About
[Page Revised August 27, 2007]
This is going to be a mostly political blog now, which is how it started. I will comment on culture or music once in a while. However, I’ve also started a music blog, which I am hoping will free me to focus more on politics here (again). And everything about my political orientation/beliefs is pretty much said in the main page and the heading, I think.
So here, I’ll get to a quick summary of the personal stuff.
I earn my living mainly as a proofreading temp, and through some writing once in a while. I consider myself to be very much in a condition that a lot of Europeans define as “precarity.” This probably weighs heavily on the way that I think about things.
I live in New York City, as I have for most of my life (which life adds up to more than 45 years at this point - though I sometimes find that difficult to believe).
For several months after this WordPress blog was started, I was living in Mott Haven, at the bottom of The Bronx. Starting in July 2007, I’ve been living in Queens, sort of on the eastern border of Woodside, right next to Jackson Heights. So I have now lived in all five boroughs of New York City.
I haven’t traveled much outside of NYC, at least compared to a lot of people, but I think I’ve probably been exposed to (and had experience with) a huge number of different cultures just from living in this town. I consider that to be a very positive thing in my life, something that makes me grateful for having grown up in New York, despite my increasing displeasure regarding this bigger area known as the U.S.A.
Nonetheless, I am still a curmudgeon.
July 15, 2007 at 11:23 am
Mr. S [deleted rest of my name, don't want that spelled out - RS]:
We are colleagues, of a sort. We even collaborated one afternoon (or was it evening?) but didn’t manage anything of note.
I am about as far apart from you politically as the poles of a neutron star shooting out jets. Amongst other things, I just stay the hey out of politics.
But I discovered you recently, thought I’d drop a note.
I’ve become a computer geek, I even taught “geekiness,” now I am working for a big firm, they actually have me writing and teaching as a sideline.
I am now married (19 years), we adopted twins (boy and girl, please don’t ask if they are identical twins — seriously, some people do) six years ago.
I may read some of your stuff here, but then again, maybe not. I might feel inclined to respond with an equal but opposite reply.
Feel free to write . . . or right . . . or wrong . . . or not.
SCM
July 15, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hi, there… Mr. Martin… Yes, weren’t we in a Clarion West science fiction writing workshop together once? Wow, seems like another lifetime. (Well, it is 22 years! So long ago…hope I got this memory right…
Anyway, glad that you stopped by. Feel free to write more, when you like.
July 16, 2007 at 10:53 am
Yeah, I was thinking a quarter of a century, even though that is a while off yet. I am a mathematician, amongst other things (though not a terribly good one), so I always favor nice, round figures, or numbers with meaning of some sort. (Pi day, for example, is celebrated by mathematicians on March 14 . . . think about it.)
March 23, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Dear Richard S.,
We are a public service nonprofit organization that has launched the beta of what we believe is the highest quality news site on the Internet - http://www.dailysource.org.
Readers of the site receive high quality articles and information from over a thousand publications including daily papers, television network sites, newsmagazines, journals, blogs and others. Some of the top journalists in the U.S. work on the site backed up by 35 volunteers working 5 to 30 hours a week each.
More details about what DailySource.org offers are in the press release below. Looking at your site, it looks like you would be interested in what we are doing. If you would, please write about us in your blog and include us on your list of news sources. We are already on the source lists of many sites including refdesk.com and NPR’s News Blog - http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I would also love to hear feedback if you have any for us.
Best regards,
Peter Dunn
Founder
Nonprofit organization launches national daily news site
New site delivers news, columns, editorials, photos, videos and more hand-picked from hundreds of sites around the Internet daily in a single location for free.
WATERTOWN, Mass., March 23, 2008 – The Daily Source, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the public, has launched the beta of a news Web site that brings high-quality news and information from all around the Internet to the public daily in a single place.
“We scour the web for high quality material - so our readers don’t have to,” explained founder Peter Dunn. “Most people don’t have 20 hours in their day to spend searching for high-quality news, so we do the work and put it in one spot for them.”
Editors at DailySource.org scan over one thousand publications including daily newspapers, television network sites, news magazines, journals, blogs and others. DailySource.org also gives readers easy access to establish links to other news sources, including local papers, a favorite sports site, or any sites of their choosing. The site allows seamless contact with members of the media and elected officials, and information on over 850,000 non-profits one can donate to or volunteer for.
Readers have the ability to rate the quality of articles they read, volunteer in various ways, email articles to friends, or submit links to articles they think are worthy of consideration for the front page. With all the features and opportunities for interaction, DailySource.org represents a new experience for news readers.
The site has a paid staff of experienced journalists from around the U.S. including Yvonne Lee, who prior to joining the Daily Source won an Emmy for her work covering September 11 for CNN, and Vince Winkel, who has won 20 awards for excellence in broadcast and online journalism while working for places like CBS, NPR, CNN, and the BBC.
The site has dozens of volunteers who search for articles and help produce the front page daily. “The first stage of the Web was about traditional media churning out quantity, the second was about everyday people producing quantity, and the currently unfolding third stage is about finding the quality within the massive quantity,” explained founder Peter Dunn. “Being part of that is what attracts the large number of volunteers we have.”
The Web site serves as a valuable resource for journalists, as a site they can visit for story ideas, breaking news and key trends. “DailySource.org is one of the first sites I read every morning to find out see what the big stories of the day are,” said Tom Regan, currently head of NPR’s online blog and a former front page editor of the Boston Globe’s news site. “I also find a lot of cutting-edge trends there that we can blog about that I simply would not have the time to find otherwise.”
“The Daily Source aims to become the primary news resource for readers who want intelligent, factual and accurate reporting,” Dunn said. “Whether it’s news, video, op-ed material, or live chats – it’s all in one place ready for people when they come here.”
A positive byproduct of the Daily Source service is that the news Web sites publishing the best quality news stories receive additional web traffic through the stories that DailySource.org links to. This enables them to keep publishing strong quality material.
A recent poll by USA TODAY, CNN and Gallup found that only 36 percent of Americans believe news organizations get the facts straight. “America has lost confidence in the media, but there is still some strong quality journalism available to the public spread out in various places,” said Dunn. “We serve to collect it so readers can get it all in one site from a place they can trust.”
Contact: Peter Dunn
Executive Director
The Daily Source
(617) 459-7709
http://dailysource.org/
peter@dailysource.org