We’ve got deals on all sorts of TVs, ranging from affordable (yet feature-packed) models to high-end OLED and Mini LEDs that can really wow you. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge
The future looks bright for those who are looking to nab a great TV in 2023 at a substantial discount. Although a fresh slate of new models was announced at CES 2023, it might be a while until any of those arrive and receive any significant discounts. However, you don’t have to wait to land a great deal on a mid- or high-end TV from LG, TCL, Hisense, or Amazon’s own Fire TV brand, as many of the flagship models from last year are currently selling for hundreds of dollars less than their original list price.
Right now, there are a number of discounted 4K TVs to choose from, spanning a wide variety of prices, size configurations, and feature sets. Whether you want a secondary TV for the bedroom or a high-end OLED that’s built for a…
Ross Chastain spoke with Jamie Little after the race and said he is going to make things right with Brandon Poole after crashing into him during the WÜRTH 400 at Dover.
The Kentucky Derby post-position draw is a strangely repressed prelude to a completely unrestrained weekend. Connections to the 20 thoroughbreds entered in the race sat at circular tables in the Aristides Lounge at Churchill Downs on Monday, with dozens of media members and curiosity seekers hovering around the periphery. In a nearly silent atmosphere, post positions are drawn at random and betting odds are assigned.
It’s a city council meeting that primes the pump for the biggest bacchanal in sports, with 150,000 people set to go wild Saturday.
If the draw is an exercise in restraint, it’s fitting that the pulseless Todd Pletcher arrives with the strongest hand. The trainer whose emotions are submerged at all times will command favored Forte (3–1 morning line odds), second choice Tapit Trice (5–1) and undefeated but raw Kingsbarns (12–1).
Pletcher is an annual Triple Crown presence, usually with a large number of contenders, which makes his two Derby wins (Super Saver in 2010, Always Dreaming in ’17) seem like an underachievement. But this is only the second time he’s saddled the favorite for the race.
Pletcher’s horse Forte is the current favorite for the Kentucky Derby.
Matt Stone/Louisville Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Any time you have high hopes and high expectations comes added pressure and added intensity,” Pletcher said last week. “Feel like we’ve been able to have everything go really smoothly, and so you just kind of hope that that continues to be the case and, hopefully, you get lucky with the weather.”
The fickle Kentucky spring weather will be a mystery until Saturday. If the track is dry and fast, Forte is a deserving favorite with five straight stakes victories coming into this race. But he’s also vulnerable. This is not a naturally fast horse, and most recent winners have enough early speed to be forwardly placed in the early stages of the race.
Forte is characteristically prone to coming from off the pace to win in the stretch—if there is not a sufficiently stout pace to wear down the early leaders, he might have too much ground to make up or traffic to navigate in the closing stretch. There is a reason why “pace makes the race” is a well-worn saying at the track.
In other words, Forte isn’t going to dictate the terms of the way this Derby is run. He will be somewhat at the mercy of others to do that for him, and there is some question about whether there is enough speed in the race to set it up for the closers. At the very least, it seems highly unlikely that we will have a dangerously fast early pace that destroys the race and produces a fluke winner like Rich Strike last year, who rolled in late to capture the roses at 80–1 odds.
Todd Pletcher is an annual Triple Crown presence, but this year, his horse is the favorite.
Louisville Courier Journal/USA TODAY Sports
If Forte doesn’t fire, there could be half a dozen other horses poised to seize the day. Some of the major Derby prep races featured dramatic stretch runs, with two horses dueling in the Blue Grass Stakes and three in the Santa Anita Derby. Throw in a talented Japanese import in Derma Sotogake (10–1), a colt coming off a 70-day layoff in Confidence Game (20–1) and the grammatical insult that is Two Phil’s (12–1), and there are plenty of contenders.
“It’s still wide open,” said trainer Brad Cox, who has four starters in this race in Angel of Empire (8–1), Verifying (15–1). Jace’s Road (15–1) and Hit Show (30–1). “[The preps] were all really close races, for the most part. It’s a competitive group of horses. I think from top to bottom it’s a pretty talented group where anybody can jump up and win it.”
A potential x-factor when it comes to pace setting is Reincarnate, a speedy former Bob Baffert trainee who has been moved to the barn of Tim Yakteen while the six-time Derby winner serves the second year of a two-year Derby suspension. While Yakteen is the trainer of record, Baffert might still be orchestrating Reincarnate’s progress to this race—and the colt’s sizzling, 46 2/5–second, four-furlong workout last week seems like the stuff of a speedball who will be going for the lead.
“There’s rarely a total lack of pace,” says Bill Mott, trainer of Rocket Can and winner of the 2019 Derby with Country House after the interference DQ of Maximum Security. “Somebody will go.”
Who goes, and how fast, in the first half of the 1 1/4–mile race will set the stage for how the Kentucky Derby finishes. If things break right, Todd Pletcher has multiple strong chances to be there at the end.
Bill Hader’s role as a “vocal consultant” for the beloved droid BB-8 makes him an official part of the Star Wars universe, but don’t think about asking for his autograph. In a recent appearance on the podcast Happy, Sad, Confused, the actor revealed that he has a blanket policy to not sign Star Wars merch.
“We’ll be on location and there will be these guys with these BB-8 dolls. I do not sign them. Autograph people don’t like me. I won’t sign things,” he said, recalling a late-night encounter with a fan that left him jaded.
“I used to sign stuff, and then one time I saw somebody and they had their kid come up to me to sign a BB-8 thing, and it was three in the morning,” Hader said. “I was leaving the Inside Out premiere and then we went to an after-party thing and it was super late and this guy kept his kid up all night. He’s like, ‘Go over there so he’ll sign it so I can sell it online.'”
According to Hader, the experience left him wary of signing anything Star Wars-related. “I was like, ‘That’s fucked up.’ So now, I’m just kind of blanket, like I’m not signing any of this shit.”
Although Hader had originally tried to do voice work for BB-8, he and J.J. Abrams agreed that it sounded too human-like. Later on, Abrams brought Hader back as a “vocal consultant,” where he strapped on a talk box and helped contribute the electronic noises that ended up in the final cut. On the podcast, the actor mused that “anybody can do that” when explaining why he didn’t work on subsequent Star Wars films.
Even at 38 years old, LeBron James is still finding ways to surprise himself—and his teammates.
During Monday’s practice ahead of the Lakers’ series against Stephen Curry and the Warriors, James made a near-impossible trick shot that left him and his teammates in awe. Originally appearing to just be retrieving an errant ball, LeBron snatched it up near half-court and, with his back still to the basket, flung up a running hook shot.
The shot somehow found its way through the net, with Anthony Davis immediately throwing his hands up and Lakers teammates erupting throughout the gym. Even LeBron, seemingly shocking himself, bent over in disbelief.
Here’s the whole video, captured by Swish Cultures.
James has been known to make his share of ridiculous trick shots, like the post-practice full-court shot he made in 2015. But this one might take the cake in terms of difficulty. A halfcourt, back-turned-running hook? Take a bow, LeBron.
Twitter had plenty of problems in February (the rate limit debacle) and March (when it broke all links and pictures), but through April, the service didn’t register outages of similar significance. Now it’s May, and the streak has ended early as a number of people (including many Verge staffers) report the Twitter.com desktop website has logged them out without warning and won’t let them log back in.
It’s unclear what’s causing the problem, and in place of a functional PR department, Twitter responds to press inquiries with only a poop emoji, so who knows when things may be fixed or if a single engineer has managed to crash something big… again.
The outage is, coincidentally, occurring exactly at the same time it’s becoming a little…
The Senators are looking for new ownership, and it seems Vancouver native Ryan Reynolds isn’t the only celebrity getting involved in the bidding process.
According to The Athletic, rapper Snoop Dogg is involved in the ownership group led by Neko Sparks which is aiming to purchase Ottawa’s NHL franchise.
Snoop Dogg confirmed the reports via his own Instagram on Monday, sharing a photo of Senators players including Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson alongside an image of Sparks.
“Amazing what [Sparks] is trying to do in Ottawa & I’m looking forward to being apart of that ownership team. I WANNA BRING HOCKEY TO OUR COMMUNITY,” the rapper wrote in his Instagram caption.
The report from The Athletic indicates the final sale price of the Senators could exceed the $1 billion threshold. The next round of bids for the organization is due on May 15.
Sparks, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, is heading a consortium consisting of at least a dozen investors aiming to purchase the NHL franchise.
Snoop Dogg has been around the NHL for a while now, occasionally making guest broadcasting appearances for the Kings, his hometown team. The Athletic indicates he could make similar appearances throughout the 2023–24 season in Ottawa, should Sparks’s bid be successful.
If successful in his attempt to buy the team, Sparks would become the NHL’s first Black owner.
The Senators are currently owned by the Melnyk Family, who hired Galatioto Sports Partners to explore a potential sale of the franchise back in 2022.
Embattled electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors says it could run out of money if its deal with iPhone manufacturer Foxconn fails to go through. The deal is in jeopardy after Foxconn notified Lordstown that it’s in breach of its investment deal because its stock has fallen under $1 a share.
Lordstown traces its origins to GM’s announcement in 2018 that it would be closing down its Lordstown, Ohio, factory. Then-President Donald Trump assailed GM over the decision, leading to the automaker’s decision to sell the plant to a struggling electric truck startup called Workhorse.
Instead, Workhorse’s founder and former CEO, Steve Burns, started a new company called Lordstown Motors with the plan to build electric pickup trucks, centered on…
