In Truly Other News

By Barbara Meyers Ford, SSPN Editor-in-Chief

One of my favorite spots in any good bookstore is the magazine section. It’s a microcosm of all things people find interesting—some completely understandable, and others that just make you think about our "incredible diversity" (my politically correct euphemism for "just how weird is that?!?").

On my foray into that section, a black cover caught my eye. It had bold white letters flush left that read "the state of the planet 2009" in 20-point type on the top line and immediately below GOOD in 100+-point followed underneath by "NOW WHAT?" in 72-point neon blue. The title of this publication is GOOD (just in case that got lost in my verbal description). GOOD is "for people who give a damn. It’s an entertaining magazine about things that matter."

Well, frankly I do give a damn so, I started to leaf through and ended up bringing it back to my office. The issue was GOOD’s "first annual report on the state of the planet." The reports covered (in order of appearance): politics, business and money, health, technology, buying, science, environment, art and design, mobility, media, culture, education, and living. Flipping to the Media section, I observed that it started with a two-page photo from a "citizen journalist" (hand with phone camera included in the pix) of the Off Road Festival in Budapest, Hungary.

The next two pages (each section covered about four pages) were titled "As the World Blogs." The GOOD editors have begun a project to "make friends with a blogger in every country." They reported on responses from 14 of their "favorites" to a set of four questions. One of potential interest to SSP NEWS (SSPN) readers was "What is the last thing you bought?" Of the 14 bloggers, two (from Jordan and Moldova) answered "a book" and the one from Thailand replied "a domain name." [Aside: The U.S. blogger last bought "A Miracle Fruit Tree from buy-miracle-fruit.com." In fact, including the United States, half of the bloggers responded that they had last bought some type of food … an indication perhaps of why research studies report that keyboards are some of the least hygienic spots on the planet.]

Well, that’s just one of my finds in the area of truly other news. Have you come across something interesting lately? If so, please tell us about it. Send a brief description (300-500 words) to me or any of the other members of the SSPN Editorial Team. We’ll look forward to hearing from you!

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