After 28 years Metal Gear Solid is finished. Or at least that's what the internet would have you believe. After all, the mastermind behind the series, Hideo Kojima, has unceremoniously parted ways with Konami, the publisher who owns the IP. Konami has been wishy-washy in its future plans since then;…

I occasionally imagine a gaming server network remaining hidden away after the bombs fall, unpowered but unharmed. Intergalactic visitors making a pit stop centuries later would find these abandoned programs, and maybe fire them up to see what's inside. Entire worlds could reveal themselves in an…

On the day of the Boston Marathon bombing, the comedian Anthony Jeselnik posted this tweet: “Guys, today there are just some lines that should not be crossed. Especially the finish line.” It was not received well. After pressure from Comedy Central, which broadcast his short-lived show, “The…

Amber Rose wrote the book on it. No, seriously: Kanye’s infamous ex, Wiz Khalifa’s baby mama, America’s toughest bald babe since Sigourney Weaver in Alien 3 , is about to publish a book of life lessons called How to Be a Bad Bitch . Like Amber herself, it’s all heart. Unlike Amber, it’s not that…

I've never played as a black video game character who's made me feel like he was cool. Worse yet, I've never played a black video game character who made me feel like I was cool. Instead, I've groaned and rolled my eyes at a parade of experiences that continue to tell me video games just don't get…

Matt Green, center, an engineer, and Donald Badaczewski, right, a law student, said their goal is to traverse the subway system, passing through more than 400 stations. They planned to start Wednesday in Queens. Richard Perry/The New York Times Why? “We are gluttons for punishment,” said Matt Green,…

Every morning, I run a pick through my hair. It’s important that I do this when it’s still spongy and damp from the shower. Wait too long and my hair gets drier and less cooperative, making it harder to pull the comb through my natural. (Pro tip: A natural is something black folks sometimes call…

In 1982, Steven Spielberg sat for an interview with the Australian edition of 60 Minutes . 1 Skinny and nebbish, Spielberg looks like the world’s only bearded tween. (At one point, he even holds a puppy.) Of course, Spielberg was already well on his way to becoming the most successful director of…

A theatrical and sometimes solitary child who grew up in Georgia during the 1960s and ’70s, Decatur-born Jan Hooks spent summers and holidays at her maternal grandparents’ home in the small city of Cedartown, not far outside Atlanta. Throughout her adolescence, she often put on plays and skits…

Justin Sullivan/Getty When 23-year-old Brandon headed from Massachusetts to the Bay Area in mid-May to start work as a software engineer at Google, he opted out of settling into an overpriced San Francisco apartment. Instead, he moved into a 128-square-foot truck. The idea started to formulate while…

Consumer Reports dropped its recommendation of the Tesla Model S after owners of the electric luxury sedan complained of a series of problems including squeaking noises, motors that needed to be changed and issues with the car’s automatic door handles. The change came after the consumer group…

During this year’s tumultuous World Press photo competition, a large number of images were disqualified because of manipulation or excessive digital postprocessing. In addition, one major prize was revoked amid allegations of staging and misleading captioning. These events sparked months of spirited…

Steve Jobs , the much-discussed Sorkinization of the enigmatic tech hero, continues to build momentum ahead of its nationwide release next weekend. Taking place primarily behind the scenes before three separate product launches — the Macintosh in ’84, the NeXT in ’88, and the iMac in ’98 — the movie…

John Herrman Co-editor, The @Awl The Awl Be less stupid.

There’s this thing we do lately. Parents shame their kids on Facebook or Youtube when they step out of line, people shame moms for nursing their hungry babies in a restaurant, and on and on, and now THIS . Maybe you watched this video when it came across your feed. And maybe you rolled your eyes or…

All photos by Ian Frisch . The rain came early. A thin mist, hanging in the air like wet smoke. By mid-afternoon, the streets were wet and the cars drove slow. Men wore pants. Women wrapped themselves in coats. It was cold for late September in Atlanta. People on the street talked about it. "Can you…

When writing a song becomes a game everyone can play D epending on who you ask, Minecraft is either a wonderful tool for teaching tweens collaboration and coding skills, or a terrible game that’s making them all obese, cross-eyed antisocial weirdos who dwell in virtual worlds. For those of you who…

Philly rap legends Schoolly D, DJ Cash Money and others try to make sense of a tragic journey By Michael A. Gonzales “Philadelphia banks are not hit by takeover teams very often, and with good reason: there are few ways out.” ~Duane Swierczynski , The Wheelman It was nearly opening time at the PNC…

Nathan Fielder (Photo: Peter Yang/Comedy Central) The third season of Nathan For You premieres on Comedy Central tonight as star Nathan Fielder returns to “help” struggling businesses with elaborate money-making schemes that double as experiments in human nature. The comedian responsible for…

[Editor’s Note: This post is presented in partnership with in support of Indie Film Month. Today’s pick, “ The Captive ,” is available now On Demand. This interview originally ran during the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.] Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan has been a fixture on La Croisette since his 1994…

Nelson George Nelson George Nelson George is an author, filmmaker, TV producer and critic with a long career in analyzing and presenting the diverse elements of African-American culture. He made his directorial debut with the HBO movie Life Support , for which Queen Latifah won a Golden Globe. His…

In hip hop, so much can be explained by the rise and fall of record labels. Lil Wayne's ascent is the story of Cash Money . The Dirty South starts with LaFace Records . The east-coast/west-coast feud is Bad Boy vs. Death Row . In hip hop, the artist-label relationship isn’t just a business deal, but…

Examining Billboard Rap Chart data from 1989–2015 I wrote this in support of “The Most Successful Labels In Hip Hop” project that was done in collaboration with Matt Daniels with myself and Skye Rossi over at Rhymesayers. http://poly-graph.co/labels/ When Matt Daniels first shared this Billboard…

To begin with, I should tell you that I did not expect to like this book. I was a single twentysomething when The Game was published. For years, the only thing I knew about Neil Strauss was that he was responsible for ushering concepts like negging and peacocking into the cultural lexicon. So when I…

After a series of blockbuster hearings held 25 years ago on abuses in the higher education industry, Congress created a system to protect undergraduates from risky student loans . But two weeks ago, the Education Department released a trove of new data suggesting that the system is failing and that,…

But can that success translate into the living room and hardware, two arenas Valve has yet to conquer? Valve's first round of officially branded Steam Machines will roll out from several manufacturers beginning on Nov. 10. Before that happens, Polygon was able to go hands-on with Alienware's version…

Low-budget mavericks Atom Egoyan and Guy Maddin have been through the wringer. When Woodstock Film Festival director Meira Blaustein invited the filmmakers to share their trials and tribulations at this year’s festival, there were stories abound — stories of failure, success, depression, revelations…

Since time began, people have used storytelling in order to achieve one of our primary goals, that of survival. It's funny, isn't it? We use stories to entertain, but we also use them to teach us how to live. Imagine the dawn of civilization: one person finds enough food to feed their tribe. They…

OSLO — Berit Nordgarden and her husband, Eivind Tellefsen, loved their nonpolluting Nissan Leaf electric car. But they found its 85-mile battery life too short for weekend trips to their cottage with their two young children. So the outdoorsy couple took a deep breath and bought a second car: a…

He wasn’t gentle. Let’s get that out of the way. It’s the easy thing to say about him, the thing movie costars from his Princess Bride days would trot out in interviews because it made an efficient sound bite — oh, Andre? He looks so scary, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly . People loved him, and when you…

Courtesy of Maggie Goldenberger. In March 2012, 23-year-old Maggie Goldenberger was in the middle of a six-month trip to India and the Philippines with her then-girlfriend. They were travelling from India’s southern tip and heading north for Rajasthan, stopping in at Internet cafes around once a…

People are interested in Introversion’s very good sim Prison Architect because it tries to model the complexities of life inside a penal institution. People also seem to be tougher on Prison Architect than they are on more frivolous games, for the very same reason: it attempts to simulate the…

Jen Day and her boyfriend of 11 years, Pepper Mint (yes, that’s his real name), live together with their cat in a whitewashed house on a narrow, leafy street in Berkeley, Calif. They kiss and nuzzle and have date nights, like any other couple. Just not always with each other. Day has another…

It's time that we accepted this reality: there is absolutely nothing wrong with being "politically correct." The phrase has been around for ages, its earliest uses were more literal -- in 1793 it was used in a U.S. Supreme Court judgement, as in "legally" correct. Later, in the mid-20th century, the…

(Illustration by Dan Evans ) How hard do you think The Rock could punch me? Obviously: to death. I feel The Rock could punch me on most of the parts of my body and I would immediately die. Would I die if The Rock punched me in the head? Yes, I would die. Would I die if The Rock punched me somewhere…

It all happened so quickly, about a year ago today. One minute, hardly anyone had heard of the ad-free social network Ello. The next, it was a viral sensation, spawning countless think pieces on its chances for survival. Then, as quickly as it appeared, Ello faded from the spotlight. Now, only a…

Valve’s new Steam controller is a bold experiment: an attempt at fusing a PC mouse with a traditional console-style controller. It still hasn’t entirely clicked with me. [This post originally ran on 10/15/15. It’s been updated with some more impressions, brought about by The Inexorable Passage Of…

Seth Rogen had some questions, and Woz had some answers. The actor and the engineer, Steve (Woz) Wozniak, got acquainted during the making of the new film “Steve Jobs,” in which Rogen plays Woz, who founded Apple Computer with Jobs. They recently met again for an advance look at “Silicon City,” an…