WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced up to $7.7 billion in assistance for fiscal year 2025 to help agricultural and forestry producers adopt conservation practices on working lands. This includes up to $5.7 billion for climate-smart practices, made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, which is part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda and $2 billion in Farm Bill funding. This is more than double the amount available last year and the most conservation assistance made available in a single year in U.S.

JEANNETTE, Penn., Oct. 2, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small today announced that USDA is investing in 116 projects across the nation to expand access to a clean and reliable electric grid, safe drinking water and good-paying jobs for people in rural and Tribal communities.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for October 2, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficult; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for October 2, Wordle #1,201! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They’re all common letters from our mnemonic today!

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

You’ll find this on a beach.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There is one repeated letter today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There is one vowel.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with S. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with L. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is SHELL.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE and TOUCH, followed by BLEND to eliminate the most common letters. I tried SHELF, which was a likely solution, leaving SHELL as the only answer.

Wordle 1,201 5/6

⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟨🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was medium difficult. The hint was “this computer part dials up” and the answer contained three common letters and two pretty common letters.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was MODEM.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

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You have an exercise you’re always “forgetting” to do. I know you do. For some of us it’s curls, for some of us it’s everything but curls. If you’re short on time or motivation, let me introduce you to my favorite trick for actually getting everything in: density sets.

What are density sets? 

Density sets, also called density training, refers to timed sets of an exercise, or more often two exercises in a superset. I generally do normal sets-and-reps training for most of my lifts, but add in a few density sets for accessories or anything I otherwise would be tempted to skip. 

In density training, you set a timer, and then do as much of your target exercise as possible in that time. I like to use a five-minute timer for a quick burst of accessories, or 10 minutes for something I need to spend more time on. You can choose the number that works for you, and even increase or decrease the time from one training block to the next.

It’s called “density” because the idea is to do as many reps as possible during that time. You can track how many reps you do, and try to beat it the next time. 

How do you do density training? 

First, choose your exercises. I find this works best with a superset of either antagonistic (opposite) exercises, like bicep curls and tricep extensions, or with exercises that work entirely different body parts, like core work for the abs and grip work for the forearms. Warm up for those exercises, if needed. 

Then you start the timer. Begin doing the exercises, but on each set, you don’t want to go all the way to failure. Get close, but quit while you still have a few reps in the tank. This maximizes how many total reps you’ll be able to do before the timer goes off. 

After you’ve done a set of each exercise, rest for the minimum time possible and then get right back into it. It’s normal for those later sets to be fewer reps than the first set, and that’s fine. And if you do hit true failure, that’s also fine! Just keep going, one way or another. If you end up doing 2-3 reps in each of these mini sets toward the end, so be it. If you want to track progress, make sure you write down the weight you used and how many total reps you did. 

Pros of density training

The absolute best thing about density training is that if you set a five-minute timer, you’ll know it will be over in five minutes. Just think: That exercise you keep putting off? Five minutes from now you will be done. 

It’s also great for bro-style pump work. You know, the kind of thing where you get the blood flowing to the target muscles, make them feel like jelly, and walk away looking and feeling temporarily super jacked (this is the ideal time for a gym mirror selfie). 

You also don’t have time to overthink the minutia. How many reps? Enough. How much rest? Until you’re ready to go again. How many sets? As many as it takes to fill the five minutes. 

Cons of density training

During a density set, you don’t have much time to switch weights or to log the exact weight you used, if you did. 

You also aren’t giving yourself enough rest for quality strength work. Density training can make you stronger, but if strength is your focus, you should really make time for some heavier work with three- to five-minute rest times. 

You can do all your training as density sets, and honestly, if I were really crunched for time—had to get a whole workout in in a 20- or 30-minute session—I’d probably organize it into density sets. But for most of us, density sets work best for a few accessories at the end of the day, not all of our training.

Examples of density training

Supersets are great for density training, since you can rest one set of muscles while doing an exercise with another. Say it takes 30 seconds to do a set of bicep curls, and then another 30 for a set of tricep kickbacks. Rest for 30 seconds in between, and now your biceps get a full minute of rest. (You may even be able to skip that last rest, if the 30 seconds of tricep work was enough.) 

You can also do tri-sets (like a superset but with three exercises). And of course you can do single exercises if you want, but I’d recommend at least doubling up. Here are some good supersets that you can do as density work, with examples of exercises you might choose for each: 

• Biceps (curls) and triceps (kickbacks or overhead extensions)

• Core (ab roller) and grip (wrist roller)

• Push-ups (or dips) and inverted rows (or pull-ups)

• Goblet squats and kettlebell swings

• Band walks (for abductors) and Copenhagen planks (for adductors)

• Front raises, lateral raises, and reverse flies (for the three heads of the deltoid)

Don’t forget that I also have a list of my favorite supersets here. Because of the time crunch, it’s best to choose exercises you can do with the same weight (like squats and swings with the same kettlebell) or on the same machine (that list has some examples of cable supersets you can do with just one station on a cable machine). 

And if you ever have exercises that you’ve been prescribed by a physical therapist but you always hate doing…guess what, those are great candidates for density sets as well. 

October Prime Day is coming up, and with it comes a surge of discounts and savings. While Amazon wants you to think each and every deal you come across is worth your time and attention, the truth is few of these deals are actually that great.

All the chaos overwhelms even the most seasoned online shopper, making it hard to know if you’re really saving money at all. But there’s one category that will undoubtedly stand out on Prime Days by design: tech made by Amazon itself. That means things like Fire tablets, Fire TV Cubes, and anything else specifically made by Amazon.

For typical tech sales, most retailers want you buying whatever they can convince you to plunk down money for, be it an iPhone or an Android, a Mac or PC, Xbox or PlayStation. They just want as much of your money as possible, and so traditional shopping events like Black Friday see deals across the spectrum of brands and manufacturers. But Amazon is different.

Amazon is both a store and a manufacturer

While the company sells tons of products from a wide variety of manufacturers, it also makes its own tech. If you’re looking for a new smart TV, Amazon makes one; if you just want the smart TV streaming device, Amazon makes that as well. For home security, you’re covered with either Blink or Ring products. Alexa powers so many of these devices, so why not get one of its smart speakers or screens operated via the personal assistant? Amazon Basics even makes plenty of accessories, from USB cables to batteries.

Amazon now makes so much tech, it only makes sense that the company would prefer to sell you its version of a product over that of the competition. Instead of a Roku, buy a Fire TV stick. Instead of a Nest Mini, buy an Echo Pop. It seems Amazon has comparable products in almost every category—they even make their own earbuds (Echo Buds).

The quality of these products compared to the competition is certainly up for debate, and I encourage you to do your own research before buying any tech product—made by Amazon or otherwise. But whenever you do search for a tech product on Amazon, and especially during October Prime Day, you’re going to be served up an Amazon alternative. It’s only in the company’s best interest to use the event to run big deals on its own products.

Amazon is still a market, and it’s good for them when you buy anything, so if you end up going with a Samsung TV over an Amazon TV, that’s still a sale. That’s why you’ll still find plenty of deals throughout Prime Day for non-Amazon devices. But Amazon products will be pushed the hardest and likely see the biggest discounts and promotions.

Still, don’t impulse buy

Eye-grabbing discounts and tempting product bundles aside, don’t buy an Amazon device just because it looks like a killer deal. If you are in the market for a specific Amazon-made product and it goes on sale, great. That’s a smart purchase. If you were more interested in a non-Amazon device but the Amazon version is now significantly cheaper, though, it’s not necessarily worth chasing value over getting the product you actually want to buy.

Take the time to research the difference between Amazon’s version and the competition. If you do find an Amazon device you want to buy, you can set alerts to be notified when the product hits the price you’re looking for. That’s good general advice for any Prime Day deal (or any big-ticket purchase), but considering how hard Amazon will be pushing its own products this month, it’s especially important to keep in mind. If you buy anything on October Prime Day, I hope you get deals on the best devices for you, whether Amazon made them or not.