Hey everyone — there have been questions about Chris Ziegler and his absence from The Verge in the past few weeks. I want to provide answers for those who have been worried about him. First, Chris accepted a position at Apple. We wish him well. Second, the circumstances of Chris' departure from The…

Norm Macdonald Norm Macdonald is one of the funniest stand-up comedians of the last 30-odd years. That’s pretty much a fact. But why he never found a good mainstream home for his razor-sharp-rube persona since he left — okay, was famously fired from — Saturday Night Live, in 1998, remains one of…

U.S. Updated | If Donald Trump is elected president, will he and his family permanently sever all connections to the Trump Organization, a sprawling business empire that has spread a secretive financial web across the world? Or will Trump instead choose to be the most conflicted president in…

No Man’s Sky didn’t send out review builds because the game wasn’t done. No Man’s Sky gets leaked by resellers breaking street date. Polygon, Kotaku, and numerous streamers obtain a copy before release date and play it. No Man’s Sky developer and the platform holder both say the game isn’t final. No…

Three months ago, my then-boyfriend, Craig, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I cried with excitement. After all, it was a huge moment in my life that was exceptionally exciting, special, and celebration-worthy. But is it an accomplishment? No. Now that I have a ring on my finger, I…

I don’t do album reviews, so this isn’t an album review, its more of an observation via a collection of quotables. Lets not beat around the bush, how did Danny Brown manage to drop the hardest album of the year? His latest album is like shock therapy, except it doesn’t wipe your mind, it gives you…

A new study of the porn industry tries to sidestep ideological battles, with a neutral, fact-driven approach. Photo Illustration by Sara Cwynar If you watch pornography, it’s likely that you do so on the Internet. The days when consuming pornography meant buying or borrowing a pinup magazine or…

I remember being endlessly entertained by the adventures of my toys. Some days they died repeated, violent deaths, other days they traveled to space or discussed my swim lessons and how I absolutely should be allowed in the deep end of the pool, especially since I was such a talented doggy-paddler.…

1 I am sitting in a classroom in Vancouver trying to act normal. I’m not quite sure what normal is supposed to look like, but I am pretty sure I’m doing it wrong. I’ve developed the habit of wrapping my arm around my head and sticking my fingers into my mouth. I don’t know where this comes from.…

The author, on her trusty gynaecological bench On Thursday morning, I was getting ready for a professional domination client. It was a medical play session, which meant a lot of prep: making sure my imposing NHS gynaecological bench was pristine, with crisp white paper pulled over its navy faux…

Editor Joe Bini, 20-year Werner Herzog collaborator, dropped a bomb at TIFF 2016: Into the Inferno is their final project together. “It has been the greatest joy of my life to work with Werner Herzog, and also a cross to bear,” editor and filmmaker Joe Bini admitted to the eager crowd at TIFF 2016…

Way back in 2001, UK producer Roy Kerr—aka The Freelance Hellraiser—decided to spread the vocals of Christina Aguilera’s “ Genie in a Bottle ” over the instrumental of The Strokes’ “ Hard to Explain ”. The resulting track was christened “ A Stroke of Genius ”, and weirdly—it was. Something about The…

Danger Mouse’s 2004 Jay Z / Beatles mashup is a breakthrough for sampling, genre-bending, and DIY production In a recent article calling for the end of terrible mashup albums, Noisey writer Daisy Jones said , “Let’s euthanize mash-up culture and burn it in a kiln so only its ashes remain.” While…

As any boy who has ever been involved with me will tell you, I’m fucking crazy. Some fucking crazy things I’ve done lately: Got upset with a boy Told boy I was upset with him Drank two iced Americanos in one day Was still upset even though boy did nothing in his power to address his upsetting…

Depending on whom you ask, the use of the active voice over the passive is arguably the most fundamental writer’s maxim, thought to lend weight, truth, and power to declarative statements. This absolutist view is flawed, however, because language is an art of nuance. From time to time, writers may…

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has started to surface claims that the election will be rigged. Above, Trump in Ashburn, Virginia, on Tuesday. Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images We have a tradition in the United States. When you lose an election, you take the L, and you move on. It’s what…

Comedian and filmmaker Mike Birbiglia criticized the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system Wednesday, expressing confusion about how a film as violent as Suicide Squad could receive a PG-13, while his own dramedy Don’t Think Twice was rated R. “Suicide Squad has machine gun killings…

Image: Matt Slocum | AP The 2016 Rio Olympics are underway, and athletes from around the globe are competing for gold. Many of those Olympians are inked, as are those spectators who have flocked to the games. All are giving hope to those who want Japan, host of the next Summer Games, to become more…

Image from MGS4, but loved how it showed what Raiden would eventually become. It was E3 2000 when I nearly lost my shit. The sequel to one of the best games I’d played on the PS1, Metal Gear Solid , was coming out on the PS2 and the graphics showcased in Sons of Liberty were unbelievable. Realistic…

Amy Schumer has employed Kurt Metzger on her show since the first season, and he has been a public liability for her all along. Credit Photograph by Emily Shur / The New York Times / Redux Last Tuesday, Amy Schumer released her first book, a collection of comic personal essays called “The Girl with…

Entrepreneurship knows no bounds. In the latest "why the fuck didn't I think of that!?" episode of my brief existence, I will forever beat myself up for not being struck with this genial idea: turn a worthless pile of trading cards into a niche social media art business that ties together nostalgia…

A year ago, when Rich Vreeland (aka Disasterpeace) said that the work on his score for Mini Metro (2015) would be around 90 percent coding, not many knew what he meant. At the time, the only insight he shared was that the results of his work would create procedural audio for the subway system…

This summer, I went on a 30-city tour with my movie “Don’t Think Twice,” a comedy about an improv group that has to decide whether to stay in show business when one member is plucked for a “Saturday Night Live” type of show. At every Q. and A. session for the movie, people would ask the same…

No Man’s Sky sparked a lengthy and heated debate about video game returns over the weekend, and much of the discourse turned a bit on the ugly side. There is a collection of gamers who feel not only misled by the game, but actively angry at features that were discussed before the game’s release and…

72 The world is breaking. This is what you’re told at the outset of The Banner Saga 2 . It’s delivered in a sigh, an exhale, and carries with it the weight of responsibility you bear—not all of those entrusted to your care will make it through the ordeal. There’s an inevitable doom to the…

73 There’s an apartment in Golem City littered with dead bodies. Normally, I’d be the one to put them there, but not this time. One of them was probably named Ana, at least according to the emails in a computer nearby. The messages are from her doctor informing her that she’s pregnant. This would…

68 The only things moldier than a zombie’s jeans are complaints about the ubiquity of zombie-themed media. And yet, like a skeleton draped with liquified cold cuts wandering through the chapped streets of Any City, USA, here I shamble. The zombie—a thinly-veiled metaphor for the monstrosity of…

In the debut episode of his new series, "The Closer," GQ's Keith Olbermann tallies the most outrageous of Donald Trump's offenses in what is now his 15-month assault on American democracy. Every few generations, we Americans are called upon to defend our country. To defend it not so much from…

The Swedish government has launched an investigation on how to prevent drug-related deaths. Last month, Health Minister Gabriel Wikström announced that he wants needle exchange programmes to be managed by county councils instead of councils. County councils cover larger areas in the country. The…

Up to this point, the prospect of Trump entering the White House had been a distant one. Photograph by Mark Peterson / Redux Of all the opinion polls that have come out in the past few days, one in particular caught my eye. It was carried out in Michigan for the Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-TV, a…

Photo: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC Looking at Twitter's reaction to Donald Trump's appearance on The Tonight Show last night, three themes emerge: (1) I can't believe how terrible Jimmy Fallon was; (2) he did a great job interviewing our beloved future president, get off his back, liberals; (3) LOL, did you…

The Actor: Jon Polito specializes in playing cops and mobsters, most famously in Homicide: Life On The Street and Miller’s Crossing , respectively. The gravel-voiced, mustache-sporting character actor’s professional association with the Coen brothers has reaped rich rewards: After Miller’s Crossing…

Yesterday, Apple released its latest major software update with iOS 10. As far as I can tell, the iteration exists only to cut my battery life in half, make my Messages app unusable, and trick me into downloading hundreds of cartoon Biebers and one George R. R. Martin. Reader, don’t be like me.…

This is how things have always been—if you want in, you have to respect the monopoly. That is, unless you own a 3D printer, like Chuck Thier, a Texas-based software developer . "I'm not an avid Warhammer player, but I've always been a fan of the lore," Thier says. He'd seen a couple of models…

This article originally appeared on VICE Germany Two naked men of about 30 are chasing each other around a bunch of tents, their long dark hair blowing behind them in the wind. A naked woman is lying on a naked man, who is lying on a mattress in the middle of a field. A couple in their early fifties…

A re humans more alike or more different? I try my best never to think about it, partly because the implications are far too terrifying, and partly because the evidence is too abstract and boring. The fuck can I do with the grand observation that all around the world, at any given time, people of…

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons Editor’s note: Following the publication of this story, Vice sent a memo to its global editorial staff detailing a series of steps to improve working relationships with freelance journalists. Read it here . In an era of journalism in which freelancers have grown…