Lemonade without the Lemons: New Search Engine Looks for Uplifting News
Good news, if you haven't noticed, has always been rare commodity. We all have our ways of coping, but the media's pessimistic proclivity presented a serious problem for Jurriaan Kamp, editor of the San Francisco-based Ode magazine --a must-read for "intelligent optimists "--who was in dire need of an editorial pick-me-up, last year in particular. His bright idea: an algorithm that can sense the tone of daily news and separate the uplifting stories from the Debbie Downers.Talk about a ripe moment: A Pew survey last month found the number of Americans hearing "mostly bad" news about the economy and other issues is at its highest since the downturn in 2008. That is unlikely to change anytime soon: global obesity rates are climbing, the Middle East is unstable, and campaign 2012 vitriol is only just beginning to spew in the U.S. The problem is not trivial....
