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Like the US and many other countries, Britain has a childhood obesity problem. One teacher witnessed the issue firsthand when she watched a group of 11-year-olds struggle to complete a lap. So she came up with a simple idea. And it's going viral. Every day, students across the country leave their classrooms and start running or walking. "They don't change clothes. They don't compete. They don't know when their teacher will give the green light to rush outside. But at some point during the day, come (non-torrential) rain or shine, children complete a mile." Here's WaPo's Karla Adam on Britain's daily mile craze. (When I was about this age, my PE teacher described a race between me and the school's second-slowest kid as the battle of the bulge. I wish that teacher could see me now. I can type 10,000 words without breaking a sweat.)
+ In Japan, older drivers are causing more accidents. So the country is offering them a deal. Stop driving and you get a discount on ramen.
"So even when much less is used in chocolate, your tongue perceives an almost identical sweetness to before." Nestle has figured out a way to make things sweet with a lot less sugar, by reshaping the structure of crystals. (Now it only takes 60% of a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.)
"She saw a sea of green and purple shapes, then a deep-space emptiness with a monolithic presence, similar to the Borg Collective from Star Trek. At one point, a series of Egyptian ships and Russian dolls paraded before her. As she laughed and wept, something popped out at her from the mental kaleidoscope: A small, creamy-white, animated crab." Yes, Carol Vincent had quite magic mushroom trip. But her use of psilocybin wasn't an effort to enhance a party experience or fully experience the Grateful Dead. It was part of a study to see if the active ingredient in mushrooms could help someone want to live. And the results of studies on Vincent and other cancer patients were quite promising. The trip was pleasantly strange, and its impact was remarkably long. From Olga Khazan in The Atlantic: The Life-Changing Magic of Mushrooms. (In retrospect, 2016 should have come with shrooms...)
+ WaPo: Three cancer patients explain how a psychedelic drug eased their fears.
+ From Newshour: Using Ecstasy to treat PTSD: "I felt like my soul snapped back into place."
"It is not the first time cigarette makers have experimented with heating rather than burning tobacco to do less damage to consumers." But this time Philip Morris is borrowing a few tech and design ideas from the vape craze. And the company's CEO believes this is the first major step towards one day completely phasing out traditional cigarettes. (They've been phasing out human lives for decades.)
I've always said if I had it to do over again, I would have been an Instagram model. Apparently, I'm not the only one who's had that thought. Bloomberg's Max Chafkin decided to actually give it a shot (with the help of a marketing agency). "I would do everything possible within legal bounds to amass as many followers as I could. My niche would be men's fashion, a fast-growing category in which I clearly had no experience. The ultimate goal: to persuade someone, somewhere, to pay me cash money for my influence." The Confessions of an Instagram Influencer.
Black Friday. Cyber Monday. These are more than just marketing strategies. They are the high holidays of the world's most popular religion: Consumerism. With every virtual swipe of your credit card, you are playing a critical role in driving the world economy. But it wasn't that long ago that such materialistic ways were frowned upon by leaders and philosophers. "From Plato in ancient Greece to St. Augustine and the Christian fathers to writers in the Italian Renaissance, thinkers routinely condemned the pursuit of things as wicked and dangerous because it corrupted the human soul, destroyed republics, and overthrew the social order." (I'll buy that. But then again, I am a child of the consumer revolution, so I'll buy almost anything.) From Frank Trentmann in The Atlantic: How Humans Became Consumers: A History.
+ If American consumerism has a pumping heart, it is Amazon, a company that is getting more efficient as it grows. Here's Brad Stone on Jeff Bezos' selling machine. "Putting a larger variety of products into Prime attracts more Prime members and vice versa, resulting in ever-increasing sales, which Amazon dutifully converts into even more fulfillment centers, faster shipping and lower prices. This is the flywheel of doom for rival merchants."
In my lifetime, there have been two utterly massive news stories. News stories that riveted the public, obsessed the media, and that had endings that very few people expected. These stories took on lives of their own. They became bigger than anyone imagined. Race came into the stories. Gender came into the stories. Everyone was watching. And then there was a twist almost no one expected. The two stories had something else in common: a celebrity. Here's my take on OJ, Trump, and America's Achilles Heel.
"At least six former players have said publicly that they were molested as boys in the youth programs, and the head of the English soccer players' union said Sunday that nearly two dozen more former players had come forward privately." According to the NYT, authorities in England's Football Association have started an inquiry into claims of sexual abuse in the English Youth Leagues. (Every now and then you can get a sense that a story is going to become massive. I get that sense about this one.)
"For better or for worse, kids all over the world tend to be compulsive watchers of unboxing videos. Unable to purchase desirable products, they can---in some small way, through the unboxing videos---indulge in the repetitive viewing of someone else in a state of euphoric consumption." Inc on the roots and enduring allure of unboxing videos.
There is a call center for cybercriminals who need a human voice as part of a scam. In Japan, you can get an insurance policy that covers social media backlash. Some retailers use "skinny mirrors" to get you to buy more clothes. These and other interesting tidbits can be found in Tom Whitwell's list of 52 things he learned in 2016.
+ Jim Delligatti passed away at the age of 98. He was the fast food franchisee who realized Americans needed a larger sandwich. So he came up with the Big Mac.
"The world is a desperately sad and dispiriting place at this particular moment, and we all need to make time for self-care. This year, three beers and the new Frank Ocean simply will not do. You need more. You need the highest-possible dosage of cheese." Dave Holmes makes an impassioned defense of extremely bad Christmas movies.
+ In case Christmas movies don't provide the healing you need, try watching 4,000 rabbis attempt the Mannequin Challenge.
+ The Austin American Statesman's Taylor Goldenstein on the Kyle city officials who were stunned by the corruption at its housing authority. They were also stunned that they had a housing authority.
This is a weekly best-of version of the NextDraft newsletter. For daily updates and to get the NextDraft app, go here. (Original story reprinted with permission from NextDraft.)
