Culture

The New York Times reported in 2023 that Keita Takahashi gets no royalties from his quirky roll-up-the-world’s-objects-into-a-blob game series — which wouldn’t terribly surprise me. Royalties aren’t common in an industry that doesn’t treat workers well in general. But I imagine he’s getting something from cute licensed products with his name on them, right? Right?

Ahh MySpace. A website from simpler times when the worst you had to worry about from social media was falling out with the friend that didn’t make your Top 8. It has since puttered along morphing into something completely unrecognizable...until now. Game designer Ste Curran has created SkySpace, a website that’ll take your Bluesky profile and make it into a MySpace page complete with a customizable background, a Top 8 you can set, and even a music plugin.

After hearing an AI facsimile of his voice, the famed Simpsons voice actor said it “felt like what it was, which was just a vocal version of printed text” in this New York Times video.

The New York Times reunited with the subjects of a 2022 story about a group of teenagers who had traded iPhones for flip phones and sworn off social media. Two years later, some of them have defected as they transitioned to college — but the movement seems to be growing.

Would you buy a designer handbag from Walmart? Through a partnership with Rebag, shoppers can buy secondhand luxury accessories like Louis Vuitton wallets and Chanel shoulder bags from Walmart’s site.

If the phrase “Hawk Tuah girl” means nothing to you, I urge you to continue in blissful ignorance. If “Hawk Tuah shitcoin scam” resonates, you’ll enjoy Katie Baker’s rundown of what, exactly, happened.

An extremely beige influencer’s allegations she was imitated by another, also extremely beige, influencer have cleared an early legal hurdle:

The Onion’s parent company issues some rousing praise of a judge blocking its purchase of Infowars:

I always love seeing what famous people’s phones look like, and almost did a spit take at this clip of a Spanish politician’s Sonny Angel attachment.

Erin Kissane’s take on “the dark forest” idea of the internet suggests that context collapse is what makes the internet deranging. So how do you build a network where people matter?

After days of explosive growth on the platform, the Bluesky Safety team posted Friday that it received 42,000 moderation reports in the preceding 24 hours (versus 360,000 in all of 2023).

A live-updating tracker using Bluesky’s API puts the site at over 14,980,000 users right now.

Verge staffers review election.omg.lol: “Both horrifying and kinda helpful.” “This is a hell site.” “This rules.”

Mariah Carey has once again emerged from the Halloween cobwebs with an elaborately produced video reminding us the holiday season — and nonstop replays of “All I Want for Christmas is You” — is upon us.

Last year the YouTuber sued his business partner in charge of MrBeast Burgers, after customers complained about “inedible” and “revolting” food. Undeterred, this year MrBeast partnered with Logan Paul and KSI to launch Lunchly, a line of Lunchables-style snack boxes — that are apparently full of mold. If your kid asks for them maybe show them these pictures.

New fear unlocked: that even death will not release me from the Zoom meetings.

That’s XOXO organizer Andy Baio reflecting back on the speaker lineup he put together for this year’s conference, which was the last. I encourage you to read his blog post about this year’s talks, which were all amazing. (Including one from The Verge’s Sarah Jeong!)