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'Breaking Bad' creator Vince Gilligan is 'grateful as hell' for Netflix binge-watching

Breaking Bad Season 5

Breaking Bad is on a brief hiatus in the middle of its fifth, final season, with shooting already wrapped on what may be the most anticipated eight episodes in recent television history. But for all the show's success, creator Vince Gilligan believes that things may have been very different if...

"I don't think you'd be sitting here interviewing me if it weren't for Netflix." Vince Gilligan

British explorer Daniel Hughes makes first video call from Everest's peak

Everest HTC one

The first live video call from a smartphone at the peak of Mount Everest has been made by British explorer Daniel Hughes, as part of his effort to raise money for the Comic Relief charity. The call, made with an HTC One, is not the first mobile call made from Everest's heights — but it's the first video call to be made using a smartphone. Speaking to the BBC, Hughes said that "as you can see,...

Long Reads

The best writing of the week, May 19

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We all know the feeling. You're sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn't cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? Sure, it's one more thing you can feel guilty about sitting in your Instapaper queue, but it's better than pulling in vain on your Twitter list again.

Grab all of these stories as a Readlist.

Your Sunday reading

Playlist

The Verge Playlist: Lush

Lush were a British band from 1987 to 1996. Their first full length album, Spooky, is the subject of The Classics this week. The playlist below spans their entire career, which included three albums, several EPs, a greatest hits collection, and a lot of B-sides, collected in 1996. Three songs on...

Lush

The Classics

The Classics: Lush, 'Spooky'

Spooky

The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

British band Lush’s first full-length album,...

Quick read

What's the difference between consumer marketing and propaganda?

uicGoogle harlem shake

To call something "propaganda" is to connote a laughably unsubtle attempt at mind control, from the kind of nasty stereotypes mocked in BioShock Infinite to a hilariously redubbed North Korean propaganda video that many thought was real — precisely because we expect such attempts to be ham-fisted and idiotic. At The Guardian, Eliane Glaser argues that we should be looking instead at how behavioral science, advertising, and even memes can nudge us in certain directions. "The notion that...


Hundreds of LED-equipped umbrellas will descend on MIT this Sunday night

UP LED Umbrellas

Residents in the Boston area will have the chance to see a pretty unique art installation this weekend. On Sunday evening, hundreds of LED-enabled umbrellas will light up Cambridge thanks to a collaboration between MIT and a Connecticut-based dance group known as Pilobolus. The event is called UP: The Umbrella Project and was first performed up in Camden, Maine last October. Over 300 members of the MIT student body, faculty, and staff will...

Favorites

Verge Favorites: Katie Drummond

Katie_FavoritesPortrait

The Verge staffers aren't just people who love technology. They're people who love stuff. We spend as much time talking and thinking about our favorite books, music, and movies as we do debating the best smartphone to buy or what point-and-shoot has the tightest macro. We thought it would make sense to share our latest obsessions with Verge readers, and we hope you're encouraged to share your favorites with us. Thus a long, healthy debate will...

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