Professor Murder Rides the Subway is a forgotten slice of dance punk perfection
I recently dug out my CDs and started reripping them all. I've found a few forgotten gems in there, but few hit harder for me than the beautifully concise Professor Murder Rides the Subway EP. There was a period of time in the mid-aughts in NYC where it seemed like every indie band wanted you to let loose, dance like no one was watching, and just have some damn fun. Few embodied that as much as New York dance punk band Professor Murder.
LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture were the biggest names of the dance punk revival. But there were also bands like Rahim, Liars, Dan Deacon, and countless lesser-known acts on DFA that you could see on any giv …
Enormous 12TB Steam leak includes abandoned Half-Life 2: Episode 3 assets
Over 12 terabytes of data, containing builds of every game uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013, has been leaked. We don't know everything in the archives yet because of its massive size. But people have already dug up assets related to the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3, content cut from Portal 2, and a build of a game called F-Stop that's set in the Portal universe but is built around a camera mechanic.
The leak also includes titles from third-party developers. Early versions of Call of Duty and Resident Evil installments have been dug up, as have builds of Mirror's Edge, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Dragon Age: Origins. And more is lik …
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches to study dark matter and dark energy
After funding struggles and a name change, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been successfully launched. It will now make a three-month, one-million-mile journey to its orbit at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2) beyond the Moon.
From this vantage point, Roman will conduct an unprecedented survey of the universe. Its field of view is 100 times larger than Hubble's and, according to NASA, it can survey the sky 1,000 times faster using its 300-megapixel infrared camera. Roman also has a Coronagraph system that can block and mask glare from stars, allowing it to directly image exoplanets, even smaller, older, and colder planets …
Texas Governor Abbott blocks funding for more Flock cameras
As backlash grows over Flock's AI surveillance cameras, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has frozen state spending on them. The move came just ahead of the publication of a Texas Tribune investigation that revealed the state spent over $30 million on Flock cameras. That money was primarily raised by tacking a $1 fee onto insurance policies, allegedly to help fight catalytic converter theft.
Flock cameras have increasingly drawn ire from across the political spectrum as they've become the subject of privacy concerns. There have been multiple incidents of officers being placed on leave or criminally charged for misusing Flock systems, including at …
Chess.com launched a poker site and is planning even more classic games
Chess.com has done one thing, and one thing very well, for almost 20 years, but now it's going beyond its domain name. The biggest name in online chess quietly launched its first companion site in beta back in May: Gambit, a free online poker website where players can learn the game without risking any real money. Now Gambit's ready to really get the ball rolling with its first livestreamed event and collaborations with content creators, and Chess.com is planning to branch out into even more games from here.
Chess.com's chief growth officer, Albert Cheng, told The Verge the company chose poker for its first companion site because, like ches …
China’s robots race ahead
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on falling robots and the US-China AI race, follow Robert Hart. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
I've admitted my fondness for robot fail videos on Stepback before, and let me tell you the World Humanoid Robot Games did not disappoint.
The five-day event, which wrapped this week in Beijing, brought high drama, and brought it well. One robot, made by smartphone maker Honor, lost a leg mid-sprint, while others tripped in a flurry of sparks. Another finis …
Two new small, powerful Macs
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 142, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, how is it almost September already, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I've been remembering Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen, absorbing everything in Rockstar's big GTA VI preview, wondering if Apple will announce a foldable iPhone at its September event, getting sucked into Summoning Salt's latest speedrunning documentary about competitive Tetris, listening to Weird Al's new Tiny Desk concert ("The Saga Begins!"), and getting a Reuben from my favorite lo …
Vicariously hike the Appalachian in the gorgeous A Trail Tale
I used to be an avid hiker and would try to go backpacking a few times a year. I always dreamed of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, but life kind of got in the way. (Turns out jobs, wives, and children aren't thrilled with the idea of you disappearing for three months.) But I've been longing to reconnect with my love of the outdoors and just recently took my kids on their first camping trip. So I discovered A Trail Tale at a really opportune time. It's an interactive trail journal created by Andy Moliski with help from his brothers Adam and Alex.
The various segments of the trail are rendered in beautiful pixel art reminiscent of a '90s S …
Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported
Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos was arrested by ICE on Thursday, and today the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Reuters and the Washington Post that he had been deported to the UK. Yiannopoulos came to the US legally in 2019, but overstayed his visa. After he failed to appear in court for an immigration hearing, a final order of removal was issued on July 22.
The British national made a name for himself as an editor at Steve Bannon's Breitbart and an early supporter of Donald Trump's. He has had a long history of controversial statements and associations, including reportedly helping arrange Trump's dinner with Kanye West an …
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell are suing Anthropic
Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have filed suit against Anthropic in the US District Court for the Northern District of California seeking damages for "tens of thousands" copyrighted works. The companies are asking for up to $150,000 per work, plus up to $25,000 for each instance when identifiable copyright data was stripped. In total, the damages could amount to several billion dollars if a court finds in Sony and Warner's favor and awards the maximum amount.
This is just the latest high-profile suit against Anthropic, which recently settled a suit brought by the publishing industry for $1.5 billion. It's also faced multiple la …