Category Archives: Spin da News

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

Things are Technically Good

We write a lot about technology around here, so when I say that this post is the mother of all tech-related posts, that’s saying a lot. Usually we report on one positive technology at a time; this time, we’re reporting on dozens.

The Tech Museum Awards exist to recognize and celebrate technology that benefits humanity. Nominations for the 2006 awards are currently being accepted, but in the meantime, check out the 2005 laureates. Amongst them:

Enviro Options
Enviro Options developed the Enviro Loo to make inroads into the enormous backlog of the sanitation requirement of the entire human race. The design is an attempt to produce a sanitation system that can be mass-produced, relatively cheaply. The technology is simple. It requires no chemicals… It is powered by radiant heat absorbed from sunlight and wind power. It requires minimal maintenance. It will not pollute ground water, and is user friendly.

Malnutrition Matters
Malnutrition Matters designed the VitaGoat system to benefit people in villages and rural areas of developing countries, by providing sustainable employment on a micro-enterprise basis and improving nutrition… The VitaGoat enables quick preparation of protein-rich foods such as soymilk and tofu that are highly beneficial for protein-deficient diets and especially for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Renewable Energy in 2005 and 2006

Sterling D. Allan from Pure Energy Systems has written a year-end review of renewable energy and he includes a projection of what to expect from 2006. It is a really neat read that includes stuff covered here and stuff that I planed to write about here but failed to do.

“Imagine a non-polluting power plant, the size of a local gas station, that would quietly and safely power 4,000 homes, for a few tenths of a penny per kilowatt-hour, compared to 3-6 cents/kw-h of coal or natural-gas-powered plants.”

Really crazy-advanced renewable technologies are on the horizon!

Dig for the Truth

A new website, Truthdig.com, that “drills” beyond the headlines to get to the truth.

From their About page:

“Truthdig is a Web magazine that provides expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major “digs,” led by authorities in their fields, who will drill down into contemporary topics and assemble packages of content—text, links, audio, video—that will grow richer with time and user participation. To offer frequent change and surprise, the magazine will also present a diversity of original reporting and aggregated content culled by the site’s editors and staff.”

The Next Kyoto Protocol

This week in Montreal the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held. Is this a good place?The conference is a meeting of all the countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol to see what the next Protocol should look like. The results of this conference are imperative to the planet’s future, some people are interested in a looser set of requirements, and others want a different set of measurements to set targets.

Evidence that climate change is very dangerous to humanity is now being recognized and hopefully this will be acknowledged on an official and international level in Montreal this week.

Black Box Voting tests Diebold Machines

Black Box Voting, the activist group who trained a chimpanzee to crack the Diebold voting machines back in 2004, have been hired by the libertarian party and the Secretary of State for California to test the very same voting machines.

The Diebold company became infamous in 2004 when they’re head, ‘Wally’ O’Dell was quoted saying he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”