Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons
license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary
on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the
entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/


                  Future Crunch: An Antidote to Negative News

   Adam Engst

   It is easier than at any time in history to wallow in the morass of
   negative news. New words have even been coined to describe the act of
   reading news you know will make you sad, anxious, or angry:
   [1]doomsurfing and doomscrolling. I'm usually pretty good about
   ignoring the noxious media maelstrom'particularly the cesspool of
   social media'but in these uncertain days of pandemic, reading about
   what's happening with the coronavirus feels essential for planning and
   evaluating everyday life.

   However, I recently ran across [2]Future Crunch, a 4-year-old email
   newsletter that disseminates positive news. You won't find feel-good
   pieces about valiant citizens saving babies from burning buildings, but
   instead, evidence that humankind actually can improve the world in
   significant ways. Every issue contains numerous one- or two-sentence
   summaries of and links to original articles.

   The content is much broader than what we cover in TidBITS'Future
   Crunch's tagline is 'Science, technology, intelligent optimism.'
   Nonetheless, some topics will sound familiar. Its [3]most-recent issue
   mentions Apple's pledge to make its entire supply chain and product
   lifecycle carbon-neutral by 2030. Also in that issue is news that
   open-source host Github has just finished burying 21 TB of digital film
   containing all its active public repositories of code underneath a
   mountain in the Arctic. Fascinating stuff, and I look forward to
   receiving each issue and carving out the time to read the articles that
   interest me.

   In the past, Future Crunch has been entirely free, with voluntary
   donations (of over $100,000) going to charity. The good news stories
   remain available to everyone on a weekly basis, but since the people
   behind Future Crunch have essentially lost their jobs presenting at
   large conferences, they're adding premium content that will require a
   subscription after the next few months. I haven't seen the premium
   content yet to make a recommendation either way, but I encourage you to
   [4]subscribe to the free email newsletter for now. As someone who has
   been making a living in the online journalism space for decades, I wish
   the Future Crunch crew the best of luck.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://futurecrunch.substack.com/p/fc101-weve-got-some-big-news?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMDIwOTIxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo3MjI5NzgsIl8iOiJkdXRNeiIsImlhdCI6MTU5NzAwOTA4NywiZXhwIjoxNTk3MDEyNjg3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNjg1NCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ._mty9FAdvctujqK53Hl4k7AIsvukLUZy1T4jQwFfGUc
   2. https://futurecrunch.substack.com/
   3. https://futurecrunch.substack.com/p/fc101-weve-got-some-big-news
   4. https://futurecrunch.substack.com/subscribe?

   Hidden links:
   5. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2020/08/Future-Crunch.jpg

.