Category Archives: Spin da News

Taking a news item/story/whatever and taking a persepective that argues its goodness.

Bus 52: Travelling Good News

Bus 52 is a bout telling people the good news that’s out there across the USA. They are trying to give hope to the youth of today by celebrating how people can make a large difference in their community by focusing on doing good work.

Bus 52 is made up of five young people who are sick of hearing news that just brings you down. While living, cooking and working on the bus, they will spend 52 weeks tracking down inspiring stories across America, documenting the good work, great ideas, and amazing people that are making a difference in their community. The team will interview and film these inspiring people and produce short video profiles, which will be uploaded to their website twice a week.

Bus 52’s founder, Robert Gelb, felt that there was something missing in daily media:

“People everywhere seem to focus on bad news because it gets ratings, good news is often forgotten about and we want to show that there is a place for good news. No matter where you are in the country whether your in Kansas or New York City, you have people doing amazing things for their neighbors just because they want to make their community a better place – and those stories are worth telling.”

Check out Bus 52.

Vancouver Reduces Sexual Assaults by 10% Using Male-Targeted Ads

It’s unfortunate that we still need ad campaigns to remind women to be safe from sexual assault, it’s even more unfortunate that we target these campaigns at women when men cause the vast majority of assaults.

In Vancouver they launched a campaign targeted at men called ‘Don’t Be That Guy’. After running the campaign, which told men not to take advantage of women, the sexual assault rate dropped 10%!

The poster is one of three that went up at bars and around the city last summer as part of a campaign to chip away at the increasing rate of sexual assaults in recent years in Vancouver.

Six months later, Deputy Chief Doug LePard says the Don’t Be That Guy campaign has contributed to a turnaround in statistics on sexual offences in Vancouver.

The rate dropped in 2011 by about 10 per cent, the first time in several years it had gone down.

Hopefully we’ll see more public safety campaigns targeted at people who commit the crimes rather than those that are victims.

Read more here.

Jack Layton 1950-2011

Jack Layton passed away this morning and I feel that in his passing we need to remember all the good that he has done for Canada. Obviously, it is in no way a good thing that Canada has lost such a strong and inspiring leader, but it is up to Canadians now to keep his momentum of positive change moving forwards.

To me, Layton was a beacon of hope in a rough political sea that used dirty tactics and horrible policies to further confused political or ideological goals. Layton always relied on honesty, facts, and a commitment to the betterment of all of Canada to get his political goals met.

Under his leadership the NDP gained historic victories against a rising tied of overtly hostile Conservative recklessness and a growing apathy about Canada and Canadianism amongst the people of Canada. Throughout his political career from city councillor to federal opposition leader he spoke passionately about his beliefs and lived up to them. He inspired many young Canadians to get into politics and to be passionate about their beliefs. He encouraged people to stand up for what’s right; to champion the causes of the downtrodden, the oppressed, working families, the environment, the right to a good education, and all other causes of social justice.

Indeed, if Layton wasn’t around to lead the NDP when he did I fear what Canada could have become. It is now up to all Canadians to carry forward the torch of positive change and to champion social justice. As Canadians we need to live up to what Jack Layton wanted Canada to be: a caring country that espoused respect and honesty within and outside our borders.

We have lost one leader in Canada, but we must not forget all the good that Layton has done. We need to remember, we need to keep makings all things good.

The CBC has a good obituary on his political career.

Edit: Layton’s final letter to Canadians can be read after the break:
Continue reading →

Good Ideas from 2010

Foreign Policy magazine has compiled a list of some of the best ideas from 2010. It’s an inspiring list that should make everyone feel a little more hopeful for the future of humanity.

And yet, all the bad news came with a surprising upside. Driven by the need to do more with less, the year’s boldest innovators turned up better, simpler ways to use our shrinking resources to improve global quality of life: ideas like creating demand for development so that poor people can better help themselves and handing money directly to those who need it, as well as new approaches to measuring and mapping that offer better, faster information about what aid needs to go where. This moment of global insecurity has also called into doubt some old shibboleths — not least that national borders as we know them are good and that resource wealth is bad.

In what sometimes looked like the worst of times, it was actually the best of times for ideas — and these ideas will shape how the world recovers in the years to come.

Read the selection of good ideas here.

Good News on Airplane Accidents

Many people have a fear of flying, yet, those same people have no fear about getting into something that is far more likely to kill them: their car. The CBC has an article that points out how safe flying is despite people’s exaggerated fears.

There have been countless in-flight incidents that that could’ve ended disastrously, but were resolved without loss of life. Here’s a look at a few of them.

Jan. 15, 2009: A U.S. Airways Airbus A320 loses power to both engines shortly after taking off from New York’s La Guardia airport when it strikes a flock of geese. Capt. Chesley Sullenberger is able to guide the crippled aircraft to a safe landing on the Hudson River, where rescue boats and ferries plucked the 155 passengers and crew from lifeboats and the plane’s wings before it sank in the frigid waters. There were no serious injuries.

August 24, 2001: An Air Transat A330-200 glides to an emergency landing in the Azores after a fuel leak shut down both engines. The plane, which was on a flight from Toronto to Lisbon, glided for about 20 minutes after running out of fuel. The plane made a hard landing, damaging the landing gear, but came to a stop on the runway. None of the 291 passengers or 13 crew members were killed, although several suffered serious injuries, including fractures and shock. A Portuguese investigation cited faulty maintenance and noted the pilots failed to detect the fuel leak.

Read more

Yes, I know that flying is horrible for the atmosphere but hey, here’s some good news on how safe planes are!