Europe gathers again for its annual extravaganza of wonderfully bad music and simmering political resentments. Leigh Alexander reports on the not-so-unlikely victory of Austrian beauty Conchita Wurst.

Leigh Alexander recalls her adventures working with porn spambots in the 1990s, and the strange mixture of nostalgia and disappointment that remains.

The latest episode of Game of Thrones was pretty much business as usual. It turned out Walder Frey was ready to let bygones be bygones, and a lovely wedding feast… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E9: The Red Wedding

It's a war for the seven kingdoms! It's a soap opera with romantic weddings and blood sacrifices!! It's the latest episode of Game of Thrones, and it's time to recap… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E8: Will you take this man?

American expat Leigh Alexander has had her first Eurovision party as an embedded foreigner in London. It went well.

The song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" that heralds the climax of this episode is about the comedy in unmatched relationships, in pairing yourself inappropriately in accordance with your… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E7: I am yours and you are mine

The latest episode of Game of Thrones is called "The Climb," and it sees us crossing the Wall into the land of heavy-handed metaphors. What's the difference between a pin… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E6: Hang in there

The latest episode of Game of Thrones was, in my humble opinion, far and away the most exciting one yet. Fire, fire and more fire, fatherhood and impeccable crescendoes. Such… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E5: Through the fire and the flames

A friend of mine has a very bleak assessment of Game of Thrones: If you love a character, they'll die unfulfilled. If you hate a character, you'll come to learn… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E4: This is Madness

I've heard a lot of bewilderment across social media when it comes to keeping up with the ever-climbing number of characters in this show. Even fans of the books are… Read the rest of the article: Priorities and privilege reign in Game of Thrones S3E3

The Game of Thrones universe is all about how disadvantages are balanced against advantages: Every major character or faction has a unique set of challenges, and then a trump card.… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones S3E2: Ladies, leave your men at home

Funny thing about recaps: Some of the early feedback I got on the handful I did last season suggested people wanted less blow-by-blow, more macroanalysis. But I wonder how well… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones returns with critical mass of politicking

The last episode of Black Mirror's second season airs tonight on UK Channel 4. Do you remember the first profoundly shocking image you saw on the internet? Perhaps it would… Read the rest of the article: Black Mirror episode 2: White Bear and the culture of desensitization

The English have a coy euphemism for addiction: "moreish." It summons the delightful anxiety in surrendering your control to something else, the ambivalent cocktail of desire and guilt. We feel… Read the rest of the article: Black Mirror decodes our modern dread of technology

Boston coder Darius Kazemi's interest in chance led him to create a bot that buys stuff on Amazon: a human decision made ineluctably alien by the randomness of a computer's whim.

It's almost 10 PM in London and William Shatner is on the phone, sing-speaking the word "algorithm" to me, trying out various cadences. It feels a bit surreal.

The fedora draws increasing controversy in internet circles. In just one hour I found no less than three Tumblrs related to shaming people who wear the creased, curve-brimmed hat—formal with a touch of classic dandy—and the censure is interestingly specific. The targets are usually men.

Some months ago, I put a dollar bill on my cat Zelda's head, took a picture and submitted it to cashcats.biz, then a fledgling Tumblr apparently devoted solely to images… Read the rest of the article: The 1 Purr-cent: Internet fat cats

We've had a couple weeks to let the Game of Thrones finale breathe, so now we can talk about it, and we can reflect on season 2 as a whole.… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones: Valar Morghulis

  It's a funny thing, those who begrudge others the modern privilege of simultaneous participation. Fans of Game of Thrones waited for the epic Battle of the Blackwater for weeks… Read the rest of the article: Game of Thrones recap: The Rains of Castamere