, bringing a raft of optimized funcationalities to the technology.
In its announcement, the consortium revealed the upgraded specification will improve CXL Memory Device monitoring and management capabilities, and enhance the functionality of CXL Memory Devices for both operating systems and applications.
Security improvements are also a key talking point with the introduction of the Trusted Security Protocol (TSP).
What to expect from CXL 3.2
CXL plays a crucial role in how GPUs and CPUs interact with memory, helping to standardize cross-device communication and reduce delays. All told, this helps make systems faster and more efficient when handling large volumes of data.
With the advent of generative AI, CXL has become increasingly important given the rapid data processing requirements of applications, and this latest update will further improve upon previous specifications, particularly in terms of CXL Memory Device monitoring and management.
The new specification will include a new CXL hot page monitoring unit (CHMU) aimed specifically at streamlining memory tiering.
Similarly, the consortium unveiled compatibility with PCIe management message pass through (MMPT) alongside improvements to CXL online firmware.
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Security improvements are a key focus in this latest update through TSP, the consortium noted, including new meta-bits storage features, the expansion of IDE protection, and enhanced compliance tests for interoperability.
Full backwards compatibility with previous CXL specifications was also assured by the consortium.
“We are excited to announce the release of the CXL 3.2 Specification to advance the CXL ecosystem by providing enhancements to security, compliance, and functionality of CXL Memory Devices,” said Larrie Carr, president of CXL Consortium.
“The Consortium continues to develop an open, coherent interconnect and enable an interoperable ecosystem for heterogeneous memory and computing solutions.”
After spinning in a vortex for months, the world’s largest and oldest iceberg is on the move again.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey announced on Friday that the colossal iceberg, designated A23a, is floating across the Southern Ocean. The iceberg’s journey provides a significant opportunity for scientists to study how giant icebergs impact their surrounding ecosystems.
“It’s exciting to see A23a on the move again after periods of being stuck. We are interested to see if it will take the same route the other large icebergs that have calved off Antarctica have taken,” Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at British Antarctic Survey, noted in the British Antarctic Survey statement, “And more importantly what impact this will have on the local ecosystem.”
A23a weighs almost a trillion tons, and, as of August, spanned 1,418-square-miles (3,672 square kilometers), making it twice as big as Greater London, or just a bit larger than Rhode Island, according to CNN. It has repeatedly claimed the title of the world’s largest iceberg, outlasting several large contenders.
A23a separated from West Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in 1986 as a result of natural processes, but almost immediately got lodged into the seafloor north of the South Orkney Islands. In 2020, it came free and floated in the Weddell Sea until it got trapped in a Taylor Column, a phenomenon in oceans that traps objects drifting over underwater mountains in water vortexes.
DO YOU WANT TO BREAK FREE!?
Well, you’re not alone – Iceberg #A23a, the world’s largest and oldest #iceberg, is on the move!
A23a recently escaped the rotating waters that kept it in place, according to BAS. Scientists expect the iceberg to drift along on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current towards the warmer waters around the island of South Georgia, where it will likely break up into countless smaller pieces and ultimately melt.
One year ago, British Antarctic Survey researchers observed A23a while studying polar ecosystems in the Weddell Sea for the BIOPOLE project. From the RRS Sir David Attenborough research vessel, they photographed the massive iceberg and collected samples from the waters in its proximity.
“We know that these giant icebergs can provide nutrients to the waters they pass through, creating thriving ecosystems in otherwise less productive areas. What we don’t know is what difference particular icebergs, their scale, and their origins can make to that process,” says Laura Taylor, a biogeochemist at BIOPOLE.
“We took samples of ocean surface waters behind, immediately adjacent to, and ahead of the iceberg’s route,” she adds. “They should help us determine what life could form around A23a and how it impacts carbon in the ocean and its balance with the atmosphere.”
It remains to be seen how long A23a will remain the world’s largest iceberg, and what its oceanic journey will reveal about Antarctic marine ecosystems. I have a feeling we’ve only hit the tip of the literal iceberg!
After a federal court last week denied TikTok’s request to delay a law that could ban the app in the United States, the company is now turning to the Supreme Court in an effort to buy time. The social media company has asked the court to temporarily block the law, currently set to take effect January 19, 2025, it said in a brief statement.
“The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech,” TikTok wrote in a post on X. “Today, we are asking the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment.”
The company, which has argued that the law is unconstitutional, lost its initial legal challenge of the law earlier this month. The company then requested a delay of the law’s implementation, saying that President-elect Donal Trump had said he would “save” TikTok. That request was denied on Friday.
In its filing with the Supreme Court, TikTok again referenced Trump’s comments. « It would not be in the interest of anyone—not the parties, the public, or the courts—for the Act’s ban on TikTok to take effect only for the new Administration to halt its enforcement hours, days, or even weeks later, » it wrote. Trump’s inauguration is one day after a ban of the app would take effect.
TikTok is now hoping the Supreme Court will intervene to suspend the law in order to give the company time to make its final legal appeal. Otherwise, app stores and Internet service providers will be forced to begin blocking TikTok next month, making the app inaccessible to its 170 million US users.
Update December 16, 2024, 1:30 PM PT: Updated with details from TikTok’s court filing.
What is the best internet provider in Great Falls?
Multiple internet service providers cover Great Falls, Montana, but for many, Spectrum will be the best choice for home internet. Spectrum has the greatest broadband coverage in Great Falls and offers two plans. The lowest starts at $50 a month for 500Mbps; the second gets you 1Gbps for $70.
Spectrum is the only cable internet provider in Great Falls, but fiber service may be available from Quantum Fiber, KDS or 3 Rivers, depending on where you live. Quantum Fiber presents the best value and local coverage of the three, though fiber availability from any ISP is scarce in Great Falls. Fellow Lumen Technologies brand CenturyLink is available throughout much of the area, but you’ll likely want to pass on the slow, inconsistent speeds that come with DSL service.
If fiber is unavailable and you’re looking for an alternative to Spectrum’s cable internet, fixed wireless may be an option. A few wireless ISPs serve the area, including KDS and Amaze Wireless, but T-Mobile Home Internet and Verizon 5G Home Internet are the only ones capable of broadband speeds, at least 100Mbps down and 20Mbps up.
Internet providers in Great Falls, Montana, compared
How to find internet deals and promotions in Great Falls
The best internet deals and the top promotions in Great Falls depend on what discounts are available during that period. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers.
How many members of your household use the internet?
Great Falls internet providers, such as T-Mobile Home Internet, may offer lower introductory pricing or other incentives for a limited time. Many, including Spectrum and Quantum Fiber, run the same standard pricing year-round.
For a more extensive list of deals, check out our guide on the best internet deals.
Most internet connection plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you’re looking for an internet plan that can accommodate videoconferencing, streaming video or gaming, you’ll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here’s an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Note that these are only guidelines and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.
0 to 5Mbps allows you to tackle the basics: browsing the internet, sending and receiving email and streaming low-quality video.
5 to 40Mbps gives you higher-quality video streaming and videoconferencing.
40 to 100Mbps should give one user sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming.
100 to 500Mbps allows one to two users to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming.
500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.
How CNET chose the best internet providers in Great Falls, Montana
Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information, drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.
It doesn’t end there: We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. We look at sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power, to evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of publication.
Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:
Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds?
Do customers get decent value for what they’re paying?
Are customers happy with their service?
The answer to those questions is often layered and complex, the providers who come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. When selecting the cheapest internet service, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee, although we also factor in things like price increases, equipment fees and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively straightforward. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and consider real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and FCC reports. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.
Internet providers in Great Falls, Montana FAQs
What is the best internet service provider in Great Falls?
Spectrum is the best internet provider in Great Falls, thanks to its high-speed availability, low introductory rates and simple service terms, which include unlimited data and no contracts.
Is fiber internet available in Great Falls?
The most recent FCC data shows that fiber internet is available to around 18% of Great Falls households. Quantum Fiber is the largest fiber provider in Great Falls, although KDS and 3 Rivers also offer fiber connections in parts of the area.
What is the cheapest internet provider in Great Falls?
Spectrum, T-Mobile and Quantum tie for the cheapest internet provider in Great Falls, with service starting at $50 a month.
Which internet provider in Great Falls offers the fastest plan?
Spectrum and KDS offer the fastest download speeds in Great Falls, up to 1,000Mbps, starting at $70 and $160 monthly, respectively. As a fiber provider, KDS can deliver faster upload speeds, up to 500Mbps, whereas Spectrum’s upload speeds top out around 40Mbps.
Pika just released the Pika 2.0 AI video creator with advanced customization tools
You can upload and customize characters, objects, and settings with the new Scene Ingredients feature
Pika 2.0 offers a contrast to OpenAI’s Sora by aiming at individuals rather than big studios
AI video creator Pika Labs is metaphorically elbowing OpenAI and Sora for some of the limelight with a new version of its platform. Pika 2.0 comes with a suite of new features for making custom videos with AI and arrives only weeks after the company released the Pika 1.5 model with its host of new visual effects.
Pika is even taking unsubtle jabs at OpenAI by describing Pika 2.0 as « Not just for pros. For actual people. (Even Europeans!) » in reference to the enterprise focus of Sora and its limited global release that so far doesn’t include European countries.
Rivalry aside, Pika 2.0 has plenty of new perks, making it fairly appealing. The most notable is Scene Ingredients. Imagine a virtual kitchen with a pantry of video elements you can pick from. You choose the characters, props, backgrounds, and other bits you want to incorporate and let Pika’s AI blend and bake them.
Let’s say you want to make a clip of a surfing cat in space. Until now, you’d need to write a prompt for the video, perhaps with an image reference for the cat. With Scene Ingredients, you can upload your favorite cat’s photo, a stellar background image of the sky at night, and a picture of your dream surfboard, and Pika will mash it up into a delicious, cohesive scene.
Even without images to embed in videos, Pika 2.0 better understands text prompts thanks to its upgraded text alignment. If you’ve ever typed a prompt into an AI tool and gotten something that only vaguely resembled what you wanted, you’ll likely notice how Pika is less likely to mess up your idea when making the video.
If you ask for a dragon to fly over a medieval castle during sunset, the AI will be much more likely to show a video with a dragon that actually flies, a castle that looks like a castle, and a sunset that doesn’t look like a lava explosion. And with upgraded motion rendering, all the characters in the video will walk, fly, roller skate, or cartwheel without looking like they are floating or that their joints don’t all connect.
Pika for all
Pika’s pitch is about giving the average person or small group control over making videos without making it too complicated. Hence, the deliberate, if oblique, mocking of OpenAI and Sora for their Hollywood-level focus projects. Pika 2.0 is aimed at those making clips for TikTok of marketing videos for side hustles.
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That doesn’t mean Pika has no other competition besides OpenAI, though. There are AI video platforms for all kinds of projects: Pollo, Runway,Stability AI, Hotshot, and Luma Labs’ Dream Machine have something to offer the average aspiring AI filmmaker.
If you want to try out Pika 2.0, it’s available to free and paid users, with limits on the free tier. You can also switch back to earlier models if you desire to.
It’s the story everybody in America is talking about. No, not the story about Luigi Mangione, who allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, setting off a national debate about health insurance in the U.S. and who profits from denying everyday Americans care. We’re talking about drones. Specifically, those mystery drones that have launched a million conspiracy theories online about what they could be.
The drones have been reported every night in New Jersey since Nov. 18, according to NBC News, except for just one day that didn’t have any sightings in the state: Thanksgiving. That’s weird, of course, but not as weird as the fact that everyone seems to be confused about what these flying objects might be.
Most of the viral videos appear to show aircraft that are plainly just normal commercial jets. But there are plenty that can’t be easily explained. The supposed “drones” have been spotted in other parts of the country too, like Southern California, though nothing has emerged on the west coast quite like the videos on the east coast. And elected leaders are calling for serious action.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate for another month before Democrats lose control of the Senate, has called for a recently declassified drone-detection technology to be used to figure out what these flying objects might be.
“Some of the drones are small. Some of the drones’ flight patterns are erratic,” Schumer said on Sunday, according to NBC News. “Multiple drones flying together can confuse a traditional radar system and that’s why, again, this new technology can really get us the answers that we need.”
And with no easy answers yet, the internet is absolutely bubbling over with conspiracy theories. To be clear, we’re in no position to confirm or deny any of these theories right now. Because politicians and average people alike are still scratching their heads about what could be going on. Is it mass hysteria? Probably. But there are also videos with confusing elements that are difficult to explain. And whereas normally we can pretty definitively say that a conspiracy theory is clearly absurd, we have to remain open to almost any ridiculous angle at this point. Almost.
Arguably the most popular conspiracy theory to emerge over the weekend started with a TikTok from John Ferguson, the CEO of Saxon Aerospace in Kansas. The video was deleted from TikTok but sparked such a wide-ranging conversation that clips have been shared on all kinds of social media sites. And you can watch the entire thing here.
CEO of Drone manufacturing company that has government contracts, gives interesting take on what’s happening in NJ. pic.twitter.com/tAbMdMETQC
The long and the short of it is that this guy believes the drones may be hunting for some kind of chemical leak or, more disturbingly, may be looking for a rogue nuclear weapon that’s somewhere in the U.S. The man claims that a nuclear weapon that went missing from Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union somehow made its way to U.S. soil recently and the American government is hunting for it with these drones. Joe Rogan helped amplify the theory on Sunday, giving it a lot more attention.
There is a team of people from the National Nuclear Safety Administration, housed under the Department of Energy, who are specifically tasked with looking for any rogue nukes. It was set up in the 1970s after a spate of bad nuclear extortion threats against U.S. cities, most of which were not credible and involved people just trying to get money from the government. But there have been some instances of people obtaining real nuclear material and threatening to blow people up.
There’s no available evidence at this point, however, that we’re dealing with government-sanctioned nuke hunters. There have been sensationalist claims made on X in the wake of this video about lost nuclear material. Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson tried to make it sound like a scandal on Monday that a report on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s website listed some lost radioactive material in New Jersey recently.
But this kind of thing happens all the time. And you’ll notice in the report it’s clearly not a nuclear weapon. Radioactive material is used in all kinds of scientific equipment and this kind of stuff gets lost in transit sometimes and needs to be reported to the authorities. It doesn’t mean that anyone can make a nuclear bomb out of it.
As a Community Note points out in one of the alarmist tweets, the amount of radiation that one could receive from the missing material, in this case, would be roughly equivalent to a CT scan, provided you stood next to it for a full year.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: U.S. NRC ALERTS PUBLIC OF « »MISSING » » RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Confirmed, Less than Category 3, possibly shielded Category 4 radioactive material has gone missing in New Jersey.
Do you realize what they’re doing? This incident might prompt: false flag smells like… pic.twitter.com/m0zyCqq5NZ
Incoming president Donald Trump said the government knows what’s going on but won’t tell anyone. And while it’s entirely possible that he’s right, he also lies all the time and has plenty of motivation to make it seem like the U.S. government is currently inept and deceitful, which will surely be remedied when he takes power gain on Jan. 20, 2025.
“Look, our military knows where they took off from,” Trump said at a press conference Monday. “If it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went. And for some reason, they don’t want to comment.”
Then there were the people who insisted the U.S. government was planning a staged alien invasion to distract Americans, called Project Blue Beam. The conspiracy theory pushes the idea that a fake alien invasion will be used to justify a world government and then be used to destroy Christianity and Judaism, replacing traditional religion with New Age beliefs. The idea was first dubbed Project Blue Beam by Serge Monast, a Canadian conspiracy theorist in the 1990s. But it’s still popular among figures like Alex Jones.
And the InfoWars host insisted as early as Dec. 11 that this spate of drone sightings was all about setting up a New World Order—a term he’s been obsessed with since he first got his start on local public access TV in Texas during the 1990s.
Researcher Dr. Steven Greer Accurately Predicted The Rollout Of Project Blue Beam That’s Happening Now
The theory was also pushed by right-wing figures, like comedian Roseanne Barr. “Now you see why I mention Project Blue Beam every week on my podcast…..” Barr tweeted Dec. 14.
It wasn’t just Trump who was floating his own conspiracy theories about the so-called drones. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, said it’s “total bullshit that no one knows what these are.” And while Greene may be correct, she hasn’t presented any evidence for that assertion just yet. Instead, she just insists that once Trump gets back into power, we’ll know everything.
It’s a slap in the face that the Pentagon continues to tell the American people they don’t know who is flying the drones over New Jersey.
I think the Pentagon absolutely knows, but they’re full of crap.
Eventually, Greene escalated her rhetoric, as she often does when there’s attention to be had. By Dec. 14 she was claiming that not only does the U.S. government know what the drones are, they’re controlling them.
“The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on. It really is that bad,” Greene wrote on X.
Then there are the politicians like Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, who claims the drones are actually Iranian in origin and are being launched from a mothership off the east coast. There’s no evidence for that and it’s a claim the Pentagon has denied. But it’s not like Rep. Van Drew is some random guy on the internet. This is an elected official who’s making this claim and says he’s talking with people who would know.
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, also posted his own video of what he said were “dozens of drones” spotted over Maryland.
“We are being told that neither the White House, the military, the FBI, or Homeland Security have any idea what they are, where they came from, or who has launched or is controlling them–and that they pose no threat,” Hogan wrote. “That response is entirely unacceptable. I join with the growing bipartisan chorus of leaders demanding that the federal government immediately address this issue. The American people deserve answers and action now.”
But the video is very shaky and at least some of the lights in the video appeared to be just stars in the sky.
Last night, beginning at around 9:45 pm, I personally witnessed (and videoed) what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence in Davidsonville, Maryland (25 miles from our nation’s capital). I observed the activity for approximately 45 minutes.
And this all brings us full circle. We don’t know what’s going on, but it really seems like nobody does at this point. And the vast majority of the videos that are circulating online can be explained as either regular planes or stars in the sky. The FBI released a joint statement with the Department of Homeland Security on Dec. 14 that promised the public that both agencies were investigating.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,” the statement read. “The FBI, DHS, and our federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings.”
“Historically, we have experienced cases of mistaken identity, where reported drones are, in fact, manned aircraft or facilities,” the statement continued. “We are supporting local law enforcement in New Jersey with numerous detection methods but have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space. ”
The statement ended by saying the agencies hadn’t seen “malicious activity” which is both encouraging and vague if you really think about what it means.
“We take seriously the threat that can be posed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), which is why law enforcement and other agencies continue to support New Jersey and investigate the reports,” the statement read. “To be clear, they have uncovered no such malicious activity or intent at this stage. While there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight the insufficiency of current authorities.”
Meta’s Threads app has now grown to 300 million users, with more than 100 million people using the service each day. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new milestone in on Threads, saying “Threads strong momentum continues.”
Zuckerberg has repeatedly that Threads has a “good chance” of becoming the company’s next billion-user app. Though it’s still pretty far off of that goal, its growth seems to be accelerating. The app hit 100 million users last fall, and reached in early November. Elsewhere, Apple revealed that Threads was the app in 2024, behind shopping app Temu, which took the top spot in Apple’s rankings.
The coming weeks could see some major changes for Threads as Meta looks to capitalize on that growth. The company reportedly has plans to begin experimenting with the first ads for threads in early 2025, according to a in The Information.
Threads isn’t the only app trying to reclaim the “public square” as some longtime users the platform now known as X. Bluesky has also seen significant growth of late. The decentralized service nearly doubled its users base in November, and currently has just over . (The company has never revealed how many of its users visit the site daily.) Though still much smaller than Threads, Meta seems to have taken inspiration from some of Bluesky’s signature features in recent weeks, including its take on and .
It’s been a long, hard climb, but NASA’s Perseverance rover has done it. The wheeled Mars explorer reached the rim of the Jezero Crater and paused to take in the view. The rover’s first photos from « Lookout Hill » on Dec. 10 show hills, ridges, scattered rocks and hazy skies. The rover looked over the rim and also back at its wheel tracks. This marks the beginning of a new science campaign after the rover’s adventures inside the crater.
Enlarge Image
NASA’s Perseverance rover snapped this first view over the rim of the Jezero Crater on Dec. 10 from a spot called « Lookout Hill. »
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater in early 2021 and has since explored an ancient river delta, found organic molecules and built up a collection of rock samples that NASA hopes to one day bring back to Earth for closer study.
« During the Jezero Crater rim climb, our rover drivers have done an amazing job negotiating some of the toughest terrain we’ve encountered since landing, » said Perseverance deputy project manager Steven Lee in a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory statement on Dec. 12.
Enlarge Image
NASA’s Perseverance rover snapped a view back down the slope of Jezero Crater. The rover’s wheel tracks show the path it took on its climb to the rim.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars threw plenty of challenges at Perseverance as it climbed to the rim. The rover spent 3.5 months ascending 1,640 vertical feet. It contended with 20% grades and slippery surfaces. The combination of steep and slippery meant the rover team tried various strategies to get up the incline. The planners tested backward driving, switchback driving and a route that allowed the rover to get a little more purchase.
It all worked out. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab posted a scenic panorama captured just days before Perseverance reached the top. The panorama highlights the steepness of the terrain the rover had to navigate.
Perseverance is now embarking on its new « Northern Rim » science campaign. NASA has already made plans for the first year of the campaign. The rover is expected to drive 4 miles overall and visit four specific spots of geologic interest. It will also collect more samples as it goes along.
New wonders await. « It marks our transition from rocks that partially filled Jezero Crater when it was formed by a massive impact about 3.9 billion years ago to rocks from deep down inside Mars that were thrown upward to form the crater rim after impact, » said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley.
A JPL video shows the proposed path along the rim.
The first major target is « Witch Hazel Hill, » a « scientifically significant » layered outcrop. Those layers represent a peek into Mars’ past. « As we drive down the hill, we will be going back in time, investigating the ancient environments of Mars recorded in the crater rim, » said Perseverance scientist Candice Bedford of Purdue University.
The rocks the team expects to investigate during the campaign are among the oldest found anywhere in the solar system, Farley said. They can tell us a lot about early Mars and inform our understanding of early Earth. Mars and Earth are both rocky planets, though they took very different paths. Earth became habitable to life as we know it while Mars became inhospitable.
One of the rover’s big science goals is to help answer the question of whether or not Mars once hosted microbial life long ago. It has found some promising rocks, but scientists will need to check them out in person. In the meantime, Perseverance continues its explorations at a new elevation.
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #289) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… It’s lit!
NYT Strands today (game #289) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
STAIR
LAST
CART
FIRST
SWEET
LATE
NYT Strands today (game #289) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• Book types
NYT Strands today (game #289) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First side: left, 4th row
Last side: right, 4th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #289) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #289, are…
CRIME
FANTASY
ROMANCE
WESTERN
HISTORICAL
SPANGRAM: FICTION GENRE
My rating: Easy
My score: 1 hint
According to Writer’s Digest there are 114 FICTION GENREs and sub genres – and that’s not including WESTERN (a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century).
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Alternative genres today’s Strands could have included: Fabulist, Dark fantasy, Biopunk, Supernatural Menace, and Bangsian Fantasy (stories speculating on the afterlives of famous people). Oh, and Wuxia (fantasy tales set within the martial arts traditions and philosophies of China). I suspect if any of those had been included I might have struggled more than I did here.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Monday, 16 December, game #288)
SMOG
SPORT
BRUNCH
ZORSE
ATHLEISURE
ANKLET
SPANGRAM: PORTMANTEAUX
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
