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Stop what you're doing. Drop everything. And start running. That seems to be the conclusion one should draw after a "new study found that, compared to nonrunners, runners tended to live about three additional years, even if they run slowly or sporadically and smoke, drink or are overweight. No other form of exercise that researchers looked at showed comparable impacts on life span." (So as you run, the finish line gets farther away.) From the NYT's Gretchen Reynolds: An Hour of Running May Add 7 Hours to Your Life. (Before I actually start running, I'm gonna need to know which seven hours...)
"Agents didn't tear up the floorboards, toss cabinets or pull kitchen appliances from their wall connections. They didn't even search the lower floor. They simply asked, Do you have anything else? He did." It was an investigation that "spanned thousands of miles, involved two nations and unfolded against the backdrop of a tense geopolitical drama." Sports Illustrated on The Great Super Bowl Jersey Caper.
NATO was obsolete, but it's no longer obsolete. China is not a currency manipulator. The Federal hiring freeze is no longer needed. The export-import bank is no longer unnecessary. In the course of a few hours, President Trump flip-flopped on several of his core campaign positions and moved from nationalist ideals to a more globalist view. But the reversals that might surprise his base the most are economic. From the NYT: Trump Reversals Hint at Wall Street Wing's Sway in White House. From WaPo: Trump backs off fiscal pledges and adopts centrist policies that he once fought. And from The Atlantic: President Trump Reverses on Candidate Trump's Economic Views.
+ "He then went into the history of China and Korea. Not North Korea, Korea. And you know, you're talking about thousands of years ... and many wars. And Korea actually used to be a part of China. And after listening for 10 minutes I realized that not -- it's not so easy." David Graham on The Education of Donald J. Trump.
"Modern London thrives on the idea that one city can be a global melting pot, a global trading house, a global media machine and a place where everyone tolerates everyone else, mostly. The thought is that being connected to the rest of the world is something to celebrate. But what happens to London when that idea unexpectedly falls away?" In a very interesting, interactive piece, the NYT looks at what might become of the world's crossroad in a post-Brexit era. Will London Fall? More generally, this is a look at an increasingly common theme: what happens when the views of those in a country's largest and most important city disagree with a nation's broader direction?
"Our four kidneys were pretty good, but some chains can go even longer. A chain started by a 44-year-old man in California named Rick Ruzzamenti wound up getting 30 people kidneys. Ruzzamenti's chain let people live 270 to 300 years longer. You can literally measure the years of life his kidney donation chain gave in centuries." *Vox'*s Dylan Matthews identified one way for a writer to be certain their work will be featured in NextDraft: Just donate an organ as part of the story. Why I gave my kidney to a stranger -- and why you should consider doing it too. (If donating an organ isn't in the cards, I also respond pretty well when you just email a link to whatever you wrote.)
"Using a sample of first- and second-year college students at the University of Nevada-Reno in the US and Britain's Open University, a group of researchers analyzed students' cognitive performance throughout the day and found that the best learning happened in classes that began later in the morning." From Quartz: New research says starting university classes at 11am or later would improve learning.
+ Nautilus: Darwin Was a Slacker and You Should Be Too.
"God's placed a seed in you. And he wants to see it come to fruitfulness." From Bloomberg: Entrepreneurs from Cincinnati's Crossroads Church try to scale their startups without selling their souls: What Would Jesus Disrupt? (This trend was pretty predictable. Half the CEOs in the valley have a Jesus complex.)
"One's vagina should be steamed in the upright position. In a room that's lined wall-to-wall with real, actual jade, a woman (OK, me) dressed in a satiny, royal purple sheath that attaches just under the armpits -- like the world's least flattering strapless gown -- sits atop a throne. The throne is wood and looks like a toilet, with a deep, dark hole in the middle. The gown goes over the body and the throne, creating a little biodome. Once you're seated, steam from a container of mugwort tea and herbs rises and slithers up to its target." Let's take a spa day with Outside's Taffy Brodesser-Akner: We Have Found the Cure! (Sort Of...)
+ "The trick goes like this: It starts with a thick, milky O about a foot in diameter, expelled from the Vape God's mouth. Then he blows a smaller, faster O no larger than an Entenmann's doughnut through that, which unravels and envelops the original loop in a sheen of translucent smoke. But that's not enough. This is a goddamn double lasso, so an even tinier smoke doughnut is threaded through the first two, which creates a resplendent Turducken of filthy-sweet dankness." GQ: How the Internet Birthed a Young Vape God.
+ "How did an 8-year-old learn to drive?... YouTube videos." An eight year-old boy drove his sister to McDonald's for a cheeseburger. (My kids are about the same age, and if they promised not to fight during the drive, I'd hand them the keys right now...)
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.)
