NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for January 21

A phone displaying the New York Times game 'Connections.'

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for January 21’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

  • Yellow: Act of unfairness

  • Green: Things that might melt

  • Purple: Masses of produce

  • Blue: Air travel essentials

Here are today’s Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:

  • Yellow – RIP OFF

  • Green – THINGS MADE OF WAX

  • Purple – UNITS OF VEGETABLES

  • Blue – PARTS OF AN AIRPLANE

Looking for the Wordle answer today? Here’s the solution to today’s wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to Connections #221 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

  • Yellow – RIP OFF – FLEECE, HOSE, ROB, STIFF

  • Green – THINGS MADE OF WAX – CANDLE, CRAYON, HONEYCOMB, SEAL

  • Purple – UNITS OF VEGETABLES – BULB, EAR, HEAD, STALK

  • Blue – PARTS OF AN AIRPLANE – CABIN, ENGINE, NOSE, WING

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Is this not the Connections game you were looking for? Here are the hints and answers to yesterday’s Connections.

A Jimmy Buffett-parodying horror movie called ‘Murdaritaville’ exists now

the parrot man from the movie Murdaritaville

What would it be like if the dearly departed singer and laid-back lifestyle guru Jimmy Buffett were a murderous monster? I’m going to guess that after watching Murdaritaville, a new horror movie from a distributor called Haddonfield Horror, you still won’t know the answer to that question.

In the days of grindhouse cinema, making marketable movies on a tight budget often meant choosing subject matter so sensational that the posters caused moviegoers to say, “Good lord! There’s a movie about that?” and then pony up for a ticket. The results of this marketing-first approach were known as “exploitation” films, and while some were cynical trash heaps, others were works of secret genius.

SEE ALSO:

[Update] Mickey Mouse horror game to change name after Nazi dog whistle accusations

For whatever reason, hitting people right in their sense of propriety and good taste seems to be harder these days, but if the fervor around last year’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is any indication — along with the recent streak of irreverent Steamboat Willie adaptations — it seems you can still rattle people by hitting them right in their economic assumptions. Like the Pooh-centric public domain-exploitation film that may or may not have inspired it, Murdaritaville appears to target a loophole in copyright law — the carve-out for parody, in this case — causing potential viewers to go, “Surely someone is going to be sued for this.”

Moreover, Buffett only passed away last September.

Murdaritaville, if you’re really curious, “follows a group of friends on their way to a concert when they start getting attacked by a parrot man,” according to the Haddonfield Horror website. That site refers to the film as a “send up of your Dad’s favorite margarita sipping beach crooner,” and although the trailer includes referential snippets of dialogue like “it’s my own damn fault,” the film doesn’t appear to use the terms “Margaritaville” or “Jimmy Buffett,” and is almost certainly on the safe side of things in terms of intellectual property law. And since “too soon” is not a strong basis for a lawsuit either, no one will probably be suing Haddonfield Horror for this.

Murdaritaville was directed by Paul Dale and written by Dale and Dylan McGovern. It stars Jenna-Francis Duvic and will be available “via Amazon,” according to the Haddonfield Horror site, probably meaning Blu-ray and VHS copies can be bought there on March 1.

Every TV show that’s been canceled in 2024 so far, from ‘Our Flag Means Death’ to ‘Minx’

Five images: A woman performing on a red-lit stage, a woman in a pink dress, a man in a white shirt in the rain, a woman in a blue suit, and a woman in a light green gown with an elaborate headpiece.

Every year, the TV world is a double edged sword. Yes, we get many new shows to get excited about. But we also lose beloved shows and underrated gems to cancellations. 2024 is no different.

2024’s cancellations so far have been brutal. The loss of Our Flag Means Death prompted fan mourning and collective action to save the show, including taking out a billboard in Times Square. The ’70s-set comedy Minx got axed by Starz, its second cancellation after Max canceled it in 2022. And the loss of Schmigadoon! means we’ll never get to hear the 25 new songs already written for Season 3. We’re being robbed here!

From Our Flag Means Death to Schmigadoon! and beyond, here are all the TV shows that have been canceled in 2024 so far.

SEE ALSO:

38 TV shows we can’t wait to see in 2024

AppleTV+

Schmigadoon! — Canceled after two seasons

Disney+

American Born Chinese — Canceled after one season

Max

The Flight Attendant — Canceled after two seasons

Julia — Canceled after two seasons

Our Flag Means Death — Canceled after two seasons

Rap Sh!t — Canceled after two seasons

Starz

Minx — Canceled after two seasons

This story will be updated as new shows are canceled.

Two moon landing missions show the spaceflight struggle is real

SLIM spacecraft landing on the moon

Japan has become the fifth nation to land on the moon, but the sun may have the final say in how much life is left in the mission.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — NASA’s Japanese counterpart known as JAXA — announced that its robotic spacecraft survived descent onto the lunar surface at 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 20. But how much longer mission controllers on Earth will be able to communicate with the lander depends on whether its solar panels start generating electricity, said space agency leaders.

At the time, the SLIM spacecraft — short for Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon — was operating on battery power alone, with only a few hours remaining. The team said a change in the sun’s angle may turn things around for the mission.

“Even if the battery runs out and the SLIM loses all power, if the panel catches sunlight, then it will restart,” said Hitoshi Kuninaka, JAXA’s director general, through an interpreter. “We will be able to resume the operation of the SLIM in that instance.”

SEE ALSO:

NASA is back in the moon business. Here’s what that means.

The SLIM mission launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Sept. 7, 2023. Four months later, the uncrewed spacecraft seems to have landed on a slope of the Shioli Crater, a site on the moon’s near side.

JAXA picked the spot because of what it could tell scientists about the moon’s formation. A leading theory is that the moon was created after something enormous collided with Earth. If that’s true, much of the moon’s mantle could be similar to Earth rock. Astronomers speculate that some ejected lunar mantle pieces could be found near the surface at the crater, providing samples for further research.

The mission’s goal was to demonstrate a so-called “pinpoint landing” with an accuracy of less than 100 yards, a level of precision unprecedented for moon landings. Most landing targets are many square-miles in scope. To accomplish this feat, the spacecraft was outfitted with photo-matching technology to determine its location. That matching algorithm only requires a few seconds of processing time, agency officials said. Whether it worked as planned isn’t yet clear, but JAXA intends to provide more information to the public next week.

Shioli Crater on the moon

JAXA’s spacecraft is believed to be near the Shioli Crater on the moon’s near side.
Credit: NASA / LRO

The moon landing came one day after a U.S. company’s failed lunar spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart over the south Pacific Ocean. Astrobotic Technologies’ Peregrine lander, carrying NASA instruments among other payloads, flew in space for 10 days but never reached lunar orbit, due to a detrimental fuel leak discovered on the first day of flight.

At a separate news conference, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said he believed a faulty valve may have led to pressure rupturing a propellant tank.

“We were coming from the highest high of a perfect launch, and came down to a lowest low when we found out that the spacecraft no longer had the propulsion needed to attempt a moon landing,” he said.

NASA tapped Astrobotic as one of several vendors for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative to explore the moon over the next few years. The company was the first to attempt the quarter-million mile trek to the moon.

The program has recruited the private sector to help deliver cargo, conduct experiments, and demonstrate new technology, as well as send back crucial data. Through these contracts, the U.S. space agency wants to establish a regular cadence of moon missions to prepare for sending Artemis astronauts to the moon.

About 60 years have passed since the first uncrewed moon landings, but touching down remains onerous. The moon’s exosphere — an extremely thin atmosphere of gasses barely held by the moon’s gravity — provides virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. Furthermore, there are no GPS systems on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot.

For decades, no one seemed interested in returning to the moon’s surface, but that has changed in recent years, with NASA’s Artemis campaign as the primary catalyst. Several nations and private companies have set their sights on the lunar south pole because of its ice, thought to be buried there in permanently shadowed craters. The natural resource is coveted because it could supply drinking water, oxygen, and rocket fuel for future missions.

Japan’s moon landing was preceded by India’s success last year, putting its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon’s south pole region. Others that have made the journey include the former Soviet Union, United States, and China.

So far, no private company has been able to make the voyage or land without crashing. For now, though, NASA hasn’t lost its confidence in using commercial partners to get to the moon, said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration.

“Failure is often part of the road to success and flying and landing a newly developed spacecraft in space around the moon is extremely difficult,” Hearns said. “We’re embracing a risk posture where we know new companies will innovate, push the envelope, and we will all learn and grow from each flight.”

NASA finally opened its prized asteroid canister, and you can look inside

NASA scientists opening the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return lid at the Johnson Space Center.

Inside Building 31 at Johnson Space Center, NASA scientists have opened the metal canister holding rocks the agency plucked off a distant asteroid.

NASA has spent months trying to release two “stubborn” fasteners on the canister’s lid, which was no easy feat. The asteroid receptacle, after parachuting down to Earth from outer space, has been (understandably) isolated inside a specially-designed glovebox, with limited tools and access.

Now, the lid is open, and the agency has snapped a picture of the bulk of what it captured from asteroid Bennu, a 1,600-foot-wide asteroid composed of boulders and rubble. It’s the prize of the agency’s first ever mission to bring pristine pieces of an asteroid back to our planet, an endeavor called OSIRIS-REx (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer).

SEE ALSO:

If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here’s how you’ll know

“It’s open! It’s open! And ready for its closeup,” NASA wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

You can see dark rocks up to about 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) wide, and smaller particles of different sizes.

Pieces of asteroid Bennu inside NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample canister.

Pieces of asteroid Bennu inside NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample canister.
Credit: NASA / Erika Blumenfeld / Joseph Aebersold

These samples are invaluable. Asteroid Bennu, like many asteroids, is a preserved time capsule from our ancient solar system. It’s around 4.5 billion years old, so these pristine rocks can provide scientists insight into how objects like planets formed, and how Earth might have gotten its water.

To capture these samples, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft approached asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and extended an arm containing the canister (called TAGSAM, or the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism). The craft then pushed against Bennu for just five seconds, blowing nitrogen gas onto the asteroid, which propelled the rocks and dust into the canister.

Over three years later, chunks of Bennu are safely stored at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

For the next two years, NASA’s science team will intensively study these samples. But it won’t hoard them. The agency said that over 200 scientists globally will research Bennu’s rocks and dust. What’s more, some of the asteroid sample will be preserved for future scientists — with technology we don’t have or haven’t even envisioned — to analyze.

What secrets will Bennu reveal?

Scientists found an enigma in deep space. The Webb telescope solved it.

An artist's conception of the James Webb Space Telescope orbiting 1 million miles from Earth.

The powerful James Webb Space Telescope has solved another cosmic mystery.

Astronomers can see a type of light emitted billions of years ago from some of the earliest galaxies, yet many scientists don’t think this light should be visible. That’s because, at a crucial time in the universe’s history — a time called “reionization” when the first stars began to glow — space was absolutely packed with gas spawned by the Big Bang (the pivotal explosion that created our universe).

Such thick gas should shroud this light from the first stars and galaxies. But it doesn’t. We can see light emitted from early hydrogen atoms (the smallest atom, and one of the first elements ever formed).

SEE ALSO:

NASA reveals its X-plane. It will fly over the U.S. at extreme speeds.

“One of the most puzzling issues that previous observations presented was the detection of light from hydrogen atoms in the very early Universe, which should have been entirely blocked by the pristine neutral gas that was formed after the Big-Bang,” Callum Witten, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge who led the new Webb research on this mystery, said in a statement. “Many hypotheses have previously been suggested to explain the great escape of this ‘inexplicable’ emission.”

But the Webb telescope, built with a huge mirror to detect extremely faint light and resolve extremely distant objects, has provided a compelling answer.

It turns out the “inexplicable” light previously observed coming from a particular ancient galaxy isn’t just coming from a single galaxy. Webb found that these emissions are actually coming from groups of galaxies — we just couldn’t see them. These early galaxies were colliding and merging with one another (galaxies often collide), ultimately creating an extremely active cosmic environment. In the new research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy, researchers found that this intensive activity — galactic collisions stoking the vigorous creation of new stars — generated strong light emissions and also cleared the way for the light to escape into space.

The Webb image below shows the distant galaxy EGSY8p, located a whopping 13.2 billion light-years from Earth, surrounded by two other smaller galaxies — something previous observations couldn’t detect.

“Where Hubble was seeing only a large galaxy, Webb sees a cluster of smaller interacting galaxies, and this revelation has had a huge impact on our understanding of the unexpected hydrogen emission from some of the first galaxies,” Sergio Martin-Alvarez, a researcher at Stanford University who worked on the new study, noted in a statement.

The extremely distant galaxy EGSY8p flanked by two smaller galaxies.

The extremely distant galaxy EGSY8p flanked by two smaller galaxies.
Credit: ESA Webb / NASA / CSA

Astronomers will continue to direct Webb at some of the earliest galaxies that ever formed, with the greater goal of understanding how galaxies, like our own Milky Way, came to be.

The Webb telescope’s powerful abilities

The Webb telescope — a scientific collaboration between NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency — is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal new insights about the early universe. But it’s also peering at intriguing planets in our galaxy, along with the planets and moons in our solar system.

Here’s how Webb is achieving unparalleled feats, and likely will for decades:

– Giant mirror: Webb’s mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That’s over two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s mirror. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. As described above, the telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

“We’re going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed,” Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable in 2021.

– Infrared view: Unlike Hubble, which largely views light that’s visible to us, Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, meaning it views light in the infrared spectrum. This allows us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn’t as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb’s infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can’t.

“It lifts the veil,” said Creighton.

– Peering into distant exoplanets: The Webb telescope carries specialized equipment called spectrographs that will revolutionize our understanding of these far-off worlds. The instruments can decipher what molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane) exist in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets — be they gas giants or smaller rocky worlds. Webb will look at exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. Who knows what we’ll find?

“We might learn things we never thought about,” Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, told Mashable in 2021.

Already, astronomers have successfully found intriguing chemical reactions on a planet 700 light-years away, and as described above, the observatory has started looking at one of the most anticipated places in the cosmos: the rocky, Earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST solar system.

How to watch ‘The Office: Superfan Episodes’ online for a discount

The Office cast as bobble heads on desk

The best ways to watch ‘The Office: Superfan Episodes’ at a glance:

BEST FOR MOST PEOPLE

Peacock Premium annual subscription

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Peacock Premium

Free for one year for Mosaic status members
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There’s not much to say about The Office that hasn’t already been said. But there is more to watch: never-before-seen moments, extended scenes, alternate scenes, deleted scenes, and full storylines that were nipped before airing on NBC. That’s right, we’re talking about The Office: Superfan Episodes folks.

On Jan. 22, Season 7 of the fan-favorite series hits Peacock, giving you even more time with your favorite comfort show-turned-obsession. Season 7, as superfans know, marks the final days with everyone’s favorite misguided-yet-lovable boss Michael Scott. Here’s everything you need to know to tune into the exclusive Season 7 SuperFan Episodes of the treasured mockumentary. 

What are The Office: Superfan Episodes?

The Office: Superfan Episodes are curated episodes from each season that contain extra footage not previously seen in the original television airings on NBC. You can expect alternate scenes, extended scenes, deleted scenes, and completely axed storylines. With all the bonus content included, each episode is around 30 minutes or more. These episodes are made for fans who have binge-watched the series more than once and can’t hold a conversation without slipping an Office quote in — aka Superfans.

Here’s an exclusive clip from the new Season 7 Superfan Episodes:

How many Superfan seasons of The Office are there?

With this month’s release, there are now seven seasons of Superfan Episodes for all The Office-obsessed folks out there. All seven are streaming exclusively on Peacock, alongside all nine seasons of The Office as they were originally aired. If you don’t already have a Peacock subscription, continue scrolling to learn the best ways to sign up and stream all regular and Superfan seasons.

How to watch The Office: Superfan Episodes

As we said above, you’ll need an active Peacock subscription to watch the new extended episodes. You can sign up for Peacock directly, or you can check to see if you qualify for any of the Peacock streaming deals below.

Best Peacock deal for most people

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Credit: Peacock

Peacock Premium

$59.99/year (save 17%)

Peacock, despite its recent price hike, is still one of the more affordable streaming services. You can sign up for just $5.99/month if you don’t mind a few ads every now and then. If you don’t want to deal with ads, it’ll cost you $11.99/month for the Premium Plus plan. However, you can get a lot more bang for your buck by subscribing to an annual plan instead for either $59.99/year (with ads) or $119.99/year (no ads) — that’s 12 months for the price of 10, or about 17% in savings.

With an entire year of streaming, you’ll be able to watch every episode of The Office and every Superfan episode of The Office as many times as you want.

Best Peacock deal for Xfinity customers

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Credit: Peacock / Xfinity

Peacock Premium

Free for select Xfinity customers

Select Xfinity customers are eligible for free Peacock subscriptions. You can check your eligibility at the Xfinity website, but here’s a brief breakdown of who’s eligible:

  • Xfinity Internet users on the Gigabit or Gigabit+ plans can score free Peacock Premium for two years (offer ends June 25, 2025)

  • Xfinity Internet customers that are Diamond or Platinum Xfinity Rewards members can also score Peacock Premium for free by redeeming a reward for it. Sign in over at xfinity.com/rewards and choose Peacock as a reward. Then wait for your email with instructions on activating your offer.

  • NOW TV customers can receive Peacock Premium as part of their service

Best Peacock Deal for students

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Credit: Peacock

Peacock Premium for Students

$1.99/month for one year

If you have a verifiable student status (meaning a .edu email address), you can get Peacock Premium for only $1.99/month for a whole year rather than the usual $5.99/month. You’ll have to pass the verification process via SheerID, but once you do so, you’ll get a unique promo code to slash the price down to just $1.99 per month. Note that the code can only be used once, so don’t bother trying to share it with your friends.

Best Peacock deal for first responders

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Credit: Peacock

Peacock Premium for First Responders

$1.99/month for one year

Similarly, first responders can score a year of Peacock Premium for only $1.99/month. You’ll be asked to verify your first responder status via SheerID, then receive a unique promo code to knock the price down from $5.99 to $1.99 per month. Eligible first responders who meet verification qualifications can continue to renew Peacock Premium annually — you’ll just need to snag a new promo code each time. Check out the eligibility terms and requirements to learn more.

Best for Instacart users

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Peacock Premium annual subscription

Free for Instacart+ members (save $59.99/year)

Back in November, Instacart announced a new partnership with Peacock. Both existing and new Instacart+ members now get free access to Peacock Premium. That’s a $59.99 per year value that gets you every single episode of The Office — regular and Superfan seasons — at your fingertips. Not to mention, you get free grocery delivery on orders of $35, lower fees, and all the usual benefits of Instacart+. Even better, your first two weeks are free. After that, it’ll cost you $99.99/year for membership.

Best for JetBlue members

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Credit: Peacock / JetBlue

Peacock Premium for one year

Free for JetBlue Mosaic status members (save $59.99)

Frequent JetBlue flyers can land an exclusive Peacock Premium offer through July 2025. If you’re a JetBlue TrueBlue member, you’ll get 1,000 free TrueBlue points when you sign up for Peacock. If you have JetBlue Mosaic status, you can get a free year of Peacock Premium — that’s a $59.99 value. Unfortunately, this excludes all current Peacock subscribers. Head over to Peacock’s special offer page to learn more about eligibility and terms.

Learn another language with lifetime access to Rosetta Stone for $149.97

excited man holding phone

TL;DR: As of January 20, get a lifetime subscription to all Rosetta Stone languages for just $149.97 — usually $399.


Learning a new language is tough, and some apps might not be making it much easier. Rosetta Stone is a little different because the lessons are short and practical, and there are a lot of different types. Normally, a lifetime subscription would be $399, but you can get one for only $149.97 through January 21.

Communicate in up to 25 languages with Rosetta Stone

This subscription gives you lifetime access to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages. Whether you’re planning a big vacation, expanding your skills for a job, or learning for the sake of learning, there’s a ton of room to grow. Languages include French, Italian, German, Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Irish, Japanese, Korean, and many more. 

Mastering a new language is tiring, but you don’t need to plan for lengthy lessons that eat up an afternoon. Rosetta Stone lessons are quick and can be done in just a matter of minutes. You can even choose the skill level for your lessons and the type of practice you want to do. 

Grow your vocabulary on practical topics or practice your conversational skills. Rosetta Stone’s speech-recognition technology listens as you talk and provides immediate feedback.

A lifetime of language lessons

Don’t miss your chance to learn a new language at the pace you set. 

January 21 at 11:59 p.m. PT is the deadline to get a lifetime subscription to all of Rosetta Stone’s 25 languages for life for only $149.97 with code ROSETTA.

StackSocial prices subject to change. 

Rosetta Stone deal graphic

Credit: Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages)

$149.97 at the Mashable Shop

Grab $77 off these binoculars that can also take photos and videos

hand holding binoculars

TL;DR: As of January 20, get these HD Digital Camera Binoculars for only $121.99 — that’s 39% off.


In case your 19-year-old cousin hasn’t told you yet, point-and-shoot cameras are cool again. In line with the Y2K renaissance, Gen Z has decided to include digital cameras as one of the things from yesteryear that are considered “in” again. You might see them at your next family gathering sporting a Coolpix, but if you don’t want to lose your footing as the coolest cousin, raise them this instead: these HD Digital Camera Binoculars.

Not only are they capable of snapping photos, but they let you zoom in on anything — in real life. They happen to be much cheaper, too, as opposed to those digicams being sold off Depop and Facebook Marketplace at a ridiculous markup. For a limited time, you can snag yours for 39% off at $121.99 (reg. $199.99).

Great for hunting, fishing, camping, or even enjoying a concert, these binoculars function both as traditional binoculars and a camera. They feature 12x magnification and precise focus adjustment, meaning they can capture even the tiniest details of your subject from a distance of up to one kilometer or approximately 3280 feet. There’s a built-in camcorder to record motion, but there’s also a provision for digital photography and videography for freezing time in HD images. It features light transmission as well, meaning it can snap crystal-clear images even in low-light conditions. With the adjustable program mirror that slides up and down, you’ll also have no problem watching comfortably.

If you’re the adventurous kind, you won’t have to worry about damage caused by the elements, thanks to the anti-reflective coating that prevents water filtration. It’s also anti-fog, anti-dust, and anti-shock, so you can use it outdoors no matter the weather.

These digital camera binoculars normally retail for $199.99, but for a limited time, you can grab a pair on sale for only $121.99.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

HD camera binoculars with viewfinder up

Credit: Mesay

HD Digital Camera Binoculars

$121.99 at the Mashable Shop

X appears to be juicing MrBeast’s views as Elon Musk tries to woo the YouTuber to the platform

Elon Musk and MrBeast

The fix is in, apparently.

MrBeast, the most popular creator on YouTube, uploaded his latest YouTube video to Elon Musk’s X for the first time. According to MrBeast, he was “curious” about “how much ad revenue” he would make from the upload, so he uploaded the video directly to the platform as a “test.”

Now, X users are reporting that MrBeast’s post containing the video upload is being forced into their feed multiple times a day as an unlabeled advertisement.

“This has shown up in my feed maybe 7 times now,” posted one X user, referring to the MrBeast video. “It is both missing the post time next to the username (indicative of a normal user post) and the Ad indicator on the top right.”

The user is referring to the proliferation of apparently unlabeled ads, a fairly recent phenomenon on X that began after Musk acquired the company in October 2022. It is one that Mashable has previously reported on.

What’s going on here?

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Elon Musk still plans to turn X / Twitter into a PayPal dupe

X has served some of its users unlabeled advertisements since September of last year. These ads appear in a users’ feed without any “ad” or “promoted” label that the platform usually affixes to paid posts. However, users can tell that these are unlabeled ads and not organic posts because they are missing the date the post was published, which are shown on posts but not ads. In addition, as Mashable previously reported and as the quoted X user also discovered, users can still find an option to tell X that they are “not interested in this ad” in the dropdown ellipsis icon menu on unlabeled ads. This option does not appear for organic posts.

Adtech watchdog Check My Ads has already previously filed a complaint against X with the FTC over the company’s lack of transparency regarding this labeling issue.

An X employee claimed to Ryan Broderick of the Garbage Day newsletter in a recent report that because there’s a labeled pre-roll video ad that plays before MrBeast’s video, the company considers that to be the disclosure. This, according to the X employee, explains why there’s no “ad” or “promoted” label affixed to the actual Mr Beast post itself.

That doesn’t make any sense. The pre-roll video ad is a completely different advertisement. If viewers are being served MrBeast’s post in their feed and it isn’t organically showing up — and the aforementioned attributes point to it being served via X’s advertising platform — then MrBeast’s post containing the video is a completely separate advertisement, and needs to be labeled as such. 

In fact, as some other X users have pointed out, older versions of the X app indeed show MrBeast’s post with the “promoted” label which means it is being served to users via X’s advertising platform.

We should note here that it’s possible that some users are being served MrBeast’s post organically. Many ads on X are published as regular posts and then later boosted through its ad platform. The instances mentioned in this piece, however, are promoted posts being served through X’s ad platform.

So, it appears that X is juicing MrBeast’s impressions via unlabeled ads. One can certainly argue whether this lack of transparency is intentional or not, but this does seem to be what’s happening.

Why does it matter?

Musk’s vision for X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, depends heavily on video content. X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s big announcement at this year’s CES, for example, was that the company signed former CNN host Don Lemon, sports radio host Jim Rome, and Fox News contributor Tulsi Gabbard to exclusive video deals. 

Musk has been known to drop into creators, influencers, and other media figures’ replies and urge them to upload their content directly to X. In fact, he did this very thing to MrBeast on a few occasions.

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, previously voiced opposition to uploading to X. According to MrBeast, his videos cost too much to produce, and YouTube was the only platform that could compensate him fairly for the amount of views his content receives. But MrBeast was apparently convinced to try uploading directly to X at least once as a “test.” 

If Musk wins over MrBeast entirely with a big payday based on how his video upload performs, then the X owner just secured the most popular content creator on the internet for his multimedia vision for the future of X.

What’s next for X and MrBeast?

MrBeast has commented on his “test” just a few times since posting the video earlier this week. 

The creator appeared shocked that his post had over 100 million views. (As of publication, Mr Beast’s post has 128 million views.) However, on X, views aren’t counted like they are on video platforms like YouTube. On the contrary, those “views” are actually just impressions on the post itself, not the number of people who played MrBeast’s video. In May 2023, Musk had X remove the public video view count from the platform, so it’s unclear now how many actual views a video gets on X. 

In his latest post, MrBeast has asked his followers to vote on just how much they think X will pay him as part of the ad revenue share program: $10, $10,000, $100,000, or $1 million.

It’s almost impossible to tell how much MrBeast will rake in due to how X’s creator monetization program works. X users can only participate in the monetization program if they are paying subscribers to X’s monthly subscription programs like X Premium or X Premium+. In addition, X only pays creators for ads that appear in the replies to their posts. Furthermore, only impressions from other paying X Premium subscribers count towards monetization.

As Mashable has previously reported, X’s payout amounts to each creator seems completely arbitrary. X employees have shared that users can’t really calculate how much they’ll actually make as pay isn’t determined by a set number of views like they are on other platforms. Those who have made the most on X appear to mostly consist of Musk’s personal favorite political commentators, Tesla fans, and meme accounts.

And, of course, we’ve yet to mention that Musk himself promoted MrBeast’s video to his 169 million followers.

MrBeast has promised to share just how much he makes from X’s monetization program from this test. So, we’ll soon find out the answer to that question. Whatever MrBeast makes though, it seems clear that X put its fingers heavily on the scale to make sure circumstances favored a massive view count.