Longreads

DISCUSSED: Basements as Dungeons, Middle-earth, War Games, Moral Clarity, Vin Diesel, Biological Determinism, Death by Misadventure, Freaks Geeks, Tom Hanks, Castration Anxiety, Satanism,…

Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, 80. "I supported Putin during his presidency, and I still support him in many ways today. What troubles me is what the United Russia party, which is led by Putin, and the government are doing. They want to preserve the status quo. There are no steps forward. On the contrary, they are pulling us back into the past, while the country is urgently in need of modernization. Sometimes United Russia reminds me of the old Soviet Communist Party."

In February 2009, with the threat of Facebook's growing popularity looming over their company, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, the co-founders of Myspace, appeared on The Charlie Rose Show. DeWolfe explained that Myspace was more than a social network; it was a portal where people discovered new friends and music and movies—it was practically where young people lived. "We have the largest music catalog in the world," DeWolfe said. Anderson predicted that by 2015, Myspace would have up to 400 million users. DeWolfe said the site's worth was "in the billions." Rose mentioned how Murdoch had bought Myspace's parent company, Intermix, for $580 million. "Are you happy you made the deal?" asked Rose. "Um …," said DeWolfe.