Instagram is awash with Asian firms showing how they can remake old Broncos, Defenders, and other whole classic cars—better and much cheaper than in the US.

Did OneWire of DS18B20 sensor fame ever fascinate you in its single-data-line simplicity? If so, then you’ll like PJON (Padded Jittering Operative Network) – a single-wire-compatible protocol for up to 255 devices. One disadvantage is that you need to check up on the bus pretty often, trading hardware complexity for software complexity. Now, this is no longer something for the gate wielders of us to worry about – [Giovanni] tells us that there’s a hardware implementation of PJDL (Padded Jittering Data Link), a PJON-based bus.

This implementation is written in Verilog, and allows you to offload a lot of your low-level PJDL tasks, essentially, giving you a PJDL peripheral for all your inter-processor communication needs. Oh, and as [Giovanni] says, this module has recently been taped out as part of the CROC chip project, an educational SoC project. What’s not to love?

PJON is a fun protocol, soon to be a decade old. We’ve previously covered [Giovanni] use PJON to establish a data link through a pair of LEDs, and it’s nice to see this nifty small-footprint protocol gain that much more of a foothold, now, in our hardware-level projects.

We thank [Giovanni Blu Mitolo] for sharing this with us!

Financial Times:
OpenAI hopes the Disney deal boosts Sora, which has high costs and limited traction; Sensor Tower: users average 13 minutes per day on Sora vs. 90 on TikTok  —  Sora has struggled to build an engaged audience despite already hosting bootleg content from the Hollywood studio

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Broadcom's shares fell 11% on December 12, their biggest single-day drop since January, after the company's AI sales outlook fell short of investor expectations  —  Broadcom Inc., a chip company vying with Nvidia Corp. for AI computing revenue, suffered the worst stock decline in more than 10 months …

Mark Haranas / CRN:
Indian IT giant TCS agrees to acquire Coastal Cloud, a Florida-based Salesforce consulting partner, for $700M, in a bid to boost its AI and US customer business  —  Tata Consultancy Services is buying U.S.-based Salesforce Summit Partner Coastal Cloud for $700 million to boost its global presence and AI business.

Robin Wigglesworth / Financial Times:
Cisco's stock touched a new record high of $80.25 on December 10, surpassing its previous split-adjusted high of $80.06 on March 27, 2000; CSCO is up 31.64% YTD  —  🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳  —  It only took 25 years, eight months and 13 days, but the stock of Cisco Systems finally hit a new record high.

Isabelle Lee / Bloomberg:
Seagate and Western Digital, with stocks each up 200%+ in 2025, will join Nasdaq 100 before the December 22 market open; GlobalFoundries will leave the index  —  Six firms are set to join the Nasdaq 100 Index as part of its annual reconstitution, the benchmark's overseer said Friday.

Semafor:
In a letter to the Trump administration, the GOP Senatorial Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott said the Netflix-WBD deal raises “significant antitrust problems”  —  THE SCOOP  —  A key Republican senator Friday joined the mounting opposition in Washington to Netflix's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Admit it or not, you probably have a teddy bear somewhere in your past that you were — or maybe are — fond of. Not to disparage your bear, but we think Bradfield might have had a bigger adventure than yours has. Bradfield was launched in November on a high-altitude balloon by Year 7 and 8 students at Walhampton School in the UK in connection with Southampton University. Dressed in a school uniform, he was supposed to ride to near space, but ran into some turbulence. The BBC reported that poor Bradfield couldn’t hold on any longer and fell from around 17 miles up.  The poor bear looked fairly calm for being so high up.

A camera recorded the unfortunate stuffed animal’s plight. Apparently, a companion plushie, Bill the Badger (the Badger being the Southampton mascot), successfully completed the journey, returning to Earth with a parachute.

There have been some news reports that Bradfield may have been recovered, but we haven’t seen anything definitive yet. Of course, there are plenty of things you can launch on a balloon, but what a great idea to let kids send a mascot aloft with your serious science payloads and radio gear. Because we know you are launching a balloon for a serious purpose, right? Sure, we won’t tell you just want the cool pictures.

No offense to Bradfield, but sending humans aloft on balloons requires a little more care. We aren’t as well-equipped to drop 17 miles. The Hackaday Supercon has even been the site of an uncrewed (and unbeared) balloon launch. Meanwhile, if you are around Reading and spot Bradfield, be sure to give him a cookie and call the Walhampton school.

A former Chinese official who fled to the U.S. says Beijing has used advanced surveillance technology from U.S. companies to track, intimidate, and punish him and his family across borders. ABC News reports: Retired Chinese official Li Chuanliang was recuperating from cancer on a Korean resort island when he got an urgent call: Don't return to China, a friend warned. You're now a fugitive. Days later, a stranger snapped a photo of Li in a cafe. Terrified South Korea would send him back, Li fled, flew to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum. But even there -- in New York, in California, deep in the Texas desert -- the Chinese government continued to hunt him down with the help of surveillance technology. Li's communications were monitored, his assets seized and his movements followed in police databases. More than 40 friends and relatives -- including his pregnant daughter -- were identified and detained, even by tracking down their cab drivers through facial recognition software. Three former associates died in detention, and for months shadowy men Li believed to be Chinese operatives stalked him across continents, interviews and documents seen by The Associated Press show. The Chinese government is using an increasingly powerful tool to cement its power at home and vastly amplify it abroad: Surveillance technology, much of it originating in the U.S., an AP investigation has found. Within China, this technology helped identify and punish almost 900,000 officials last year alone, nearly five times more than in 2012, according to state numbers. Beijing says it is cracking down on corruption, but critics charge that such technology is used in China and elsewhere to stifle dissent and exact retribution on perceived enemies. Outside China, the same technology is being used to threaten wayward officials, along with dissidents and alleged criminals, under what authorities call Operations "Fox Hunt" and "Sky Net." The U.S. has criticized these overseas operations as a "threat" and an "affront to national sovereignty." More than 14,000 people, including some 3,000 officials, have been brought back to China from more than 120 countries through coercion, arrests and pressure on relatives, according to state information.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are some of the best features in newer cars, but if you've ever wanted to upgrade from a wired system to a wireless one, the options were somewhat limited—until now. Don't waste your money on a no-name adapter from Amazon, and buy this one instead.

TL;DR: Live stream Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup for free on FIFA+. Access this free streaming site from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

---

We're approaching the dramatic conclusion of the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup. Pyramids FC face off against Flamengo for a spot in the final. There the winner will battle it out with Paris Saint-Germain for the title. How is this any different to the Club World Cup? Don't ask too many questions.

If you want to watch Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC?

Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup kicks off at 12 p.m. ET on Dec. 13. This fixture takes place at the Ahmed Ben Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan.

How to watch Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC for free

Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup is available to live stream for free on FIFA+.

If this FIFA+ live stream is not available in your location, you can use a VPN to access for free. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can access free live streams on FIFA+ from anywhere in the world.

Lve stream Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in a location with access

4. Visit FIFA+

5. Stream Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC for free from anywhere in the world

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time this game and the final before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming sites from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for FIFA+?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on FIFA+, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).

Live stream Flamengo vs. Pyramids FC in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup for free with ExpressVPN.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

Hurdle Word 1 hint

A load.

Hurdle Word 1 answer

CARGO

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Open land.

Hurdle Word 2 Answer

GLADE

Hurdle Word 3 hint

A slant.

Hurdle Word 3 answer

SLOPE

Hurdle Word 4 hint

To delay.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

STAVE

Final Hurdle hint

Clearheaded.

Hurdle Word 5 answer

SOBER

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The moon is returning to its crescent shape as we head towards the New Moon. We're still a few days away from total darkness, so for now there's still a few features to be spotted on the surface. Read on to find out what you can see.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Saturday, Dec. 13, the moon phase is Waning Crescent. This means 34% of the moon is lit up tonight, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation.

Tonight, without any visual aids, you'll be able to see Kepler Crater and the Oceanus Procellarum. If you have binoculars, you'll also be able to see the Grimaldi Basin, Clavius Crater, and the Mare Humorum. With a telescope, Reiner Gamma, Schiller Crater, and Fra Mauro Highlands will also become visible.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Jan. 3.

What are moon phases?

NASA says the Moon goes through a cycle of about 29.5 days, and during that time we see its different phases. Even though we always see the same side of the Moon, the sunlight hitting it changes as it orbits Earth. That’s what makes it look full, half-lit, or sometimes completely hidden. The cycle has eight main phases:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

TL;DR: Watch the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free on Channel 4. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

---

There is quite simply no tournament like the Africa Cup of Nations. It's an electric combination of heated rivalries, colorful fans, and flair that is sometimes lacking from elite competitions. We know that the eyes of the footballing world are already fixed on the 2026 World Cup, but this incredible tournament should whet the appetite of fans before the main event next summer.

The likes of Mohamed Salah, Achraf Hakimi, Sadio Mane, Bryan Mbuemo, and Victor Osimhen will be taking center stage in Morocco. We're expecting some scintillating football from the best of the best.

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If you're interested in watching the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

What is the Africa Cup of Nations?

The Africa Cup of Nations (or AFCON) is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. 24 teams are drawn into six groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group and the four best third-placed teams advance to the knockout rounds.

The defending champion is Ivory Coast. Egypt is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, winning seven times and securing three consecutive titles in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

When is the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations?

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations is the 35th edition of the competition. This year's event takes place from Dec. 21 to Jan. 18 in Morocco.

How to watch the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations is available to live stream for free on Channel 4. All matches will be live across Channel 4’s network, including Channel 4, E4, 4Seven, and Channel 4 Sport YouTube. 

Channel 4 is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can stream the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

4. Connect to Channel 4

5. Watch the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free from anywhere in the world

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer pretty generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch AFCON without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming platforms from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for Channel 4?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for streaming live sport on free platforms like Channel 4, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (also with a money-back guarantee).

Live stream the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free with ExpressVPN.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 13.

Have you ever found yourself looking at the insects of the Paleozoic era, including the dragonfly Meganeuropsis permiana with its 71 cm wingspan and wondered what it would be like to have one as a pet? If so, you’re in luck because the mad lads over at [The Thought Emporium] have done a lot of the legwork already to grow your own raven-sized moths and more. As it turns out, all it takes is hijacking the chemical signals that control the development phases, to grow positively humongous mealworms and friends.

The growth process of the juveniles, such as mealworms – the larval form of the yellow mealworm beetle – goes through a number of molting stages (instars), with the insect juvenile hormone levels staying high until it is time for the final molt and transformation into a pupa from which the adult form emerges. The pyriproxyfen insecticide is a juvenile hormone analog that prevents this event. Although at high doses larvae perish, the video demonstrates that lower doses work to merely inhibit the final molt.

That proof-of-concept is nice of course if you really want to grow larger grubs, but doesn’t ultimately really affect the final form as they simply go through the same number of instars. Changing this requires another hormone/insecticide, called ecdysone, which regulates the number of instars before the final molt and pupal stage.

Amusingly, this hormone is expressed by plants to mess with larvae as they predate on their tissues, with spinach expressing a very significant amount of this phyto-ecdysone. For humans this incidentally interacts with the estrogen receptor beta, which helps with building muscle. Ergo bodybuilding supplies provide a ready to use source of this hormone as ‘beta ecdysterone’ to make swol insects with.

Unfortunately, this hormone turned out to be very tricky to apply, as adding it to their feed like with pyriproxyfen merely resulted in the test subjects losing weight or outright dying. For the next step it would seem that a more controlled exposure method is needed, which may or may not involve some DNA editing. Clearly creating Mothra is a lot harder than just blasting a hapless insect with some random ionizing radiation or toxic chemicals.

A common myth with insect size is that the only reason why they got so big during the Paleozoic was due to the high O₂ content in the atmosphere. This is in fact completely untrue. There is nothing in insect physiology that prevents them from growing much larger, as they even have primitive lungs, as well as a respiratory and circulatory system to support this additional growth. Consequently, even today we got some pretty large insects for this reason, including some humongous flies, like the 7 cm long and 10 cm wingspan Gauromydas heros.

The real reasons appears to be the curse of exoskeletons, which require constant stressful molting and periods of complete vulnerability. In comparison, us endoskeleton-equipped animals have bones that grow along with the muscles and other tissues around them, which ultimately seems to be just the better strategy if you want to grow big. Evolutionary speaking this makes it more attractive for insects and other critters with exoskeletons to stay small and fly under the proverbial radar.

The positive upshot of this is of course that this means that we can totally have dog-sized moths as pets, which surely is what the goal of the upcoming video will be.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

Easy difficulty hints, answers for Dec. 13 Pips

Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-6, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this red space must add up to 7. The answer is 0-6, placed vertically; 1-1, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 7. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically; 4-3, placed vertically; 5-2, placed horizontally.

Number (11): Everything in this orange space must add up to 11. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 6-6, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Dec. 13 Pips

Number (1): Everything in this orange space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically; 0-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed horizontally.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically; 6-0, placed vertically.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 6-0, placed vertically; 2-3, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically.

Equal (3): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Dec. 13 Pips

Equal (5): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-2, placed vertically.

Less Than (6): Everything in this space must be less than 6. The answer is 1-3, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 1-3, placed horizontally; 3-6, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically; 2-1, vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.

Equal (1): Everything in this green space must be equal to 1. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically; 4-1, placed vertically; 1-1, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally; 4-6, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're stylish.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games 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 today'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 hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Bottoms

• Green: Unspoken

• Blue: Baseball stars

• Purple: Ancient legends

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Wide-legged pant styles

• Green: Silent "T"

• Blue: New York Mets legends

• Purple: Greek mythology figures minus a letter

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.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #916 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Wide-legged pant styles: CULOTTE, GAUCHO, HAREM, PALAZZO

• Silent "T": APOSTLE, DEPOT, MORTGAGE, POIROT

• New York Mets legends: GOODEN, PIAZZA, SEAVER, STRAWBERRY

• Greek mythology figures minus a letter: AJA, ARE, HER, HERCULE

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.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you love chaos.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: All over the place

The words are related to structure.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe disorder.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Thats Wild.

NYT Strands word list for December 13

• Unruly

• Chaotic

• Thats Wild

• Disorderly

• Tumultuous

• Stormy

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.