Wave goodbye to Verge Hack Week, our now-annual tradition where we blow up the site and turn the ashes into a playground for the staff.
Highlights from Verge Hack Week 2015
Verge Hack Week is a chance for our editorial and product teams to merge into some indistinguishable mass of weird ideas and coding skills. It’s a week where we challenge everyone to experiment outside their comfort zones, both in terms of writing and presentation, with the not-so-subtle goal being to encourage everyone to be more ambitious with their storytelling the other 51 weeks out of the year. All in all, there were over 50 Hack Week-related experiments this past week, ranging from visualizing government secrecy to making a Twitter bot that automatically generates TV recaps.
The fun isn’t over, though. You can expect to see more Hack Week-inspired pieces on The Verge in the weeks and months to come. For now, though, let’s look back at some of our favorites from last week. You can see all Hack Week-related pieces here.
(A big thank-you, as always, to our super talented product team — here’s what they had to say about the whole ordeal.)
The lyrical universe of Lana Del Rey, charted
To be a fan of, or even just have a healthy interest in Lana Del Rey is to enter a world and mythology every bit as dense and geekable as something by George R.R. Martin.
(Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Should I stay through the credits?
Find out whether any major movie since 1978 has a post-credits scene.
How do tech's biggest companies compare on diversity?
An Apple's-to-apples comparison of the Equal Employment Opportunity Report for Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more.
The Abridged History of Disney, 2015–2040
The Verge's Disney hub is your place for Disney news. Showing all recovered stories from 2015 through 2040 AD.
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How to buy an iPhone in America
It's not easy if you go to most carriers.
Government secrets, mapped
CIA information, you will not be surprised to learn, is often classified.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
We made a Twitter bot to save everyone the trouble of writing and reading TV recaps
Meet @best_tv_recaps, the fastest and most totally legit recap bot who doesn't need to watch the episode to know what (probably) happened.
LATE NIGHT: Seth gets drunk with Barack Obama
— Best TV Recaps (@best_tv_recaps) August 24, 2015 LAST NIGHT ON VEEP: Dan gets a tip about foreign policy
— Best TV Recaps (@best_tv_recaps) August 24, 2015 How '90s graphics shaped the bleak future of Deus Ex
All hail the low-poly wasteland.
Bones: a lexical excavation of the television show
How — and how often — do the characters use the word "bones"?
How do you spell the future of Google?
Generate your own brilliant idea — or take our Alphabet personality quiz.
Let's Photoshop the future together
Welcome to TC Sottek's second annual live Photoshop fracas.
— ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ ɔʇ (@chillmage) August 21, 2015 I wrote an awesome Hitman movie because nobody else can, apparently
What amazing feature will the Tesla Model X have?
"There are steam engines inside the dashboard. Incredible!" (For a more old-school feel, check out the incredible cars of Pebble Beach's multimillion-dollar auctions.)
What song best describes the apocalypse that will kill you?
The End of Days has a soundtrack.
The pen and paper behind Verge Hack Week
The analog origins of choosing how to die on Mars, deciding whether your company should make a smartwatch, and pairing pop stars with tech titans.
The next 35 years of college football, predicted
SB Nation's Ryan Nanni is gridiron Nostradamus.
(Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Learning to live like I'm on vacation without a cell phone connection
Vox Product's Josh Laincz on the moment he realized how much time he spent lost inside his phone.
Bonus material from The Vergecast 167: A very special Hack Week discussion with Nilay Patel and several members of our unparalleled product team.
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