September 30, 2016

“When Julius Yego couldn’t find a javelin coach he turned to the internet to find one, and he did—YouTube.” The man who won Kenya’s first field medal learned javelin by watching videos in cyber cafes. / CNN

YouTube doesn’t do enough to find harmful instructional videos and delete them. As of now, you, too, can learn on YouTube how to make thousands of dollars off “slave” users hacked to stream their lives on webcam. / The Boston Globe

In the ’70s, Indira Gandhi’s government conducted a massive social project called the “Satellite Instructional Television Experiment,” installing community televisions in villages that sometimes barely had a car battery to power them with. / thehindu.com

Alan Resnick is the batshit Baltimore genius behind Adult Swim’s contribution to the instructional genre with “Live Forever As You Are Now,” which parodies the credulous TEDxAnything attitude plaguing the tech industry. / New Statesman

Modern instructional and self-help videos have origins in a wave of sententious, moralizing films from the 1950s. Strangely, to our ears, these weren’t produced by conservative cultural warriors but by liberal Hollywood types who wanted to instill a public ethic beyond the family. / artofmanliness.com

“There is, to an extent unparalleled in history, the promise that anyone, anywhere in the world, without cost or travel or the embarrassment of public failure, can learn just about anything. Some take it too far.” How-to videos are “catnip for the brain,” and yeah, cats can get addicted to catnip. / Nautilus

“Now that YouTube is 10 years old, it’s clear that video tutorials are among its most valuable—if sometimes mundane—contributions.” The case for the instructional video’s place in the catalog of human knowledge is strong. / The Atlantic

Citing Hitler as a role model, Duterte vows to kill three million drug addicts. As the Guardian notes: “If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...” / The Guardian

“Contrary to what zealots in either camp claim, neither public nor private schools perform better than the alternative at all times. So it makes sense to consider how to combine the virtues of both systems, instead of simply choosing between them.” The case for combining public and private school models. / Project Syndicate

A study on the effect of air pollution on workers—specifically call-center workers at Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency—finds “a surprisingly robust relationship between daily air pollution levels and worker productivity.” / hbr.org

Police officers in seven regions in the US and UK wore body cameras for a year, 1.5 million officer hours across more than 4,000 shifts. Complaints fell by 93 percent. / BBC

“Many of my customers at the strip club wouldn’t have guessed that the money that they were handing me was getting split with the club at 50 percent.” Strippers and hairdressers work the exact same way (financially). / The Billfold

Terrific, succinct, slightly meandering story on globalization in Vox about a study of sweatshops in Ethiopia, the value of “bad” jobs, and how the economists came to several conclusions, one being: “however unattractive these jobs are to the majority of workers, we do not conclude that Africa needs fewer low-wage manufacturers.” / Vox

“My mother took a walk and met a woman; I grew up with her daughter like a piece of my own beating heart.” Moving essay by Zan Romanoff about helping her friend navigate depression and grief. / Buzzfeed

What kept us company all week and surely into the weekend (with terrific write-ups in addition to the music): Pitchfork’s “50 Best Ambient Albums” round-up. Spotify playlist over here. / Pitchfork, Spotify

H&M blames poor August sales on hot weather. / fortune.com

A fun, brief, illustrated primer on the mysteries of Mayan writing. / The Nib

“If you needed a really explicit reason to believe that humanity is embarrassing, wikiHow formalizes it in a judgment-free zone.” After a breakup, a writer turns to wikiHow, a network of self-help spawning a community of anonymous care. / Real Life

Among contributing factors to a rising homicide rate in many large American cities: More bullets, bigger bullets, and shooting to kill. / data.baltimoresun.com

“I can tell you it is easier to do than a Chinese restaurant, and the profit margins are better.” Why so many of America’s sushi restaurants are Chinese-owned. / Washington Post

The Trump Organization spent thousands unsuccessfully trying to break into the Cuban market in the late ’90s, violating the trade embargo and potentially alienating Cuban-Americans in Florida, a huge bloc whose older voters are strongly pro-embargo. / Newsweek, The Washington Post

New fact, at least to our minds: Just 14 percent of detained immigrants are able to obtain a lawyer for their deportation hearings; the government is not required to provide any kind of counsel. / americanimmigrationcouncil.org