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Wordle hint today: Clues for August 13 2025 NYT puzzle #1516

Wordle hint today: Clues for August 13 2025 NYT puzzle #1516

USA Today2 days ago
WARNING: THERE ARE WORDLE SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE AUGUST 13, 2025 WORDLE ANSWER SPOILED FOR YOU.
Ready?
OK.
We've seen some hard Wordle words over the years and if you're here, you're probably struggling with today's and are looking for some help. So let's run down a few clues with today's Wordle that could help you solve it:
1. It has two vowels.
2. It's a noun.
3. It's associated with a special milk.
And the answer to today's Wordle is below this photo:
It's ... KEFIR.
While you're here, some more Wordle advice:
How do I play Wordle?
Go to this link from the New York Times and start guessing words.
What are the best Wordle starting words?
That's a topic we've covered a bunch here. According to the Times' WordleBot, the best starting word is: CRANE. Others that I've seen include ADIEU, STARE and ROAST.
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My Favorite Kindergarten Books To Read Ahead Of The First Day
My Favorite Kindergarten Books To Read Ahead Of The First Day

Yahoo

time28 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

My Favorite Kindergarten Books To Read Ahead Of The First Day

Starting kindergarten is one of the biggest milestones in a child's life. It is also one of the most emotional transitions for parents as they send their little ones off to school. Every child transitions differently, but finding resources to help prepare them for the first few days can make things go smoother. I know that with my children, we shared many conversations about school before their first day, so that they had an idea of what to expect. This time of year at the library, we always gather and display our favorite 'starting kindergarten' and 'first day of school' books. Reading with your child about what they may expect, as they venture off to school, can be an excellent way to prepare them. From board books to early readers to picture books, I have selected my favorite kindergarten books to read with the children in your life. King of Kindergarten By Derrick Banes This New York Times bestseller is all about sending your child off to school with confidence. It begins with the sun beaming through the window as the light creates a crown on the young boy's head. The 'King of Kindergarten' follows the confident boy as he gets ready for school, takes the school bus, and has a great day with his new classmates. The book talks about how fun it will be to come back home and tell his parents all about the adventures he had at school and the new friends that he made. We want our kids to be armed with confidence in all of life's big moments. I'm fond of this book because it does just that, inspiring children to wear their crown and hold their head up high. The story talks about sharing and how that can help us make new friends. Also, it reminds children how exciting it will be when they come back home to tell their parents all about the friends they made and what they did at school. Queen of Kindergarten By Derrick Banes The follow-up story to King of Kindergarten is, of course, the 'Queen of Kindergarten. MJ is ready for her first day of kindergarten. Her hair is braided, and she is wearing a tiara on her head; she is going to be the Queen of Kindergarten. Her tiara is there to remind her of all the good things she brings to the classroom: kindness, friendship, and confidence. Like the 'King of Kindergarten', this book inspires back-to-school excitement and lends to building confidence in the littlest of students. Obviously, I couldn't choose the King without also selecting the Queen. Boys and girls can connect with these characters and, in reading them, be reminded of how special they are as they head off to school. Both books are illustrated beautifully by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. All Welcome Here By James Preller Inclusiveness and diversity are such important elements for children's books. 'All Welcome Here' encompasses those attributes with illustrations that all children will see themselves in. Boys and girls of every race, color, ethnicity, and ability explore their first day of school. The children's day, with all of its excitement, difficulties, and anxieties, is celebrated in the author's lyrical haiku poems. My favorite part of this story is the children's trip to the library (as shown in the image above). The library is described as the heartbeat of the school. Working at the library myself, I like to believe this too. If you are finding it challenging to find a kindergarten book to read that represents your child, I think you will be quite pleased with this selection. Because just like the library ( one of the last inclusive public spaces), at school, 'we are all welcome'. The Best Seat In Kindergarten By Katharine Kenah The 'Best Seat in Kindergarten' is a story about Sam as he starts kindergarten. Like most children, Sam is not sure what to expect on his first day of kindergarten. When he arrives, his teacher, Ms. Tate, introduces herself, shows the children their new classroom, and takes them for a nature walk. After their walk, she explains, the children will get to share with the class what they found on their outdoor adventure. Sam is excited as he makes new friends by helping them find items for the classroom show-and-tell. This kindergarten book to read with your kids reminds them that everyone in class will be new, too! Children will relate to Sam and his fears about going to school, and they will be reassured when they hear about Sam's successful first day. The 'Best Seat in Kindergarten' is an early reader book, meaning it's designed to introduce a new reader to reading together or on their own. Its sentences are repetitive and straightforward. This book is on my list for both its ability to calm little fears and for developing early literacy. A Day At School With The Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle How can we not mention the beloved Hungry Caterpillar when talking about the best kindergarten books to read for children starting school. Eric Carle is a renowned children's book author and illustrator. He has published over 70 children's books in his lifetime, and they are constantly checked out at my library. For our kindergarteners, I am suggesting the board book 'A Day at School with the Hungry Caterpillar'. It is a tabbed board book, which I always find is inviting for little fingers to flip the pages. Each colorful tab illustrates or relates to a portion of the school day. 'A Day at School with the Hungry Caterpillar' introduces children to their new routine away from home. Wake up in the morning, travel to school, greet the children, dance in music class, and have a snack are some examples of this sweet and simple book. The hungry caterpillar is a familiar character for many little ones, and the beautiful illustrations of Carle's always draw us in. I like this selection for our youngest school goers (perhaps even those heading off to daycare) as it focuses on a child's new routine in simple sentences. Kindergarten: Where Kindness Matters By Vera Ahiyya We have a few copies of this picture book by kindergarten teacher, Vera Ahiyya, in our local library. Ahiyya is also an Instagram influencer, which is very cool! On social media, she is known as The Tutu Teacher. 'Kindergarten: Where Kindness Matters' is a story about a little boy named Leo who isn't feeling excited about starting school. In the summer, he receives a letter from his soon-to-be new teacher, which asks him to consider how kindness can be shared in the classroom. On the first day of school, all the kids will share what they think it means to be kind. This story is such a lovely book to share with your child or your classroom as they start their new chapter in kindergarten. As a kids' yoga teacher, I often talk about kindness and how we can spread it in my classes and beyond. As a teacher herself, Ahiyya explores the idea of creating a kindness pledge amongst her classmates, and they share simple ways they can act in kindness towards one another. In my opinion, if kindness is all a kindergartner learns that first year (and maybe how to zip up their coat), the world would be a better place. The Night Before Kindergarten By Natasha Wing What actually happens on the Night Before Kindergarten? Using the classic poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas', Wing lyrically depicts the preparation for kindergarten, from packing lunches to picking an outfit and taking first-day photos. Parents and kids follow the children in the book as they prepare for kindergarten. Wing has an entire 'on the night before' series written to help guide and encourage children on the eve of special moments. In my opinion, this would make a sweet set for a new parent. I enjoyed this book as a unique and fun way of explaining what will happen at kindergarten to a child. Using the rhyming prose of a story we all know creates a comfort level with little readers from the first page. The illustrations paint the picture of what families will do the night before, the morning of, and the actual first day of school. The story is a great way to help reduce the unknown for kiddos, as it's the unknown that elicits the fear of going to school. Another example of a kindergarten book to read that children will relate to, which may help calm the first-day jitters. Clifford Goes To School By Norman Bridwell A classic storybook character is the beloved big red dog, Clifford. Even Clifford has a kindergarten book for children to read before their first day. When Emily Elizabeth starts kindergarten, her teacher, Miss Tate, says she is allowed to bring a comfort item to school in the event she misses home. We can all guess that Emily chooses to bring Clifford to class with her. Clifford brings lots of excitement to Emily's classmates, as any giant, big red dog would! So, of course, every librarian, like myself, is going to have a love for Clifford! Classic storybooks are classic because they are tried, tested, and true. They can connect with children and entertain them. What I like about this book for kindergartners is that it begins with Emily Elizabeth's parents reading a book about the first day of school to her. Before the silliness of the big red dog strikes, Emily, just like her readers, is learning what school will be like. Emily even learns about the school nurse if she is feeling unwell…do schools still have those? Diggers Love To Go School By Brianna Caplan Sayres Another bright and colorful board book for little fingers to explore. If your child loves trucks and tractors, dump trucks and diggers, this picture book would be great to read before the first day of kindergarten. Kids will learn with 'Digger' what the other vehicles do at school. This book is a rhyming book which kids always love, and you can't beat the adorable illustrations by Christian Slade. Sometimes the key to connecting with a child is to speak through something they love. If your child loves cats, for instance, find a book about cats that sends the message you want to deliver. Most kids go through a phase of loving construction vehicles, so show them 'Digger' learning his ABCs, playing at recess, building blocks, and counting. Or find whichever themed book speaks to your child. Preparing for school doesn't have to be serious; it can also be fun. Click, Clack, Quack To School By Doreen Cronin If you've read any books in the series 'Click, Clack, Quack', you know the kids love them for their humor. The books by Doreen Cronin are New York Times Bestsellers and very popular at my library. In this story, the barnyard friends are heading off to school. Before they arrive, however, they must go over the rules and learn proper school behavior. 'No stomping, no clomping…no hooting, no hollering,' it says in Farmer Brown's rulebook. But when they arrive and the recess bell rings, they find children 'wiggling and giggling…chirping and chattering'. So the animals join in the fun! 'Click, Clack, Quack to School' is another example of making school preparation fun! Yes, we can talk about the school rules and using our manners in the classroom, but we can also remind children that school is for friends, laughter, and play! This would make a super fun kindergarten book to read with your little one. Biscuit Goes To School By Alyssa Satin Capucilli Another easy reader book to engage children to read along with you. As mentioned, easy readers are repetitive and use basic vocabulary to make for a successful introduction to reading. Biscuit has a series of 'I Can Read' books, allowing children to discover all of the puppy's adventures. This book shows Biscuit's little girl confidently going off on the school bus; what happens when he decides to go to school too? I think it's essential to give children the opportunity to read about school as well. Finding success in an early reader before they head off to kindergarten can build a child's confidence. Biscuit's adventure at school illustrates some of the activities children will participate in at their new school. Taking the school bus, going to the gym, going to the library, and having a snack. Children will enjoy this sweet kindergarten book to read on their own, with a parent, or with a caregiver. All of my kids' first day of kindergarten has come and gone. Some went extremely smoothly; my first two daughters were more than ready to go. They had gone to daycare previously and were comfortable with the scheduled day. My third and fourth children were home with me before they started kindergarten, plus COVID had just hit, so those first days were much more tenuous. I think my son's entire junior kindergarten year was spent online, or homeschooling, so senior kindergarten was extremely challenging. BUT, we all did it and we all survived! As a parent and librarian, I enjoy using books to help with big life transitions. Reading alongside your child before their first day of school can help calm both your fears and theirs; plus, it opens up the space for dialogue. Your child may feel more inclined to ask questions or express concerns after reading with one of these stories. There are so many kindergarten books to read out there, and I hope you have time to discover one of my favorites. If you find your child is very anxious about the approaching new year, check out my favorite mindfulness resources for calming before school. Good luck to all of the parents and kids starting kindergarten this Fall! Solve the daily Crossword

AI Demand-Shaping And The Frictionless Rub Of Solipsistic Efficiency
AI Demand-Shaping And The Frictionless Rub Of Solipsistic Efficiency

Forbes

time3 hours ago

  • Forbes

AI Demand-Shaping And The Frictionless Rub Of Solipsistic Efficiency

In 1897, painter Frederic Remington wired New York Journal publisher William Randolph Hearst from Cuba with bad news. There was nothing to see, no war to illustrate. Hearst's infamous reply: 'You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war.' The apocryphal anecdote endures as a cautionary tale of media's power to shape reality to its owners' interests. Broadly speaking, historians agree that the sensationalist reporting of Spanish atrocities in Cuba and the mysterious sinking of the USS Maine, which typified the Yellow Journalism era, contributed to the U.S. decision to enter the Spanish-American War in 1898. Hearst and other publishers, like Joseph Pulitzer, saw circulation spikes from their vivid, lurid, and constant coverage, facilitated by new technologies that brought battlefield color to readers at telegraphic speed. Narrative precedes truth. Sensation succeeds substance. Today, emerging feedback loops echo Hearst's telegram, with campaigns to shape consumer demand through prescriptive analytics and generative AI. These are mostly tolerated when used for dynamic ticket pricing and for brand lore development, less so in propaganda campaigns. But what if the demand were being created before there was a product? In late May the Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer published 'Heat Index' a 'best of summer' guide insert with, among other fun tips, book recommendations. Those recommendations included reviews and plot summaries, as might be expected from such a feature. The problem, which readers discovered when they sought out their beach reading, was that some of the books did not exist! Chicago freelancer Marco Buscaglia admitting using AI to create the 'Heat Index' book reviews and to not checking against hallucinations. He was working for King Features Syndicate, a unit of Hearst—yes, that Hearst—which apparently did not fact check the recommendations. Neither did the newspapers that published them. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Both the Sun-Times and Inquirer have since retracted and apologized for the list, but not before it had circulated widely creating interest, clicks, and even demand for books that no one wrote. Until they did. Since the 'Heat Index' publication, dozens of versions of its fake books have been published and sold through Amazon. The sloppy journalism portends a cost-effective, less-human creative process in the not too distant future; one that speaks to dystopian fears around AI. Here's a modification to the 'Heat Index' story (*only 1 and 5 were added): I call this solipsistic efficiency, a media logic where content generates its own demand, based on individualized tastes, in a closed loop, detached from real authors, real experiences, and external verification. It's not about deception in the traditional sense. It's about removing the inefficiencies of reality to create a perpetual, self-driving consumer experience in which authenticity exists only as a marketing metric. In such a media ecosystem, the uncertainty about what's real becomes a valuable hook. Remember James Frey's A Million Little Pieces? His 'memoir' sold better after being exposed as fabricated. The author admitted as much in a Vanity Fair interview discussing his new book, which (spoiler) he used AI in part to craft. The thrill of maybe-it's-real, maybe-it's-not becomes a form of marketable mystique. We see this across contemporary culture: One of this season's hottest Apple TV+ shows, The Studio, brings viewers inside an uncanny Hollywood featuring actual A-listers playing caricatures of themselves. The show captured 23 Emmy nominations (including five of the six for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series) as well as public fascination for an industry of smoke, mirrors, and greed. The fascination is driven by the tantalizing question: Is that what Hollywood is really like? How real were Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard's performances? In music, French streaming platform Deezer estimates that AI-generated music accounts for 18% of all uploads. This July, The Guardian ran the headline 'An AI-generated band got 1m plays on Spotify.' Where is the line between artistic merit and metadata optimization? It's gotten to the point where The Atlantic's Ian Bogost recently wrote a screed titled 'Nobody Cares If Music Is Real Anymore.' Everyone I've asked says they still do care, provided they know. But if you don't know it's fake, then does it actually matter? For several months the Australian Radio Network featured (without telling listeners at first) an AI DJ named 'Thy' (pronounced 'Tee') across several of its stations. NBC Sports recently unveiled an AI-voiced narrator for NBA games, modeled after Jim Fagan, the deceased, hall of fame voice nostalgically familiar to anyone who watched games in the 1990s. Audacy sports talk radio host James Seltzer (WIP 94.1 FM) characterized the trend as professionally problematic, during a recent on-air broadcast, while acknowledging such tech will be difficult to prevent. AI-driven demand and the opacification of reality are dominating media narratives and perplexing media scholars. This summer, Maggie Harrison Dupré of Futurist reported that 'USA TODAY is publishing automated sports stories that serve as SEO-targeted vehicles for sports gambling ads, toeing ethical lines and blurring the boundaries between sports journalism and the rapidly growing sports betting industry.' The demand to bet on a game may be shaped by AI-generated coverage of it, and with platforms like ESPN, earning from both its news content and its sports book (ESPN BET), such lines are at best questionable. We all know it's here and rapidly advancing, but even experts are perplexed about what to do. 'We can't fight it, and we'd be crazy to try to,' Rowan University Journalism Professor Carl Hausman told me. He stresses the importance of media literacy in education, 'so we don't end up hallucinating ourselves to death.' Last week I attended the 108th Association for Educators in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC), an academic conference for national and international media scholars and practitioners. 'AI' was the talk of our four-day, San Francisco conference, appearing at least 273 times in the 246 page program. Research presentations, panels, working groups, and late night discussions unpacked a range of AI fears and fantasies with many practical and bounded conversations about the future of journalism and how to use AI and generative engine optimization (GMO) to improve curricula. Even its most ardent detractors admit artificial intelligence is increasing efficiency and saving money. From decisions about crop management to gene therapy to real-time translation for financial news wires AI is 'paradigm-shifting technology akin to the internet,' according to Ari Moskowitz, Content Marketing Director at Conviva, a leading platform for real-time performance analytics of apps, streaming platforms, and AI agents. Since the wheel, and probably before it, our human drive to get more with less effort is why we create technology. But for some, the consequences of AI signal a systemic, dehumanizing transformation, where generative systems mimic not just content, but the entire ecosystem: creator, reviewer, performer, promoter, consumer. Cultural artifacts now exist because someone made them and/or because algorithms detected a space where they should exist and then filled it. Even the once-stalwart security of a computer science degree is reportedly under assault, with AI replacing entry-level coders. Such efficiency may be a goal of Open AI and ventures like Meta's Superintelligence Labs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly paying record salaries to poach engineers who will 'fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks.' In a world where $100 million AI engineers are prompting the future of our social, cultural, and professional experience, the trajectory appears to be solipsistic efficiency: a frictionless, perpetual system tailored to create and satisfy our individual wants before we knew we had them. Even a $100,000-per-year engineer, who may now be out of work, would tell you that such a concept violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. After all, energy cannot be created from nothing, and systems trend toward entropy. But solipsistic efficiency simulates energy through perception. You feel like something was created. Time was spent. Meaning was produced. But in reality, the loop simply confected noise based on prescriptive analytics into a temporarily convincing form shaped to some strategic, synthetic engagement protocols. The extent and time-horizon for such an existential shift will depend not only on AI's advancement, but human choices about we value and who we are. The latter variable is confounded as AI-generated content saturates the mediascape and feeds it back into what we consume. According to science fiction author Storm Humbert 'AI was engineered to solve a problem: shifting creativity to wealth while shifting wealth away from creators.' There's a kind of cultural entropy inversion at work: the more content we generate through closed AI loops, the less value it contains. Can this process increase understanding, connection, originality or is it just more frictionless production, more viral polish? On one hand authenticity has never been more prized. Because of that though the suspicion of inauthenticity becomes part of the draw, like a world reoriented to the ontology of professional wrestling. Is that book real? Is that DJ human? Did AOC really say that? When every artifact can be faked, doubt itself becomes a form of engagement. We click to solve a mystery that grows harder to solve by every click. To be clear, this isn't a Luddite argument against technology. AI has real potential in augmenting creativity, accessibility, and speed. I've used it to help organize, shape, caption, and optimize this article (per Forbes guidelines). But the feedback loops it can create—especially when paired with platform incentives and weak editorial oversight—risk replacing meaning with momentum. We need friction and provenance, to put it bluntly. We need platforms and publishers to invest in verifiability and authorial transparency, and to reward editorial standards as well as GEO and SEO. We need algorithms that foster human connection, not just predictive profitability. And we need cultural gatekeepers—critics, educators, and institutions—to ask not just is it engaging, but is it real? And why does it matter if it's not? Friction and inefficiency are, in some ways, what make us human. Instant transportation between destinations means sacrificing the journey. What would The Canterbury Tales be if the pilgrimage from the Tabard Inn to the Shrine of Thomas Becket were instantaneous? Solipsistic efficiency doesn't directly violate physics. But it violates our ability to know what's real, what's worth preserving, and what, if anything, actually happened. Once the guardrails of reality are gone, the laws of physics no longer exist, at least not to our perception. The Hearst telegram was about manufacturing war. These new loops manufacture demand, legitimacy, and cultural weight—not because of what the content says, but because of how it was engineered a priori. You furnish the engagement; I'll furnish the reality.

Strands hints today: Clues and answers on Thursday, August 14 2025
Strands hints today: Clues and answers on Thursday, August 14 2025

USA Today

time7 hours ago

  • USA Today

Strands hints today: Clues and answers on Thursday, August 14 2025

WARNING: THERE ARE STRANDS CLUES, SPOILERS AND ANSWERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE AUGUST 14, 2025 STRANDS ANSWER SPOILED FOR YOU. Ready? OK! Have you been playing Strands, the super fun game from the New York Times, the makers of Connections and other brain-teasers like Wordle in which you have to do a search in a jumble of letters and find words based on a theme? It's pretty fun and sometimes very challenging, so we're here to help you out with some clues and the answers, including the "Spangram" that connects all the words. NYT Strands clue for today's puzzle: Honest-to-goodness If you want our help? Think about reality! As for the answers, scroll below the photo below: Kosher, True, Legitimate, Genuine, Authentic, Real The Spangram is ... BONAFIDE. Play more word games Looking for more word games?

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