We just posted our July 1970 cover story, “The Assault On Privacy.” It’s pretty timely, as you can probably guess! 

How to stop worrying and love the computer - Newsweek, July, 1970

“I love watching animal movies on television, and they always say, don’t run away, and don’t turn your back, and don’t lie down flat. I love it—it’s from my childhood. How do you prevent dying? How do you prevent being eaten, or mauled, by a monster? I still worry about it!” - Maurice Sendak.

In honor of the illustrator and writer’s 85th birthday, Newsweek and Blank on Blank are proud to present this animated short about the beloved, late author, which is based off of audio we had left over from a 2009 interview conducted by Newsweek’s Andrew Romano and Ramin Setoodeh.

This week’s cover story—Kill Zone—says gun control isn’t about rights in America’s cities. It’s about survival.

A preview:

SUMMER IS the killing season in American cities. The temperature rises and, yes, tempers do, too. And many young men who might have been in school are out in the streets taunting, hunting, and shooting at each other. Collateral carnage like the slaughter of Tyquran’s mother is inevitable, and for many innocents it’s inescapable in neighborhoods where young guys spray bullets. In Los Angeles County, with an estimated 450 gangs that have 45,000 members, about half the murders are gang related. Young men get shot again and again, and those who survive show a calm pride when they’re wheeled into the trauma units. As a wide-eyed British correspondent reported last week, the doctors call them “frequent fliers.” In Chicago, gang and gun violence is endemic, with 12 shootings last weekend and one death. And in New York, although the murder rate is much lower than the other cities, in the rougher parts of town that’s no guarantee of immunity. Between Friday and Sunday the first weekend in June, 26 people were shot and seven of them killed.

Over the last few months I’ve spent time with the New York Police Department and alone in parts of the city where guns are a way of life, but not in the way that pro-gun-rights partisans usually mean. I met kids like Tyquran and cops like Deputy Chief Theresa Shortell, head of the department’s fast-growing gangs division. And something that ought to be obvious kept hitting me. The embattled streets of the city and the gunland of the heartland are wildly different places, and the failure to understand that difference, and overcome it, is the great American tragedy of our time.

Read Christopher Dickey’s cover story (and take a look at his tumblr while you’re at it!).

Five mass extinctions have nearly wiped out life on earth. As Annalee Newitz writes in her new books, the sixth is coming.

BRB. We’ll be in our bunker.

newman:

“Now remember, feed the cats twice a day, water the plants once a week, and this is a list of the programs we want videotaped.”

Newsweek, August 6, 1984

Ha! They had cats in 1984.

(Source: deadair)

nwkarchivist:

“Three Cars For The price Of One”  Guess the Year…

Newsweek, 19??

Can you guess the year?

Washington, D.C.: not as godless as you’d think!

We just got word that John Avlon, who has been writing with The Beast since 2008, was promoted to political director. Many congratulations to John!

Here’s the email from Tina: 

To: All Staff

From: Tina Brown 

I am very pleased to share the news that John Avlon has been promoted to Political Director for Newsweek & The Daily Beast.

John has been with The Beast since 2008 as senior columnist, juggling his online and video commentary for us with his role as a CNN contributor and finding time to write 3 books - Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America (published by us - and endorsed by President Clinton), and co-authoring two volumes of “Deadline Artists”. He was Rudy Giuliani’s chief speechwriter while he served as mayor and is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. John won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ award for best online column in 2012 - he will continue to write his column in his new role.

Says John, ‘over the past four years, I’ve enjoyed working with Tina and the talented writers at The Daily Beast and Newsweek spanning the spectrum of left, right and center. I’m looking forward to building on our reputation for excellence and edge in this new role, working with what I believe is the best team in the business.’

Please join me in congratulating John on this promotion!

Tina