Good News

Something that I'm sure a lot of people have noticed is that good news is hard to come by, both in Big Media and the blogosphere.

The reasons for this are understandable (CNN gets much better ratings for "Three Killed In Horrific Ice Cream Truck Explosion" than for "Faulty Fuel Line Valve Replaced On Ice Cream Trucks Nationwide"), but it's still unfortunate.

So, it's nice to see a short item like this tucked away in this month's issue of Popular Mechanics:

"Using throwaway items, Saul Griffith, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has built a low-cost injection molding machine that makes inexpensive eyeglasses. The lens-molding device...is intended for use in poor countries, where Griffith estimates 1 billion people need but cannot afford eyeglasses. Today, these individuals rely chiefly on hand-me-downs collected by civics groups such as the Lions Club. Griffith won the $20,000 Collegiate Inventors Competition prize for his idea. He plans to use part of the money to create a self-sustaining company that brings inexpensive eyeglasses to children in India. 'I'll make my money someplace else,' he says."