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This massage gun is on sale for under $100

TL;DR: As of August 16, you can get the truRelief Impact Therapy Device

To encourage fans to vote, the NBA won't hold games on Election Day

The National Basketball Association announced Tuesday that there are no games scheduled for November 8 in an effort to encourage fans to vote in the 2022 midterms.

2023 Chevy Silverado Gets Beefy ZR2 Bison Trim, Revised Turbodiesel I6 - CNET

You can't mix the two, however.

Jill Biden tests positive for COVID-19

The first lady will remain at a private residence in South Carolina and isolate from others for at least five days per CDC guidance.

Best Cell Phone Trade-In Options for iPhones and Android Phones - CNET

Looking to get the best value for your old phone? Here are your best options.

These wireless earbuds are on sale for 74% off

TL;DR: As of August 16, you can get the Flux 7 TWS Wireless Earbuds

This bundle gets you an HP laptop, MS Office for Windows, and more

TL;DR: As of August 16, you can get the Microsoft Office Pro for Windows 2021 + HP EliteBook + Certificate Course Bundle

'Wordle' today: Here's the answer, hints for August 16

The week's in full swing and there's a new Wordle to solve. Our daily Wordle help is here as well, just in case you need a nudge or two in the right direction.The answer to the August 16 Wordle, puzzle #423, can be found at the end of this article. Before you get there, though, there are a couple of subtle clues to help you narrow it down, and as you scroll down, you'll see we've gathered a selection of the best tips and strategies from our previous reporting to help you every day.Where did Wordle come from? Former Reddit engineer Josh Wardle came up with the game in 2021 as a bit of fun for him and his word game-loving partner. It eventually became a staple of their family WhatsApp messaging, and that's when Wardle started to suspect he might have something special enough to merit a wider release.Thousands of people around the globe now play this game each day, and fans have even created alternatives to Wordle inspired by the original format. This includes music identification game Heardle, Hollywood nerd faves Actorle and Framed, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.Not the day you're after? You'll find the Wordle answer for August 15 here.What's the best Wordle starting word?We have some ideas to help you pick the perfect first move. Such tips include choosing a word with at least two different vowels to rule those building blocks in or out, plus a few common consonants such as S, T, R, or N.

Wanna play 'Doom'? Do I have the John Deere tractor for you!

Folks, we've done it.We've put in the work, and now we're reaping the rewards. Doom can run on anything. First a pregnancy test, and now, even a John Deere tractor. The modification also makes a provocative point about right-to-repair laws, but more importantly: It's Doom. On a tractor. At the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas Sick Codes, a security researcher worked with Doom modder Skelegant and got the game to run on a John Deere tractor display, according to The Verge. As you can see, it's a modified version of the pioneering first-person shooter (FPS), designed to be more of a first-person harvester (FPH). Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) Sick Codes shared a video demonstrating how, with physical access to the tractor's circuit board, they hacked into the expensive piece of farm equipment. "I launched the attack and two minutes later a terminal pops up," Sick Codes said, according to Hack Read. "I had root access, which is rare in Deere land." SEE ALSO: 'Sims' players beautifully recreate the quaint town from 'Stardew Valley' It's obviously neat, but it also shows that there might be some holes in cyber security around farm equipment. Kyle Weins, the co-founder and CEO of an online repair community iFixit, tweeted that this hack is "just the beginning.""Turns out our entire food system is built on outdated, unpatched Linux and Windows CE hardware with LTE modems," Weins said.As Weins pointed out, John Deere has told regulators time and time again that farmers shouldn't fix their own equipment or access data because, the company says, it violates a two decades-old copyright law. This has fueled the "right to repair" movement, leading the White House to issue an executive order limiting John Deere's ability to restrict independent repairs. According to a report from Wired Sick Codes' hacking could lead to even more changes in the right to repair movement by showing that John Deere has maintained its overprotective and litigious stance on software that has some pretty weak security."We want farmers to be able to repair their stuff for when things go wrong, and now that means being able to repair or make decisions about the software in their tractors," Sick Codes told Wired.

Samsung's humongous Odyssey Ark monitor is here, but it'll cost you

When Samsung first announced the Odyssey Ark, back in January 2022, it focused on the fact that this gaming monitor can be flipped to the side and used in a vertical position.

'Quordle' today: Here are the answers and hints for August 16

Did you know we're now more than halfway through August? But if you're only halfway through today's Quordle, you still have two words left to decode before you can rest easy. But stick with us, and we'll get you through it. You can jump to the bottom of the page for the full solution, or give our full strategy guide a breezy read-through, and maybe the answers will magically appear in your head. No pressure either way. We don't even know you, and we're not here to judge. What is Quordle?Quordle is a five-letter word guessing game similar to Wordle, except each guess applies letters to four words at the same time. You get nine guesses instead of six to correctly guess all four words. It looks like playing four Wordle games at the same time, and that is essentially what it is. But it's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds.Is Quordle harder than Wordle?Yes, though not diabolically so.Where did Quordle come from?Amid the Wordle boom of late 2021 and early 2022, when everyone was learning to love free, in-browser, once-a-day word guessing games, creator Freddie Meyer says he took inspiration from one of the first big Wordle variations, Dordle

Google Pixel owners can download Android 13 starting now

Get ready to go outside and enjoy some fresh air while your phone updates, Google Pixel

Actor Ezra Miller is getting mental health treatment after erratic behavior

Miller was arrested twice in Hawaii, including for disorderly conduct and harassment at a karaoke bar. The second incident was for second-degree assault. They also face a burglary charge in Vermont.

See Endangered Red Wolf Pups Caught on Camera in Rare Footage - CNET

US Fish and Wildlife estimates there are only about 20 of the animals in the wild.

Get the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet at its Prime Day price and save 50%

SAVE 50%: The Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet is on sale for only $69.99 as a back-to-school deal at Amazon as of August 16. That's half off its usual cost of $139.99 and right on par with its Prime Day 2022 price.If your little one is begging you for a back-to-school tablet, Amazon's Fire tablets are built especially for their destructive little hands. And as of August 16, you can save big on one of the best kid-specific tablets on the market: the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro.The Fire HD 8 Kids Pro is a great choice for a first tablet for your elementary schooler, thanks to its durable case, curated Amazon Kids+ catalog of apps and games, and detailed parental controls. It's usually $139.99, but you can save 50% and pick one up for just $69.99 at Amazon in blue, black, doodle, or intergalactic varieties.Just a notch above the Fire HD 8 Kids, which we love for kids under 7, the HD 8 Kids Pro is designed for little ones between 6 and 12. It's equipped with parental controls that leave room for growth, so you can ease them up as your child gets older and learns how to use the device more responsibly. You know, rather than just clicking on anything and everything that pops up.Other selling points include its colorful, durable case that is nearly impossible to break, a two-year worry-free guarantee that gets you a new tablet if something does manage to happen to the old one, and a free year of Fire Kids+ (typically $4.99 per month). Fire Kids+ is a subscription service full of curated, kid-friendly content. That includes thousands of apps, games, books, songs, Audible books, and educational content from National Geographic, Lego, and more.If your kiddo's not quite ready for the Pro tablet, Amazon's back-to-school sale has deals on tablets for younger kids as well. Be sure to check out the full list of Amazon kids devices for heading back to school, which includes the Fire HD 8 Kids (as in, not the Pro), the Echo Dot Kids (4th Gen), and more.

Nipsey Hussle gets Hollywood star on what would have been his 37th birthday

The late rapper's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the 2,729th placed to date.

Georgia’s big Trump election investigation, explained

A grand jury investigation in Georgia intensified this summer, and could be a greater legal threat to Trump than the Justice Department. While the congressional committee investigating January 6 has been holding public hearings and the Justice Department has been steadily securing convictions of hundreds of those who breached the Capitol, a grand jury in Atlanta has been meeting behind closed doors to focus on efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to reverse Joe Biden?s election win in Georgia. That Georgia investigation intensified this summer, drawing closer to Trump?s inner circle and potentially posing a clearer legal threat to Trump than the other probes into his campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Here?s what you need to know about it.How did this investigation get started, and who is running it? The special grand jury was convened in May at the request of Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, and she?s leading it. It will aid the ongoing investigation launched by Willis in February 2021 into the conduct of Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the 2020 election.?This is an investigative grand jury, which is slightly different from a regular grand jury that would hear every felony under the sun,? Tamar Hallerman, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who has been focused on the investigation, told Vox in July. ?It is focused on this one exclusive case. The whole idea is that they really can become experts and do a deep dive on everything to overturn Georgia?s election results.? Special grand juries are relatively rare in Georgia and often used in intensive, long-lasting investigations such as this one into the effort to overturn the presidential election in Georgia.Willis is a first-term district attorney who was elected in Georgia?s largest jurisdiction as a Democrat in 2020. She is a career prosecutor who was previously best known for prosecuting educators in Atlanta Public Schools for their role in a scheme to cheat on standardized tests. Willis has also recently received national attention for indicting the rapper Young Thug on an array of gang-related charges.What is the Georgia grand jury investigating?The grand jury is exploring whether Donald Trump and his allies violated Georgia state law in their efforts to reverse the former president?s 2020 loss in the state. Those efforts included his notorious phone call on January 2, 2021, with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump said he wanted ?to find 11,780 votes.?It also encompasses efforts by the Trump campaign to create a slate of fake electors in Georgia to transmit fraudulent electoral votes to Congress for certification. Last week, Willis sent a letter to all 16 fake electors in the state to inform them they were considered ?targets? of the investigation, which means they are being viewed as potential subjects of indictment and not just witnesses. She had previously subpoenaed them in June.Who has the grand jury heard from so far?In addition to subpoenaing the fake electors, the grand jury has sought testimony from a wide array of figures ranging from a former publicist for Kanye West, who allegedly tried to pressure an election worker into making untrue claims about voter fraud, to Brian Kemp, the state?s Republican governor, who was the subject of an unrelenting pressure campaign by Trump to take action on his behalf.Recently, it sought testimony from a variety of figures in Trump?s inner circle, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. ?This is major,? Hallerman said at the time. ?This represents the first time that the DA is piercing the inner orbit of Donald Trump. Previously, she stayed at the state and local level and kept it very Georgia-focused.? Ben Gray/AP

Sterling K. Brown recounts being totally starstruck by Meryl Streep

Sterling K. Brown dropped by The Tonight Show to chat with host Jimmy Fallon about his upcoming new film Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. In an unrelated but relatable moment, the This Is Us actor also recounted getting utterly starstruck in the vicinity of Meryl Streep.

NASA's first 4 miles to the moon starts today. Here's how to watch.

NASA has never stopped sending probes into the cosmos, but it is about to renew its legacy as human deep space explorers. The U.S. space agency will take its mega moon rocket out of storage on Tuesday before its inaugural Artemis I mission, an uncrewed expedition around the moon, which is scheduled to leave Earth as early as Aug. 29. The first leg of that trip, which NASA hasn't undertaken since the last Apollo mission in 1972, starts Tuesday with the slow crawl of the rocket and spacecraft to the launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mission leaders refer to this final rollout as "the first four miles of NASA's return to the moon," said Michael Bolger, exploration ground systems manager at Kennedy Space Center, in a news briefing. Watch a live broadcast of the skyscraper on wheels below or on NASA's Kennedy Space Center YouTube channel. The livestream begins at 3 p.m. ET on Aug. 16, with the roll beginning at about 9 p.m. ET: Here's what the imposing behemoth looked like moving down the "crawlerway" in March for a launch rehearsal.

Ezra Miller — and their recent volatility — explained

Miller is on the cusp of massive fame, but their hedonistic spate of aggression may be their undoing. It looks like The Flash won?t be departing the Speed Force just yet. Actor Ezra Miller has apologized for a lengthy string of bizarre and often violent behavior throughout 2022, including multiple bizarre allegations that they have been forming a sex cult, had ?groomed and brainwashed? one formerly underaged teen, and had acted wildly inappropriately with an 11-year-old. In a statement to Variety published Monday, Miller blamed their troubles on spiraling mental health. ?Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment,? Miller said. ?I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.?The apology follows news that Warner Bros. has been working with actor Ezra Miller to film reshoots of Miller?s highly anticipated film, despite their recent string of arrests for aggressive and violent behavior. Strange tales of the actor?s exploits both in Iceland and on their gun-filled Vermont estate culminated in an arrest in that state for felony burglary on August 7, after Miller allegedly broke into a house and stole bottles of alcohol. That arrest resulted from a search of Miller?s property as police attempted to locate a missing mother and her three children who?d reportedly been living there as recently as July.Miller, one of Hollywood?s most well-known nonbinary actors, has largely flown under the radar until recently, turning in acclaimed performances in indie films before joining the Fantastic Beasts franchise and becoming The Flash in the DC Extended Universe. They kind of (but not really) won an Oscar for that performance. But their March 28 arrest and eventual no-contest plea to disorderly conduct caused other reports of temperamental and aggressive behavior to bubble up. One couple filed a restraining order against them, and they were arrested on charges of second-degree assault after refusing to leave a party and throwing a chair that struck and injured a woman in attendance. The woman refused treatment, and Miller was released. Meanwhile, rumors surfaced that the actor had been having breakdowns while filming The Flash, an upcoming installment in the DC movie franchise, scheduled to be released next summer. After spending the last decade or so on the cusp of top-tier celebrity, Miller?s starring role in that film finally seemed to be pushing them into the limelight.Following the ongoing controversy over their behavior, however, Miller?s career seemed to be in jeopardy. Rolling Stone reported on April 6 that Warner Bros. had put all of Miller?s upcoming projects on hiatus following an emergency meeting to discuss their behavior. That could have potentially included the two remaining installments of the Fantastic Beasts franchise as well as all of Miller?s contracted Flash roles. Meanwhile, other projects began to distance themselves from the star: Most recently, the Toronto International Film Festival announced it would close the fest with the world premiere of Daliland, in which Miller plays a young Salvador Dali ? but TIFF prominently failed to mention Miller in its announcement for the film and its cast. It?s all been a sharp, swift drop for an actor whose career has so far appeared to be a steady, straight climb to the top. Still, so far, Warner Bros. seems to be committed to forging ahead with The Flash and with Miller. Studio head David Zaslav described the film as ?terrific? on an earnings call according to THR, and the film is still scheduled for a June 2023 release. Miller?s apology seems to validate prior speculation that the studio might finally bring them to heel in order to allow the film to move forward. With so much riding on The Flash, including its $200 million budget, there?s a huge amount of pressure on Miller to make a full mental health recovery. But that might be easier said than done: Miller?s troubling behavior seems to have been spiraling for a while. A brief history of Ezra Miller?s brushes with the lawThe Hawaii police chief who delivered the announcement of Miller?s March 28 arrest noted that they?d been the subject of 10 police complaints in the past month. And the details of Miller?s protracted misconduct spree read like The Hangover as Dadaist poetry: Miller had reportedly been hanging out in small-town Hilo, Hawaii, living at a hostel alongside a married couple they befriended at a farmers market and then stayed with. On Sunday, March 27, Miller became rowdy at a local bar, refusing to calm down despite several requests. Then they grabbed the microphone away from a woman doing a karaoke duet of ?Shallow? before accosting a man playing darts, at which point the police got involved.The couple Miller was living with paid $500 to bail them out. Miller?s aggression didn?t end with the actor?s arrest, however. According to the restraining order the pair subsequently filed against Miller, a few hours after they all returned to the hostel, Miller suddenly ?burst into the [couple?s] bedroom and threatened [them], saying ?I will bury you and your slut wife.?? Miller then allegedly stole the man?s wallet, containing all his identifying info; it?s unclear whether it was ever recovered.So far, this could sound like Miller was having one really upsetting day. Indeed, in my initial reporting on this story, I mentioned some of the factors that might be distressing Miller ? the pressures of being a nonbinary celebrity, the strains of the pandemic era, and the many health risks and other stressors that trans people face.But as more allegations of predatory, coercive, and controlling behavior by Miller surface, a pattern emerges in which Miller appears to display the classic signs of a cult leader in the making: a volatile, unpredictable, violent personality, a tendency to amass groups of followers, and an alleged pattern of grooming underage admirers. This volatile persona may seem little like the actor and musician fans have come to know through their onscreen work and pop culture events like Comic-Con. But Miller has reportedly been having similar outbursts and bursts of aggression for years.Miller?s rise to fame was extraordinarily swift and early. Born in 1992 to wealthy New Jersey parents ? he was a prominent New York publisher, she a successful modern dancer ? Miller excelled in singing opera while they were still a child, debuting with the New York premiere of Philip Glass?s opera White Raven at Lincoln Center in 2001. They would later describe that experience as ?the most profound ego boost that an 8-year-old could possibly receive.? Miller then moved into a long-term residency with the Metropolitan Opera children?s chorus. That background primed them to segue into acting, and there again they seemed to be charmed: Their first TV role? Feeding wisdom to David Duchovny at the ripe old age of 15 in Showtime?s hit dramedy Californication. Their first movie? The lead role in Antonio Campos?s critically acclaimed Afterschool, which debuted at Cannes that same year.With so much momentum behind their burgeoning career, it?s probably unsurprising that after Afterschool, Miller quit school and focused on acting. (It?s perhaps more surprising that they credit this decision with Beethoven appearing to them in a dream.)Their breakout mainstream role came soon after: 2011?s We Need to Talk About Kevin, a bleak but unforgettable drama in which Miller played a school shooter tiptoeing a strange line with his mother, played by Tilda Swinton, who struggles to connect with him both before and after unspeakable tragedy. That film introduced Miller to mainstream audiences; 2012?s Perks of Being a Wallflower, where they played Emma Watson?s charismatic gay stepbrother, seemed to put them on a path to certain stardom.Yet even then cracks began to show. According to Rolling Stone?s Tatiana Siegel, Miller was perhaps a little too gleeful about their ownership of We Need to Talk About Kevin?s now-infamous crossbow along with the rest of their gun collection. In 2012, while bonding with their Wallflower co-stars, Miller claimed they, Emma Watson, and others got hit with a hotel noise complaint for having a loud, long after-hours party. That same year, after a car Miller was riding in got pulled over for a broken taillight, Miller was detained by police for allegedly holding an armful of pot (they were clutching ?brown, vegetable material? and later described it as ?pot strewn about, covering me like a quilt?) and ultimately cited for disorderly conduct. While it?s not clear what conduct was disorderly, the judge, according to Miller, lectured them on being a better influence for today?s youth.Miller had perhaps more personal priorities, like coming out, embracing their queer, polyamorous identity, posing for Playboy, and starting a band, all while continuing their edgy roles in things like 2015?s Stanford Prison Experiment. Then Warner Bros. came calling, and Miller entered the DC family with 2016?s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, putting them on a vaunted superhero trajectory that would eventually lead to their expanded role in Zack Snyder?s Justice League and their upcoming titular turn in 2023?s The Flash.But entering the DC universe also meant introducing Ezra Miller to fandom, which maybe hasn?t always been the best outlet for their high-level theater-kid energy. When they weren?t at Comic-Con performing bare-chested renditions of Rihanna in the lobby or roleplaying as a bare-chested Toadette, they were turning heads for spontaneously kissing a fan ? and, in 2020, for a disturbing incident that appeared to set a precedent for what followed.At a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland, in April 2020, a group of fans approached Miller, who grew increasingly agitated. While speaking to one woman, Miller abruptly asked her, ?Did you want to fight?? before grabbing her by the neck, choking her, and pushing her against the floor ? a moment briefly captured in a video in which Miller apparently had to be pulled off the woman by bystanders. While some fans thought the incident might be a joke, Variety reported at the time that Miller had been ?frustrated and angry? and had been escorted off the premises.Miller seemed to stay off the radar since that incident, but while they were filming The Flash last year, an anonymous source hinted to Rolling Stone that Miller had multiple ?meltdowns? ? nonviolent but apparently torturous. Then in 2022, they re-emerged with a vengeance. In late January, they made a strange, since-deleted Instagram post threatening violence against a specific small-town chapter of the Ku Klux Klan ? one that doesn?t seem to have been active in recent years. While that was inexplicable, it didn?t raise as many eyebrows as Miller?s Hawaii stint, in which they were reported to police for more quizzical behavior, including filming strangers at a gas station. In one incident captured on camera, Miller seems to be refusing to move away from a restaurant when asked until finally one of the hosts pushes them away, after which the cops were summoned.Miller has always seemed aware of their tendency for edgier, riskier behavior. They once described their high school rebellion as a period of ?burning, breaking, yelling, hitting things? and later added, ?I definitely don?t count on a full life cycle for many reasons.? Miller has also spoken before of ?the inherent torment of being privileged or coming from an illustrious father in a time of gross economic disparity.?Then there?s the brutally young age at which Miller was thrust into the limelight. To be forced to deal with the monumental pressures of skyrocketing fame as a teenager, an age when most people are still learning how to grapple with their own huge emotions, has historically tended to be a stumbling block to a well-adjusted adulthood. It probably also didn?t help that, while still a teen, Miller immersed themself in the mind of the titular Kevin, a mass murderer and family annihilator who hates his mother ? a role that led Miller to completely avoid speaking to their own mother for months, until the production wrapped. These things in Miller?s childhood are not their fault, least of all the destructiveness of method acting ? but they all hint, perhaps, at the utter lack of mental health resources Hollywood provides young actors as they embark on careers that can so easily leave them feeling vulnerable and misplaced. Miller?s high-profile genderqueer identity further makes them more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.None of this, however, justifies Miller?s escalating pattern of violence, aggression, and in particular what now seems to be a long pattern of manipulating and coercing young admirers. Business Insider recently published an investigative report on Miller?s intensifying behavior, including interviews with numerous people who knew them in their recent travels to Iceland. Friends described Miller?s efforts to gain followers and house them all in their rented Airbnb in Reykjav?k ? and how the ?commune,? as one visitor described it, turned toxic as Miller attempted to keep people from leaving. They described Miller as indulging in long sermons, claiming to have supernatural powers, and forbidding any type of disagreement.Even more disturbing are allegations that Miller groomed multiple underage followers for sexual relationships. Multiple parents filed protection orders against Miller over the summer, including the parents of a 12-year-old who claimed Miller had been behaving erratically and inappropriately towards their child for some time. This included hugs and touching that made the child uncomfortable and claiming that the child was ?an elevated being? who needed Miller?s guidance.One alleged target of Miller?s is Gibson Iron Eyes, an 18-year-old Standing Rock Sioux activist whom Miller has known since they were 12 and Miller was 23. Their parents requested and received a protective order against Miller in June 2022, claiming that Miller had ?brainwashed,? ?groomed,? and used ?violence? and ?intimidation? to manipulate Iron Eyes and separate them from their family. Although the protective order was granted, the couple was unable to locate Miller and Iron Eyes, whom they had previously tried to remove from Miller?s side after the teen allegedly overdosed on LSD while in Miller?s care. Iron Eyes later twice escaped from their family to rejoin Miller, leading to one incident in which Miller allegedly slammed a car door on Iron Eyes? mother?s arm. Iron Eyes has gone on the record repeatedly to dispute these claims, insisting that they are not being coerced and that they now realize they were manipulated and psychologically controlled by their parents for years. It?s worth noting, though, that that?s also the kind of alienating belief that both cult leaders and controlling, isolating partners like to instill in their victims. Moreover, one eyewitness described the relationship to Business Insider as deeply manipulative, claiming Miller had sex with the teen (which Iron Eyes has denied), confiscated Iron Eyes? phone, coerced them to take ?Gibson,? the nickname of their family?s dog, as their own, and even slammed them to the ground and screamed at them. At the very least, none of this paints a flattering portrait of Miller. At worst, they may be guilty of a long list of criminal conduct. As of August, police were searching Miller?s Vermont estate hoping to track down a missing mother and her three children, due to concerns that the children?s environment contained unattended guns and bullets. The mother had previously told Rolling Stone that Miller had helped her and her children escape an abusive relationship by offering her shelter on the property. Miller claimed the family had since left the property, but police saw this statement as evasive.In the wake of these incidents, it?s unclear what the future status of Miller?s projects with Warner Bros. might look like. The Fantastic Beasts franchise may be doomed without Miller?s assistance: Although there are still two films remaining, they haven?t been greenlit by the studio, and the next film in the beleaguered franchise does not yet have a script. But if one of Miller?s franchises is floundering, it looks as if the other may be powering ahead. The Hollywood Reporter recently reported that Warner Bros. regularly filmed reshoots of The Flash with Miller over the summer. Barry Allen ? the Flash?s alter ego ? won a huge fan following after Snyder?s Justice League cut, which led to their big scene from that movie, ?The Flash Enters The Speed Force,? winning the ?fan favorite moment? award (not a real award, but, you know, a thing) at the Oscars. The Flash seems likely to be one of the biggest DC Expanded Universe films yet ? and despite uncertainty about how it might promote and market the film, Warner seems to be sticking by its decision to continue featuring them in the role. Still, even with Miller?s new apology, the allegations against them aren?t typically the kind an actor just moves on from. While the petty theft and dive bar meltdowns could perhaps be written off as a form of pressure release, the accusations of violent outbursts, cult-like activity, and years of strategically grooming underage fans point to much deeper problems ? problems that likely won?t be curbed by handing them a major starring role in a massive franchise. This is an actor, after all, who once claimed that ?burning and breaking things? was ?necessary,? and that ?you have to set things on fire and then yell to feel even remotely okay.? Increasingly, it appears the thing Miller is setting ablaze may be their own life.Update, August 11, 4:40 pm: This piece was originally published on April 8 and has been updated throughout to include new incidents involving Miller.Update, August 16, 11:30 am: This piece has been updated throughout to include Miller?s apology.

Best Rust Remover in 2022 - CNET

We tested multiple rust dissolvers to find out which ones were best for loosening rusty bolts and screws.

A man who held up a bank demanding his own money becomes an unlikely hero

Many in Lebanon can't access their life savings because of the economic crisis. A hostage-taker in Beirut surrendered in exchange for some of his funds, which he needed for his father's medical bills.

Over the river from a Russian-occupied nuclear plant, a Ukrainian town fears a spill

The small town of Nikopol, Ukraine, sits across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Attacks are causing serious alarm for the community.

The U.K. approved omicron-specific booster shots. They're coming to the U.S. soon

In the U.S., officials have asked vaccine makers to target BA.5, rather than the original omicron strain. That has delayed the boosters' development ? but officials hope they will be more effective.

Best Back-to-School Student Internet Deals and Discounts - CNET

Let CNET help you sift through the available broadband deals for this coming semester, including discounts for AT&T, Cox, Xfinity and more.

6 of the best Squarespace templates for video

Looking to take your filmmaking, video-editing, or streaming talents beyond YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, or Twitch

The best Apple deals as of Aug. 16: iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, and more

UPDATE: Aug. 16, 2022, 12:30 p.m. EDT We've updated this post with the best deals from across the Apple universe. BEST MAC DEAL: The 16-inch MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD)

10 College Wardrobe Essentials to Put on Your Packing List - CNET

Going to school and not sure what to pack? Here are the top 10 college wardrobe necessities recommended by a recent college grad.

Capri Sun Recall: Check if Your Juice May Be Contaminated With Cleaning Solution - CNET

Thousands of wild cherry juice pouches have been recalled.

The best VPNs to partner with your iPhone

VPNs are great tools for anyone concerned about diminishing privacy on the internet. These days, it's difficult to surf the web without leaving behind a trail of your activity.While there's certainly no foolproof privacy option, VPNs are a popular way to shroud your web identity, and they're available for almost any device that connects to the internet, including iOS devices like the iPhone.What is a VPN?A VPN forms a protected tunnel that you send all of your information through. Instead of sending and receiving information in the open, it happens under the cover of an encrypted connection between your iPhone and the websites and services that you are visiting. Nobody can see your data, and all of your activity is protected against online threats like viruses, hackers, and malware.Do you need a VPN for your iPhone?An iPhone is an expensive purchase, and therefore something that you should really be protecting at all costs. To keep your data protected in transit, you need a VPN. With a VPN's protection, nobody can see or tweak your network traffic, not even the network's owner. VPNs encrypt your traffic before it leaves your phone. This encrypted data stream travels to a server owned by the VPN company, where it's decrypted and sent on its way. This keeps your activity under wraps. What is the best VPN for your iPhone?Whether or not you need a VPN

Apple's Latest Return-to-Office Attempt Reportedly Set for Sept. 5 - CNET

After multiple delays due to COVID-19 spikes, the tech company's corporate employees may be headed back to the office three days a week.

It’s probably time to clean your filters

Stop breathing in dirty air and drinking cloudy water. Change your dang filters. John Ogden-McKee, a self-described ?extremely clean person,? has a penchant for filtration. In his home in Dallas, Ogden-McKee, 39, uses five air purifiers with built-in HEPA (short for high-efficiency particulate air) filters ? one in every room but the kitchen ? drinks water from a filtered container, and fills his drinking glasses with cubes created in an ice maker with a filtration component. He replaces the MERV 13 filter in the air conditioner on the first of every month; as soon as the ?change filter? light on the other devices illuminates, he swaps out the used filter for a new one. ?We just always have extra,? he says of his stash of assorted filters, which he keeps stored in a closet. ?I can?t stand any chaos.?Recently, Ogden-McKee discovered a crack in his highly filtered facade. While cleaning the water fountain for his kittens, Push Pin and Paperclip, Ogden-McKee accidentally discovered the device had a filter ? one with four months? worth of cat water grime. ?It was almost like this horror that was in my house that I had no idea about,? Ogden-McKee says.Over the course of a day, you?re likely to encounter any number of filters: furnace/air conditioning filters (they?re the same filter if your home has central AC), vacuum filters, water filters, car cabin air filters, humidifier filters, dishwasher filters, cat fountain filters. The pandemic helped raise the status of air filters as public health officials touted the benefits of ventilation and air purifiers in clearing SARS-CoV-2 in the air. Designed to remove contaminants like dust, pet hair, and chemicals from your air or water, filters need to be cleaned or replaced regularly or the devices they aid won?t function as necessary. Even more crucially, air filters help prevent all the gunk in the air in the home from getting into your body. ?Indoor air can be more polluted than air outside,? says Kelsey Hei, a 3M Filtrete Brand application engineer. ?With our homes being built more airtight, there isn?t as much air circulation to capture and remove particles from your home?s air without the help of heating and cooling systems or air purifiers, aside from opening windows and doors.?However, most people don?t regularly swap out or clean filters on their appliances, says Kelly Winslow, the director of engineering at EnviroHome, which specializes in environmental engineering and indoor air quality. ?People abuse filters,? Winslow says, ?because they just put it in, leave them in, and think the job is done. A filter is a temporary solution.? As evidence of my own lack of filter replacement knowledge, during my last oil change, the mechanic took a picture of my car?s air filter and wrote a defiant ?ICK!? alongside. ?A lot of people especially forget to change out their car air filter,? says Dee Ray, the chief marketing officer at FiltersFast.com. Filters can cost anywhere from upward of $50 for a refrigerator water filter to around $5 for a basic air conditioner or HVAC filter, but in the long run it?s about keeping your products, the water, and the air in your home ? and the people you live with ? healthy and in top shape. ?Spending $10 on a filter quarterly, that sounds like a lot of money,? Winslow says. ?But when you have to replace a whole unit for $4,500 after six years when it could have gone 14, that $40 looks pretty good for a year.? If you were looking for a reminder to replace any of your filters, this is it.Air filtersThere are several household appliances that filter dust, hair, debris, and other contaminants out of the air: central and window air conditioners, furnaces, dehumidifiers, range hoods or over-the-range microwaves, air purifiers, cars, vacuum cleaners, clothes dryers, even the refrigerator. ?The key thing is your air conditioning system,? Winslow says. Air conditioner manufacturers typically recommend changing the filter every other month, but Winslow suggests refreshing the filter every quarter (four times a year). You?ll want to use a high-quality filter with a MERV rating of at least 8. ?MERV ratings on a filter go from 1 to 20,? Winslow says. ?A 20 is a filter that?s used in a hospital room and a MERV 4 is a rating for a filter that is a very basic, low-quality filter you see in many homes.?Vacuum filters should be regularly cleaned or replaced, too. Some vacuums have foam filters that can be cleaned with all-purpose cleaner and water. However, if your vacuum has a HEPA filter (made of woven fibers), don?t wash it; just get a new one when your old one?s dirty. The issue with vacuums, Winslow says, is they ?are notoriously bad pieces of equipment for indoor air quality unless they are higher-end vacuums. ? Otherwise, the vacuum just pulls the stuff out of the carpet and literally throws it into the air, which is where you don?t want it to be.? Winslow?s rule of thumb is to avoid carpets if at all possible.Every filter should be changed at various times ? like monthly for grease and charcoal filters on over-the-range microwaves or after every use on a dryer lint filter ? so this unfortunately means doing some digging on your specific appliance. Water filtersWater pitchers, refrigerators with water dispensers and ice makers, sink filters, whole house filters, water bottles, dishwashers, coffee makers, fish tanks, and pet fountains filter water, removing metals and chemicals. ?Most casual users of water filter pitchers just ignore the recommendations and replace the filters as soon as they notice the water flow slow down too much that it becomes unusable,? says Paul Lewin, founder of Home Water Research, who has reviewed hundreds of water filters, by his count. ?Others go by taste, and if the water starts not to taste as good as before, it?s time for a change.? Standard Brita filters, for example, need to be replaced every two months; LG refrigerator water filters last six months.Dishwasher filters help ensure the machine?s pump isn?t clogged and prevent bits of food from sloshing around and flinging back on your dishes. Generally, the filter will be on the bottom of the dishwasher and can be cleaned once or twice a year with dish soap and water.Lewin says to read the filter manufacturer?s instructions for when to swap out your filter. These recommendations are often for optimal water conditions ?and may be a bit generous,? Lewin says. Extra credit for the overachievers: If you?d like a more precise idea of how long your filter will last, Lewin suggests testing your water before you buy a filter. ?High-quality tests are available cheaply on Amazon and other online stores,? he says. ?You collect the water sample yourself and send it back to the lab, and often get results in less than a week. Once you know exactly what?s in your water and what it is you want to filter out, you can look for filters that target those specific contaminants.?MaintenanceBecause some appliances have disposable filters (like water purification systems) and some just need cleaning (clothes dryers) plus varying replacement schedules, keeping this all straight can be confusing. Winslow recommends marking a calendar with the dates you should replace specific filters. Ray suggests signing up for auto-delivery so as soon as your new filter arrives, you can swap it out. Filtrete also has an app that sends notifications to your phone when it?s time to change the filter, Hei notes, or you can set reminders in your phone. If it?s easier for you to lump filter maintenance in with other seasonal chores, try, for example, changing the filter in your window AC unit when you?re taking it out in the late summer or early fall so you?ll be ready to go come next spring.As a rule of thumb, Ray says people should change an air filter every two to three months and a water filter every six months. Renters should clarify with their landlord whether they are responsible for replacing filters in appliances like the air conditioner or ice maker. After discovering the filter in his cats? water fountain, John Ogden-McKee, the filter-happy cat owner, ordered eight filters and immediately installed a fresh one once his order arrived. ?I felt bad,? Ogden-McKee says. ?I know they?re cats, but they were drinking this water that was running through this disgusting filter. I was like, I failed the cats somehow.?Even Better is here to offer deeply sourced, actionable advice for helping you live a better life. 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Recreating The Simpsons in the post-apocalypse

Anne Washburn, the playwright behind Mr. Burns, explains herself: ?It?s about the comfort of looking again.? Anne Washburn?s play Mr. Burns begins with a striking image. A group of four people sits around a campfire. They are tense, watchful, carrying guns. A woman apparently mute with trauma crouches on the outskirts of the firelight. The group is trying to remember the details of an episode of The Simpsons.Mr. Burns takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, one now oddly more familiar than it was when the show was first staged in Washington, DC?s Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2012. Humanity has been decimated by a pandemic. In the aftermath, the electrical grid has failed, which in turn has led to the meltdown of the world?s nuclear reactors. Now, just months after civilization has been utterly destroyed, a few scattered survivors are trying to pass the night by reconstructing the 1993 Simpsons episode ?Cape Feare,? which sees ex-convict Sideshow Bob setting out on a murderous campaign to kill Bart Simpson.In the second of Mr. Burns?s three acts, we see the post-apocalyptic world advanced seven years into the future. Now, the survivors we met in Act 1 have formed an acting troupe. They travel what?s left of the US performing old episodes of The Simpsons, complete with interludes for commercials and a medley of the biggest pop hits of the 2000s. In the final act, which takes place 75 years later, things have changed yet again. Now, ?Cape Feare? has become a kind of epic poem that a new society uses to mourn the loss of the old. It?s Homer meets Homer (the other one).Mr. Burns is now onstage again at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, New York. It?s the first major revival of the work since it became a cult sensation at New York?s Playwrights Horizon in 2013, which means it?s also the first major revival since the pandemic hit in 2020. And now that we?ve all lived through lockdown and what felt like at least one minor apocalypse, we know that Washburn was correct about what you do at the end of the world: you sit down and you try to lose yourself in some good old-fashioned comfort television.To find out more about what Mr. Burns has to tell us about stories, how they change, and why we need them, I called Washburn up over Zoom. Highlights from our conversation, lightly edited for length and flow, are below. I want to start with the creation of this idea. I?ve read that you said you were interested in seeing what would happen if you pushed a TV show past the apocalypse. Did you always have in mind the same ending point, with the TV show becoming a piece of classical tragedy?Yes. What I knew about it when I started was that the first act would be right after the fall of civilization. The second act would be five or seven years later, and then the end would be 75 years later. There would be a few old people around who could still remember what it had been like before, but mostly it would be a new generation.Talk to me about the development process for this show. How did you build out the three acts?I wanted to start with getting a few actors in a room to remember a Simpsons episode, because that language of trying to remember something is so specific and wonderful and delightful. But I didn?t want to inconvenience my friends, the actors, for more than a day without paying them, and I didn?t know how long it would take. So I kind of sat on this idea for a couple of years.And then I was talking with Steve Cosson, who is AD [artistic director] of The Civilians, this investigative theater group that I?m part of. He asked if I wanted to apply for a commission. So we [proposed Mr. Burns] for that, and the commission came with some development money. So then we plunked this group of actors together in this weirdo rehearsal space in a bank vault underneath Wall Street, which was a free space that summer that was getting passed around. Very post-apocalypse. It was very post-apocalypse. Our cellphones didn?t work in there. We were in a literal bank vault, with a huge door to it. The lights flickered. It was incredible, kind of great and horrifying. I knew I wanted to start with that language [of remembering], so we sort of had them remember Simpsons episodes, and we had them do it many different times. I had a transcript of it, and then I sat on it for two years until Steve began to bug me, because I didn?t think it was a show anyone would do.I transcribed their multiple versions and put it into one version, and that was how it started. And then I just basically wrote it. The episode you landed on, ?Cape Feare,? is really a perfect episode of The Simpsons for this project because it?s so referential. It?s built around the Robert De Niro movie Cape Fear from 1991, which itself is a remake of the 1962 movie Cape Fear and also heavily drawing from the 1955 movie Night of the Hunter. And both of the Cape Fear movies are based on a novel. Did you ever have a moment of being like, ?Yes, this referentiality is going to be one of the big themes of this show, and it?s all coming together??I didn?t have that train of thought. But it seemed perfect. Even before we got the actors together in the room, the show was still called Mr. Burns. So I didn?t know how it was going to end or what was going to happen at the ending, but I knew that Mr. Burns was a central figure of it somewhere, the central villain. We were really taking a chance on them remembering episodes that would have been good. I love to think what would have happened if we?d had a different episode. How differently would the play have gone? It might not have gone differently. I think the moment you come up with an idea for a play, in some weird way you?ve already structured it in your head. But then so much of the play depended on that. All of which is to say it felt quite perfect in many ways. It?s deeply referential, but it?s also just such a deeply primitive story: It?s a family on a river, with a killer. So it?s horrifying in that way, and also in a post-apocalyptic time of poor societal control, it would really feel right.I had a conversation after I had written it with Jon Vitti, who was the lead writer on that episode. He came to see it in DC, which we hadn?t considered as a thing that might happen. I thought, ?Oh, The Simpsons is created by this phalanx of Harvard men.? Suddenly I realized, ?Oh, there?s a writer who wrote this.? I was sort of terrified that he wouldn?t like it and would feel violated, but he loved it. One of the things he said to me that I thought was really interesting was that it was the practice of [The Simpsons] that you couldn?t reference any one source very particularly. It was mixed and mashed up so that any audience member coming in who might not have seen one particular thing wouldn?t be left at sea. But this episode was written at the very end of season five, when that initial writer?s room was just about to go. They kind of figured, ?Fuck it.? They wanted to do an episode that centered more around one movie. A lot of people really remember that episode very well, and I think it?s because it?s a more intact story, and a more intact set of references. It references a million other things as well, like any of them do. But it?s easier to put together in your head, because it retains this kind of ancient lineage of the remake of Cape Fear and the original Cape Fear and Night of the Hunter. It has this core running through it. I want to zoom out a little now. In the first act, we see the survivors of this apocalypse sitting around the campfire, trying to retell this Simpsons episode from memory. It feels very true to what life was like at the beginning of lockdown, when so many of us were spending time watching nostalgic old TV shows. Why do you think this kind of pop culture comfort food can feel so important in times of deep disaster?It seemed to me that if you had a group of people who didn?t know each other around a campfire, they would want to tell the stories they have in common. Because when you?re anxious, you look for stories you already know. And the stories that we all have in common at this point are TV shows. I mean, they used to be. It?s not the same anymore. I would write it differently if I were writing it now, honestly, because we?re much more divergent. But at that time, everybody had seen The Simpsons. Also, it?s funny. It?s a place you would want to go if everything around you was dark and unholy. In the same way that I was about to watch what I am told is an uncommonly fine television series, Chernobyl, and then the pandemic hit. And I was like, ?That?s on hold. I will not watch this program, however wonderful, anytime soon.?I think of this play ? and I didn?t think of it in this way when I wrote it ? but I think of it as being in many ways a 9/11 play. It was written about 10 years afterward, and it takes about that long to digest something. I?m sure there?s going to be all sorts of stuff about the pandemic coming out soon, but it?s going to be longer before it really starts. But something I thought was really interesting about 9/11 was the way that, because it was a shared group crisis in New York, there was this etiquette. People instantly cottoned onto ways of behaving or ways of giving information, and everybody did it very quickly. I?d never seen the formation of etiquette or group process happen that quickly.I felt a similar way in the pandemic. Nobody was masking, nobody was masking, nobody was masking, there was a mandate, and then suddenly everybody was masking. Everybody suddenly began panicking and running for the beans. There was this whole elaborate thing of wearing a mask in the park when no one was there, or taking it off the moment you saw someone in the distance. We all obeyed the same rules at the same time. So in that way it felt recollective to me of groupthink, or the ways we all operate as animals when we?re in crisis and decide to do the same thing. In the second act, we see this acting troupe recreating not just the Simpsons episode, but also a long commercial segment. We learn that they pride themselves on the strength of their commercials as being what sets them apart from other troupes. The commercial isn?t really selling anything in particular, but it?s sort of an invocation of brand names and various capitalist creature comforts. What led you to including that segment in the second act?Commercials are kind of incredible. They?re an incredibly useful way to create suspense within a narrative. This is something we don?t experience in the same way anymore, but it used to be you?d be experiencing your drama or your comedy, and then you?d be bopped out of it. And it?s irritating, but then you?d see one commercial, and then another commercial, and then another commercial. They?re actually an incredibly weird, creative thing to have in the middle of other stories. Like vaudeville in the middle of the drama.It?s about the comfort of looking again. It?s about the deeply bittersweet comfort of looking at where we were when we had all this food, and the problem was someone in your office taking food from the fridge. But it?s also the place where they [the actors within the play] could stretch a little bit, in ways they might not even understand as being creative. It?s not the way that we handle commercials now. We talk about commercials satirically, so I think even the fact of watching people handling commercials not satirically signals to the audience, in a very quiet way, that this is a very different society. Even if you can?t quite put your finger on it.We also learn in the second act that there are a bunch of other acting troupes out there, and they?re all vying for control of various Simpsons episodes to perform. How did you decide that copyright would outlast the apocalypse?Any creative group has monitored, if they could, their version of things. As long as art is worth something, people want to know that their version is protected, and in the absence of a copyright office you turn to different methods. If something?s worth something you?re going to be protective of it, and art is always worth something.You mentioned earlier that you knew from the beginning that Mr. Burns was going to be a central character, and then you ended up building the play around ?Cape Feare,? which is a Sideshow Bob episode where Mr. Burns doesn?t appear. I really love the way that in the final act, we see that Sideshow Bob has become conflated with Mr. Burns as the great mythic villain who the Simpsons must fight. How did you come to the decision that this transformation would have to happen?Villains swap out easily, as we see in Batman and Spider-Man. The hero?s always the same and the villain?s always different. That doesn?t take much.Without getting too far into it, I felt like the villain in the third act would be a figure which would reflect the fears of that world, would articulate the dangers which aren?t going away. In Night of the Hunter, he?s a force who?s noncivilized. Robert Mitchum who becomes Robert de Niro who becomes Sideshow Bob: he?s uncontainable. He can?t be controlled by society. If you expand that to all the forces who can?t be controlled in Act 3, that?s what that figure can circle around. It?s social stuff, it?s violence, it?s everything that can?t be regulated by law. It?s environmental damage. All of the darknesses which are invisible.Okay, time for us to wrap up. It?s the end of the world and you?re sitting around the campfire, telling stories. What stories are you telling?I think it would happen much the way it happened in the bank vault: you?d have a group of people canvassing each other and riffing off of this and riffing off of that, and then something would catch fire in the group. And people would figure out what kind of story they wanted to hear together. So the story comes from the group and from our shared communities?I think it comes from our need, right? And we don?t necessarily know what we need until we touch on something that starts to fulfill that.