SAVE $70: The Shark FlexStyle in limited edition Malibu Pink is just $279.99 with code LOVE20, marked down from its list price of $349.99. That’s a 20% discount.
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Credit: Shark
Shark FlexStyle Ultimate Gift Set (Malibu Pink)
$279.99 at Shark (save $70)
Pink might not be the Pantone color of 2024, but it’s still a dreamy hue. From the Barbie hype still going strong to celebrating Valentine’s day, there’s no such thing as too much pink in our book. Thanks to today’s deal, you can score one of the best hair styling tools in a fantastic shade of pink. The cherry on top goes to the sale price that’ll save you some serious money.
As of Feb. 13, the limited edition Shark FlexStyle Ultimate Gift Set in a Malibu Pink colorway is just $279.99 with the code LOVE20, down from the normal price of $349.99. That’s a savings of $70.
It’s worth mentioning that while this sale price gives you 20% off on a limited edition model, it’s still more expensive than a standard Shark FlexStyle which is on sale at Amazon for $249.95.
The days of scorching your hair with a styling tool are over. The Dyson Airwrap spoiled everyone by revolutionizing the way we style hair, but it’s steep price tag of almost $600 can be hard to stomach. One saving grace is the Shark FlexStyle which offers significantly more in terms of functionality to price ratio. The popularity of this Dyson dupe was proven last week as we watched Best Buy’s price drop on the FlexStyle sell out.
Today’s deal bundles a pink Shark FlexStyle with five styling accessories and a travel-friendly storage case. The Shark hair tool offers styling without heat damage or causing drying out hair. Plus, it’s designed to be lightweight and compact.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to a modern hair styling and drying system and you’re a fan of the color pink, today’s deal is a Valentine’s Day dream. Hurry to save 20% on the Malibu Pink Shark FlexStyle with code LOVE20.
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 February 13’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.
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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.
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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: Peer pressure
Green: Circular foods
Blue: Grocery list
Purple: Phrases that start with “Go”
Featured Video For You
Connections: How to play and how to win
Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Encourage, with “On”
Green: Spherical Foods
Blue: Grocery Store Aisles
Purple: Go___
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer 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.
Grocery Store Aisles: DIRY, FROZEN, PRODUCE, SNACK
Go___: BANANAS, FIGURE, FISH, STEADY
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.
Have you had your heart broken by Normal Peopleand One Day? Looking to repeat the experience with another years-long love story? Alice & Jack might be the show you’re looking for.
Created by Victor Levin (Mad Men, Mad About You) and starring Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson, Alice & Jack charts the on-again, off-again relationship between its titular couple over the course of 15 years, showcasing love in all its messy, unexpected, and even funny moments. As Gleeson put it during the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour, “Being in love is the least mundane thing — it’s the most exciting thing that can happen to you.”
What’s Alice & Jack about?
Finance executive Alice (Riseborough) and scientist Jack (Gleeson) share a deeply powerful connection right from their very first meeting. Soon, though, a deep trauma from Alice’s past leads her to reject Jack, and the two part ways.
But that parting is far from the end of their connection. Over the next 15 years, Alice and Jack cross paths again and again, with circumstances and personal imperfections always getting in the way of their love. Will they ever be able to fully realize their relationship? Or are they doomed to be kept apart?
“The world is dearly and desperately in need of stories about love in all its form right now,” Levin said when Mashable asked about the show’s story similarities with Normal People and One Day. “I think the more that we can put out things that carry some form of that message, the better.”
“[This is] a love between two people who make a lot of mess, and one of them who’s gone through a lot of mess,” Riseborough explained. “These people still deserve to live out love, whether it looks conventional or not.”
Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson were the only choices for the characters of Jack and Alice.
Levin revealed at TCA that while he was writing Alice & Jack, he could only picture Riseborough and Gleeson as the title characters. “Out of nine billion people, they’re the two best people for the roles,” Levin said.
Riseborough and Gleeson have known each other for 15 years, which just happens to be the same amount of time we follow Alice and Jack’s relationship. According to Riseborough, this coincidence also helped inform their performances throughout Alice & Jack‘s long timeline. Joining the pair in Alice & Jack are Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education), Aisling Bea (This Way Up), and Sunil Patel (Love at First Sight).
Alice & Jack premieres on PBS at 10 p.m. ET on March 17.
If you were watching this year’s Super Bowl in California, Delaware, Michigan, or Washington D.C., you may have noticed a series of ads about Tesla.
No, the ads weren’t promoting Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company. On the contrary, the ads were specifically calling for viewers to “Boycott Tesla.”
In case you missed those ads or are located outside of those regions, Mashable has embedded the two Tesla ads below.
The ads were created by The Dawn Project, an organization whose website’s motto is listed as “Making Computers Safe For Humanity.” The Dawn Project has explicitly targeted Tesla over the years. If you check out their website now, it’s pretty much entirely drawing attention to its Tesla criticism in addition to its two Super Bowl ads.
The group is backed by tech entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd, a longtime Tesla critic himself.
According to the Washington Post, O’Dowd paid half a million dollars to air the “Boycott Tesla” Super Bowl ads in the targeted markets.
The ‘Boycott Tesla’ ads are striking to watch
If this all sounds familiar to you, that’s because O’Dowd and The Dawn Project ran anti-Tesla ads during last year’s Super Bowl as well. Last year’s ads focused on how tests found that Tesla’s self-driving software resulted in the vehicle blowing past school bus stop signs and hitting child-sized crash test dummies.
However, this time, The Dawn Project didn’t have to reference a test scenario. Two short months after last year’s ad aired, the same school bus scenario played out in real life when a Tesla using Autopilot struck a 17-year-old in North Carolina as he was getting off his bus. The school bus had its stop sign out and flashing lights on. The Dawn Project highlights this incident in one of its two Super Bowl ads for this year.
The second ad from The Dawn Project is even more striking as it draws viewers’ attention to the owner’s manual for Tesla that notes where Autopilot usage is safe to engage.
“Tesla dances away from liability in Autopilot crashes by pointing to a note buried deep in the owner’s manual that says Autopilot is only safe on freeways,” says the ad, pointing out how the government has requested that Tesla limit Autopilot use only to freeways.
“Shockingly, Tesla refused,” the ad says, referring to the government’s request. The Super Bowl ad then goes on to reference fatal accidents involving Tesla vehicles that were using Autopilot at the time of their crash.
Tesla fans frequently refer to O’Dowd’s business partnership with another company, Mobileye, which makes competing autonomous driving software, to question O’Dowd’s credibility. The Washington Post previously reported that his “motivation is driven purely by his concerns about the safety of Tesla’s tech.”
Regardless of the messenger’s intentions, The Dawn Project’s ads reference real-life, factual events. And “Boycott Tesla” is the organization’s response to a company that has seemingly ignored safety precautions.
Super Bowl 2024 was a thrilling one, but it might’ve been evenmore thrilling for those watching the Nickelodeon broadcast on Sunday night. Spearheaded by SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star, the telecast was full of slime, funny jokes, and kid-friendly graphics.
This was the first Super Bowl to get the Nickelodeon treatment, which makes sense since CBS — a sister network with Nickelodeon — had the rights to the game. We’ve seen this type of broadcast for games before, but this was the biggest stage.
SEE ALSO:
See the best 2024 Super Bowl commercials
The internet, for the most part, loved it. It was the sort of thing that felt almost intended to spit out memes, jokes, and big reactions online.
They made a good and obvious joke about Travis Kelce’s more famous half, Taylor Swift.
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Aside from having SpongeBob and slime, they had punny “famous” folks like LePrawn James, Herring Styles, and Billie Eelish in attendance.
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The end-of-game celebration showed just how fun the broadcast was.
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The still images were pretty bonkers.
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The in-jokes were great as well.
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Adding SpongeBob to election night isn’t the worst idea.
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In classic SpongeBob fashion, there were even some jokes for the parents watching the Nickelodeon broadcast.
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Of course, it would be kind of bonkers to see your favorite team miss out on its dream while being narrated by a cartoon.
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But overall the jokes and memes were centered on the idea that it was a pretty fun broadcast.
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All in all, it seemed like most of the internet agreed: The Nickelodeon broadcast was a fun, if unhinged, way of watching the Super Bowl.
Whether you’re shopping for your Galentines, SO, or yourself, nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day quite like a great deal on hot beauty products, especially when it comes to Solawave’s red light therapy devices.
Today’s best Solawave deals as of Feb. 12:
Best facial bundle deal
The Clear Future Set
$129.35 (save $69.65)
Best anti-aging bundle deal
4-in-1 Red Light Therapy Skincare Wand & Activating Serum Kit
$122.85 (save $66.15)
Best acne device deal
Bye Acne: 3-Minute Pimple Spot Treatment
$44.85 (save $24.15)
As of today, Feb. 12, Solawave is having a site-wide sale where shoppers can take 35% off their purchase when using the code RED35 at checkout. With Valentine’s Day only two days away, now is the perfect time to take advantage of this sale. From luxurious home facial kits to powerful anti-aging sets, we’re sure nobody will mind receiving their gift after the holiday when they know a treat from Solawave is on the way.
Best facial bundle deal
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Credit: Solawave
Our pick: The Clear Future Set
$129.35 at Solawave (save $140.65)
Why we like it
In honor of Valentine’s Day, Solawave put together the Clear Future Set, which includes everything you need for the perfect at-home facial. Normally listed for $270, the bundle is on sale for $199. When shoppers apply the code RED35, they can take an extra 35% off the bundle, bringing the price down to $129.35. This brings you four different Solawave products designed to replenish your skin, including Solabiome Hydrating Gel Cleanser, the Brilliant Facial Sonic Cleansing Brush, Skin Therapy serum, and the 4-in-1 Radiant Renewal Wand. This is the perfect set for anyone who wants to smooth fine lines, reduce blemishes, and enjoy glowing skin!
For the best anti-aging serum and red light therapy wand deal, look no further than the 4-in-1 Red Light Therapy Skincare Wand & Activating Serum Kit. Through the utilization of just two products, this kit lets you self-administer the following therapies: Red Light Therapy, Galvanic Current, Therapeutic Warmth, and Facial Massage. Values at $198, the kit is on sale for $189 and the additional 35% off savings brings the price down even lower to just $122.85. Users will appreciate that this is Solawave’s longest-lasting formal yet, so a little goes a long way. Plus, it’s developed with clean ingredients that de-puff, smooth, and lift to give you younger looking skin.
Nothing has the power to ruin a day like a stubborn pimple. That’s why we love Solawave’s Bye Acne 3-Minute Pimple Spot Treatment device. It fights acne by ridding your face of blemish-causing bacteria, giving you clearer skin in the process. This compact but effective device uses both Red light Therapy and Blue Light Therapy to treat (and prevent!) breakouts in as little as three minutes per day. While it normally retails for $99, today’s sale and promo code brings the price down to just $44.85: treating acne has never been so budget-friendly before!
GET $10 OFF: Snag the Echo Buds (2023) for $39.99 (originally $49.99) at Amazon. That’s 20% off the original price.
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Credit: Amazon
Echo Buds (2023 release)
$39.99 at Amazon (save $10)
If you’re tired of fumbling with tangled earphone cords or trying to carry your phone in one hand (and everything else in the other) just so you can chat on the go, you might want to consider upgrading your audio experience with the all-new Echo Buds.
The Echo Buds (2023 release) make it easy to listen to music, chat with friends, enjoy your fave podcasts, and more sans cords, thanks to their wireless design. With 12 mm drivers, two microphones, and a voice-detection accelerometer, these buds are built for commuters, students, and anyone who’s always on the move.
SEE ALSO:
The newest Echo Buds sound great (if you can keep them in your ears)
The Echo Buds feature a semi-in-ear design so you can stay alert but not bothered by outside noise. They’re also lightweight and sweat-resistant, making them ideal for workout sessions or outdoor adventures. With Alexa integration, you can set reminders, make calls, and do other tasks hands-free using your voice.
These little buds can play up to five hours of music on a single charge, and the compact charging case can provide up to 15 additional hours of battery life. Need a quick charge? In 15 minutes, you can get up to two hours of playback time.
One thing to remember: To use the Echo Buds, you’ll need an Android 8.0+ or iOS 14+ device paired with the Alexa app.
Whether you’re working a full nine-to-five at home or log on only a few days a week, your home office setup can make or break your productivity, comfort, focus, and energy levels on the clock. It’s imperative to slice out a space that not only draws a line between your work and personal life, but also that is equipped with the right gear to make the most out of working from home.
Why do I need a home office?
You may be able to tackle your to-dos from the comfort of your couch or snuggled up in your bed, but you’re probably not doing your best work. The lines between work and personal life tend to blur without a dedicated workspace, which can not only diminish the quality of your work, but also put a damper on productivity, increase stress, and even harm your relationships.
One of the best things you can do for yourself is create a home office where you do nothing but work. Working in a dedicated space can minimize distractions and interruptions, create a better work-life balance, and decrease the odds of bodily aches and pains. Whether you’re an entrepreneur concocting a new business plan, a full-time freelancer, or a nine-to-five employee with the luxury of working from home, you’ll benefit from a home office.
What should be included in a home office?
Obviously, a home office setup will require a decent WiFi connection and a power source, but we focused on other essentials you’ll need to build out a dedicated space — i.e. a desk, laptop, and noise-cancelling headphones. Scroll to see our recommendations below for the ultimate home office starter kit.
Queer New York TikTok was in an uproar recently over an incident at Cubbyhole, a famous lesbian bar in Manhattan. The conflict — between straight people and a lesbian — has sparked discourse over who belongs in queer spaces.
As what usually happens with interpersonal problems aired out online, one party made a video about their side of the story, causing another to step in and give additional context. The former is TikTokker Lexi Stout, a straight woman who went to Cubbyhole after a lesbian friend invited her. A straight male friend then came and joined them. According to Stout in a TikTok posted in late January, a stranger (lesbian) came up to him and asked what he was doing there.
SEE ALSO:
How TikTok became a place for tattletales
“As a straight woman in a gay bar, and also a straight woman who goes to a male gay bar,” Stout said, “I’ve never felt like that before.” She described feeling uncomfortable — especially because gay men were at Cubbyhole — and at the end of the video asked if straight men are allowed at gay bars. The TikTok, titled “My First Lesbian Bar,” has over a million views and 8,000 comments at the time of publication.
In early February, the stranger stitched Stout’s video with a response. @im.that.lesbian, identified by Gothamist as Katie Pypes, posted that she was “that lesbian” from Cubbyhole, and stated her side of the ordeal. Mashable has reached out to Stout for comment.
Pypes was waiting for the bathroom and the straight man was in the way, she said. Since he seemed “grumpy,” she asked if he was with anyone; he pointed at his friend. Later, he asked if he wasn’t here with anyone if it would be a problem, and Pypes said yes. The group of friends — including Stout and the man — started “coming at” Pypes, who said she wanted nothing to do with straight people which is why she was at Cubbyhole in the first place.
Pypes said that she’s seen straight men come into queer spaces, like Cubbyhole and Henrietta Hudson, another lesbian bar, as well as famed gay bar the Stonewall Inn, to pick up women. The ask was a safety check, Pypes said.
“You should keep in mind that there are very limited spaces especially for lesbians and queer women where we can feel safe.”
“If you’re going into a queer space, you should be respectful of that, and you should keep in mind that there are very limited spaces especially for lesbians and queer women where we can feel safe,” Pypes said. She then mentioned and tagged the Lesbian Bar Project, which supports and amplifies lesbian spaces. That video has nearly four million views and 10,000 comments at the time of publication.
We don’t know exactly how this particular situation went down, as we’re going off of Stout’s and Pypes’s recollections, but the court of public opinion is siding with Pypes. I’m inclined to as well. One reason is certainly the dwindling number of spaces dedicated to queer women that Pypes identified. According to the Lesbian Bar Project’s homepage, there were around 200 lesbian bars in the U.S. in 1980; now there are fewer than 30. If you’re in Brooklyn you may know that a few bars that cater to queer women have blessedly popped up recently — like The Bush and Mary’s Bar — but reaching ’80s levels is going to be an uphill climb, especially outside of New York.
There were around 200 lesbian bars in the U.S. in 1980; now there are fewer than 30.
Stout’s video raises the question of why straight people want to be in our spaces at all. Because of the good music? Because it’s a novelty? (Recall Stout’s video title of “My First Lesbian Bar,” as if it’s some exotic experience.) Because, at least for straight women, they don’t have to worry about straight guys creepily trolling the dance floor for the next person to dry hump? (At this rate of straight guys entering lesbian bars, they will have to worry.)
There are no “rules” that say straight people aren’t allowed in gay bars (which is a question Stout asked in her video), but there’s no doubt queer spaces are by and for queer people. They’re meant to be places where queer people can feel safe and meet others like them. They’re places where they can be authentically themselves surrounded by their own community. Straight people may visit, but it’s queer people who are the regulars.
Pypes told Mashable over TikTok message that she hopes there can be an understanding of the importance of having safe spaces for the queer community. “There have been so many stories shared similar to mine,” she continued, “and it really highlights how widespread this problem is for queer women.”
What Pypes described here, as well as in the video — straight men going into queer spaces purposefully to hit on women — is exactly the type of interaction these spaces are meant to protect people from.
“He’s probably never gonna go back there again because it really wasn’t worth the drama,” Stout said of the straight male friend. Good!
UPDATE: Feb. 12, 2024, 5:32 p.m. EST This article has been updated to add a comment from Katie Pypes.
Maybe you’re absolutely stumped on what to get your boyfriend, or you don’t know what to do since apparently love languages are fake, or maybe you want to treat yourself to some discounted food just because — in any case, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and these gift card deals make a great last-minute gift idea.
SEE ALSO:
Best Valentine’s Day gifts for her
We know gift cards get a bad rap as a phone-it-in gift — and they don’t exactly scream romance, but hear us out. Which is more romantic to you: a random box of chocolates where the recipient will enjoy maybe 70% of the flavors, or a gesture that says, “Here’s some time back for your week, enjoy this meal (or ingredients) delivered directly to your door?” To us, the grabbing an Instacart, Uber Eats, or DoorDash gift card seems like the obvious answer (at least as an accompaniment to the chocolates).
And because all these gift cards are digital, there’s no need to worry that it’s already Feb. 12, just two days away from the holiday. Or, if you’re not interested in them for celebration, you’ll get access to your discounted funds immediately upon purchase. For more info on the terms of each of these gift card deals, check out our picks below:
Best for groceries: Instacart gift card
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Credit: Instacart
$100 Instacart gift card
$85 at Amazon with code GROCERY (save $15)
Why we like it
In the middle of a busy week, Instacart can seem like a great idea, until you actually input your grocery order and see that with fees and tip, it’s at least $20 more than if you’d actually go to the store. Giving the gift of $100 free dollars (and saving $15 yourself) helps remedy that exact problem. This deal at Amazon does only apply for gift cards with a value of $100 and is limited to one per customer. Remember to use the code GROCERY at checkout to actually get the savings.
Best for food delivery: DoorDash
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Credit: DoorDash
$100 DoorDash gift card
$90 at PayPal (save $10)
Why we like it
DoorDash lets you get pretty much any meal you can think of delivered from local restaurants, and with this PayPal promo, you can get up to two gift cards at $10 off each. That means you can give one as a gift, keep one for yourself, or keep both and pocket $200 of DoorDash credits for $20 off.
Best for food delivery and rideshare: Uber
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Credit: Uber
Uber and Uber Eats gift cards
$22.50 or $90 at Best Buy (save 10%)
Why we like it
Best Buy has Uber and Uber Eats gift cards for up to 10% off, and the good news is, both work for food and rides. You have a little more flexibility here than on the other two deals. You can get a $100 Uber or Uber Eats gift card for just $90, or a $25 of the same two options for $22.50. You’re limited to three of each type of gift card and each valuation, so if you bought three of each, you could buy 12 gift cards total, though all the money ultimately goes to your Uber wallet.
