Weekend edition—Saudi shift, Instagram ballet, frontier tourism

For more than half a century, the promotion of human rights has been a fundamental tenet of US foreign policy. [Quartz Daily Brief]( Good morning, Quartz readers! For more than half a century, the promotion of human rights has been a fundamental tenet of US foreign policy. It’s been used to justify the US embargo of Cuba and sanctions against South Africa. Restoring democracy to Eastern Europe helped define US interests in the Cold War, and ending human rights abuses helped explain interventions in countries from Nicaragua to Iraq to Libya. Saudi Arabia—an absolute monarchy with a hideous human rights record—has mostly escaped US censure, however. It’s no great mystery why: The kingdom is an enormous oil producer and has a huge influence over energy prices; it has been a reliable regional counterweight to Iran; and the Saudi royal family has ingratiated itself to many US politicians. The disregard of Saudi Arabia’s abuses has long exposed the hypocrisy of the US government’s rhetoric: Human rights are to be championed, but only if it’s convenient. It’s a nice-to-have, not a must-have. Suddenly, however, with the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, things have changed. US senators are demanding answers from their erstwhile ally. Florida Republican Marco Rubio declared the [US’s credibility on human rights]( (paywall) was at stake “if we do not move forward and take swift action” over Khashoggi’s disappearance. It’s a line in the sand that ignores Saudi Arabia’s imprisonment of political dissenters, oppression of women, and [war in Yemen]( which may lead to the starvation of millions. The difference, of course, is that Khashoggi’s death has spun out like an episode of CSI:Istanbul. The grisly circumstances, the tantalizing details ([a bone saw!]( carefully doled out by Turkish leaks, the trail of evidence leading to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman: It’s all perfectly suited for a media-consuming American public weary of domestic elections. And, of course, Khashoggi was a journalist, so the US media is taking it personally. If Khashoggi’s death is what forces Washington to confront who it’s been in bed with, so be it. But it’s sadly telling that in a country that elected a reality TV star as president, it takes a police procedural to set the human rights agenda. —Oliver Staley Five things on Quartz we especially liked A simple acronym sums up what’s wrong with social media. In a new book, technologist and philosopher Jaron Lanier uses an acronym to describe the sinister purpose behind platforms like Facebook and Twitter: BUMMER, or Behaviors of Users Modified and Made into Empires for Rent. As [Ephrat Livni notes]( he isn’t the only one questioning the widespread addiction to such networks. Uber’s secret weapon is economists. Uber employs more than a dozen top PhDs who study everything from the ride experience to its biggest policy challenges. [Alison Griswold explains]( how the company enlisted top academics to legitimize its global policy agenda. You can call it Ubernomics. Legos are getting angry. When faces were added to Lego minifigures in the late 1970s, you could be sure of them expressing joy and happiness. Things have changed. Thanks to licensing deals to create toy sets based on movies, there are now over 10,000 unique minifigures, each with their own expression. And as [Daniel Wolfe reports]( the fast-growing expression since the 1990s has been anger. Where are the female trombonists? A Quartz investigation found that there are no women playing the tuba or trombone—and only one female trumpet player—in 22 of the world’s top orchestras. Oliver Staley and Amanda Shendruk [take a closer look]( at the stark gender disparity. Instagram is making ballet dangerous. Scroll through photo- or video-sharing sites and you’ll find images of dancers contorted into unbelievable positions, or performing mind-boggling tricks like multiple pirouettes. As [Hanna Kozlowska explains]( such images can create unrealistic expectations among impressionable young dancers—and lead to physical risk. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter Exchanging books fosters community. Todd Bol, founder of the Little Free Library, died earlier this week, leaving behind a legacy of 75,000-plus registered neighborhood book exchanges. What he found was that the book-filled boxes on poles did much more than encourage literacy—just the presence of one sets the tone for a caring, sharing community. Jenna Ross [interviewed Bol for the Minneapolis Star Tribune]( just before his death. We’re living in the best time for fashion. The notion that everything used to be better in some romanticized past runs deep through Western thought, even down to clothing. For the blog Die, Workwear!, writer Derek Guy looks at this persistent “declinism” [and its flimsy foundation](. Industrialization, he explains, has made fashion accessible to more people than ever before, changing social norms have made it more expressive, and on the whole, there’s never been a richer, more exciting time for getting dressed. Tourists are venturing into African trouble spots. National parks in countries like Chad, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are not known for attracting hordes of tourists, largely because of security concerns. But as Alexandra Wexler [writes for the Wall Street Journal]( (paywall), a niche but expanding “frontier tourism” market is changing that. Birding makes nature accessible to the blind. Think of birdwatchers and an image of people craning to spot a rare species might come to mind. But birds are more likely to be heard than seen, and their calls are often easier to identify than their appearance. Listening for their unique sounds can give everyone—including those without sight—a way of understanding the diversity of nature all around us, as Trevor Attenberg, legally blind since childhood, [explains for Audubon](. In Trump we trust. Before Donald Trump was the US president, he was a businessman whose companies declared bankruptcy six times. Nonetheless, real estate developers sought his involvement in projects around the world. Trump claims the ventures were mere licensing deals, but a [ProPublica and WNYC investigation]( led by Heather Vogell, reveals he was deeply involved and fraudulently misled investors, profiting while developers lost. Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, used books, and bird sounds to hi@qz.com. 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