Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Every Saturday, we'll bring you some of the best and most important reads of the past seven days, from original reports, to in-depth features, to reviews and interviews. Think of it as a collection of some of our favorite pieces that you may have missed — or that you may just want to read again. You can follow along below, or keep up to date on Flipboard.
Feature
Your meat addiction is destroying the planet (but we can fix it)
Last week marked the first time that a “test tube” hamburger — a beef patty that had been grown entirely in a lab — was ever cooked and consumed. While cultured meat may be a decade or two away from being grown on an industrial scale, it's a futuristic development that could help address meat production's strain on the earth.
Report
Cracking suicide: hackers try to engineer a cure for depression
Hackers are supposed to be some of the smartest analytic thinkers around — so why can't they figure out their own brains? That analytic approach may be just the problem, and now hackers are getting together to figure out a real solution.
Review
'The World's End' review: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite over pints to battle robots
Director Edgar Wright and his two long-time collaborators, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, are back with their followup to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Has the trio delivered yet another uproarious comedy?
Feature
Buying a laptop: everything you need to know
There are a lot of laptops out there, and differentiating between them is harder than ever. Here’s how to sort through the pack, get everything that you need, and do it without making any compromises.
Interview
Pushing pixels with Paul Robertson, the artist behind 'Mercenary Kings' and 'Scott Pilgrim: The Game'
Even if you don't know him by name, there's a good chance that you've seen Paul Robertson's gorgeous pixel art. We caught up with Robertson to chat about how he ended up working with pixel art, what it was like to work on the Scott Pilgrim game, and why his art has such an extreme style.
Report
Meet the companies that are going to get rich from global warming
Global warming is bad news for the environment, but for a select few industries, it might mean big business. As temperatures and sea levels rise, one company or another is going to profit off of protecting shores and cooling homes.
Review
'Plants vs. Zombies 2' review: a leaf to the past
It took four years, but developer PopCap Games is finally back with a proper sequel to the massive success that was Plants vs. Zombies. In its second coming, PvZ wraps in time travel, exotic locations, and some fun new plants — but with a free-to-play business model, is the game actually any fun?
Report
Heathrow's expansion plans would make it bigger, faster, and louder
The world’s busiest international airport is a little too busy for its own good. If Heathrow wants to keep its status as a key transportation hub and a gateway into London, it's going to need to expand — but adding on a third runway is a lot harder than it sounds.
Report
Blackout brawler: meet the combative CEO keeping CBS off your television
Time Warner Cable customers have been without CBS — and all of the football games and TV shows that go with it — for two weeks now. But for those familiar with Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS, such an aggressive move shouldn't seem out of place.
Review
'Kick-Ass 2' review: a mean and brutal miscalculation
The original Kick-Ass was an over-the-top take on high school drama and the dream of real-world superheroes. Now the series is back for another comedic take — but it might just push its luck a bit too far.