All About Articles

I like articles.

No surprise there.

Sometimes maintaining a good mix of different news stories is a bit tricky. The usual (often grim) fare is more digestible for me when cut with science news and the offbeat - what's called fringe news, or "odd" items. I look for a good story, well told, and the best reports on any given subject. Humor, too.

The more widely reported stories are so well covered I tend to leave them alone, except for interesting tangents, or back story bits that address factual questions floating about in, say, the blogosphere.

I love information for its own sake, because the world and the people in it fascinate me. Opinions are good, too, but they're more interesting when debaters - solo or group - have good facts under their belts. So any tiny thing I can do to help get information disseminated a bit more widely feels good.

You'll always see lots of news stories on ksquest. If you're not interested in them, you can just skip by, right? Just like a little newspaper. Do, please, take control of your exposure; that's how to prevent information overload.

For myself, I read much more news than I post.

That's mostly because, due to the internet, I can.

For many years, I could not.

Being allergic to virtually everything has a universe of unusual consequences. Being allergic to newsprint ink, to the papers used, to special dyes in the ads sections means newspapers and magazines are simply out of bounds. Little tricks folks use like, Open your newspaper up and spread all the pages around for a few days to air out-- just didn't cut it.

I mean, picture it. First, if you're housebound, the allergens are simply dispersing into your breathing air. Dumb. Second, what a mess. Papers everywhere. Third, you're getting lots of exposure simply handling the stuff to spread it around, got to glove and mask up then take a big bath after, just to do that. Yuck.

Television is scant fare for someone who wants information and detail, and loves to read too.

So for a very long time, years and years, this information junkie had to turn her back on the news of the world.

Walter would get a bit frustrated with me: --I can't talk to you about anything! You have no idea what's going on!

Sure. True. Perfectly valid complaint. A wonderful part of our relationship is how we love to talk to each other. The poor man wasn't getting any. Me either, of course.

And then one fine day, Walter finally talked this phobe into going on the internet. Scared me half to death. But I did it. And guess what I found out there!

I started reading newspapers again.

Heaven. Better access than anything I'd ever had back in my dead tree news days. Better than working at the post office and borrowing all those interesting mailed newspapers and magazines and journals to read on break. Online versions of the best and the worst, from all over America and all over the world.

And another very fine day, not long down that road, an excellent friend said, Look at the Drudge Report. http://drudgereport.com/

Which opened up another whole new world. Links to so very many newspapers and other news sources, all in one place. User friendly to such phobes as myself, so as not to run away all scared. And best of all: the AP Breaking News link. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/index.htm

Information is perishable. I like mine fresh off the vine. Many of the articles I read are run on TV news and even online newspapers 1-2 days, or sometimes weeks, after I first read them.

Back in my active days, I loved being "in the know" before others were. Forgive me a bit of ego grat there. What mattered more was that by the time folks were ready to discuss some interesting occurrence or what have you, I'd had time to mull it over, think, explore, wonder. In discussing that event with others, I got a lot more out of their thoughts simply because of that lead time.

Walter still complains sometimes. But now it's because, when he's unearthed some intriguing news tidbit and starts to tell me about it, I usually already know. I can rudely finish his sentences for him, or worse, tell him details he hasn't heard yet. So he'll say, I can't tell you anything new, you always already heard it!

Ever so much better than k knowing nothing of what's happening in the world. We'll take it.

Articles posted on ksquest won't be quite as timely as where I got them from, since I line 'em up and post a chunk all at once. But you'll still get lots of news before it hits TV and Radioland, dead tree newspapers, and even online newspapers. If you, too, like your info fresh, it'll usually taste better from here.

As time goes by and I get more proficient with blog format techniques, I'll find a way to post the articles in their own place rather than mixing them with the rest of my posts. Other than that, there probably won't be many changes to the Articles business here. I hope you'll always see lots and lots of interesting links, nice and fresh.

And I vet for quality. Every single article I post has been read, first, by me.

Because - due to the internet - I can.