3 Quarks Daily
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| Web address | www |
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Type of site
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literature, the arts, politics, current affairs, science, philosophy |
| Available in | English |
| Users | 400 thousand per month |
| Editors |
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| Launched | 2004 |
| Current status | Online |
3 Quarks Daily (3QD) is an online news aggregator and blog that curates commentary, essays, and multimedia from high quality periodicals, newspapers, journals, and blogs. The focus is on literature, the arts, politics, current affairs, science, philosophy, gossip–and, as stated on their web site–"anything else we deem inherently fascinating." Each day of the week from Tuesday through Sunday features about a dozen items culled from the World Wide Web. Each Monday is devoted to an online magazine which has essays and other previously unpublished content by editors and guest columnists.[1] The stated aim of 3QD is to offer “a one-stop intellectual surfing experience by culling good stuff from all over and putting it in one place.”[2]
3 Quarks Daily also awards annual prizes, called “quarks,” for exceptional writing in the blogosphere, as well as organizing quarterly online symposia on international issues. The blog commands a significant readership and readers follow it in a variety of ways: through an email subscription and an RSS feed, as well as through social media updates via Twitter[3] and Facebook.[4]
Contents
History
Author, engineer, and philosopher S. Abbas Raza founded 3 Quarks Daily in 2004 to serve as a conduit for content across disciplines for the web-based intellectual everyman.[5] Unlike similar blogs of the time, such as Arts & Letters Daily and Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, 3QD would explore topics beyond the humanities and feature science content as well as commentary on current events. In fact, Abbas Raza says that Arts & Letters Daily, "was one of the main inspirations for my starting 3 Quarks Daily."[6] The first post was on Saturday, July 31, 2004 and featured the 1904 Constantine Cavafy poem Waiting for the Barbarians.[7] Since then, 3 Quarks Daily has culled content from hundreds of sources, from blogs such as Salon, Science Daily, and The Huffington Post, from major publications such as The New York Times, Nature, and The Guardian, to smaller outlets such as Guernica Magazine, The Awl, and The American Scholar.
The name 3 Quarks Daily comes from the elementary nuclear particles of physics which in turn were named after the word quark which James Joyce had used in Finnegans Wake.[8] The confluence of references to both science and literature in a single word suited the intent of the blog perfectly and the founders also thought that the name would be short and memorable. They named their top three annual prizes the Top Quark (1st), the Strange Quark (2nd), and the Charm Quark (3rd).
The DAG-3QD Peace And Justice Symposia
Since 2012 3 Quarks Daily has teamed up with the Amsterdam-based Dialogue Advisory Group (DAG) to present online dialogues on topics of international peace and justice.[9] Occasionally, as in the 2013 symposium on drones, a book is published.[10] As of October 2015 there have been six such symposia as shown below.
| Peace And Justice Symposia | |
|---|---|
| date | topic |
| February 25, 2014 | What is the Future for Colombia's Rebels? |
| September 16, 2013 | The Elusive Quest for Political Stability in Central Asia and Beyond |
| July 01, 2013 | The Iraq War and Democracy in the Middle East |
| February 25, 2013 | The Vexing Complexities of Drones |
| November 26, 2012 | The Role of Gender in Situations of War and Conflict |
| September 03, 2012 | Evaluating the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Doctrine |
The Quark Prizes
In 2009, in the interest of encouraging and rewarding good writing in the blogosphere, 3QD announced that it would be awarding annual cash prizes, in Science, Arts & Literature, Politics, and Philosophy for the three best blog posts in each of these four fields. The selection process is as follows: After several weeks during which nominees are submitted by 3QD readers and editors, the four principal editors of 3QD (Abbas Raza, Robin Varghese, Morgan Meis, and Azra Raza) winnow the list down to six articles in each category. A prominent intellectual such as Steven Pinker,[11] Richard Dawkins,[12] or Lewis Lapham[13] is chosen in each of the four areas to select the final winners. The prizes are whimsically named the Top Quark (first prize of $500), the Strange Quark (second prize of $200), and the Charm Quark (third prize of $100). Originally the prize amounts were twice as big. Not every prize is awarded in every year and no prizes at all were awarded in 2013. A complete list of prizes awarded since 2009 is shown below.[14]
| Philosophy Prizes | ||
|---|---|---|
| prize | winner | winning work |
| 2014 Philosophy Prizes — judged by Huw Price | ||
| 1 | Grace Boey | Is applied ethics applicable enough? Acting and hedging under moral uncertainty |
| 2 | Ryan Simonelli | Nāgārjuna, Nietzsche, and Rorty’s Strange Looping Trick |
| 3 | Marcus Arvan | The Case for Libertarian Compatibilism |
| 2012 Philosophy Prizes — judged by Justin E. H. Smith | ||
| 1 | Wesley Buckwalter | Factive Verbs and Protagonist Projection |
| 2 | Elizabeth Anderson | Recharting the Map of Social and Political Theory: Where is Government? Where is Conservatism? |
| 3 | Thomas Rodham | Democracy is not a truth machine |
| 2011 Philosophy Prizes — judged by Patricia Churchland | ||
| 1 | Terrence Tomkow | Self Defense |
| 2 | John Schwenkler | Has Molyneux's Question Been Answered? |
| 3 | Jussi Suikkanen | Williams, Thick Concepts, and Reasons |
| 2010 Philosophy Prizes — judged by Akeel Bilgrami | ||
| 1 | Justin Erik Halldor Smith | More on Non-Western Philosophy (the Very Idea) |
| 2 | Terrance Tomkow | The Retributive Theory of Property |
| 3 | Brian Leiter | Katsafanas on "Nietzsche's Philosophical Psychology |
| 2009 Philosophy Prizes — judged by Daniel C. Dennett | ||
| 1 | Terrance Tomkow | Blackburn, Truth and other Hot Topics |
| 2 | David Shoemaker | Scanlon on Moral Responsibility and Blame |
| 3 | Gerald Dworkin | Penne For Your Thought |
| Science Prizes | ||
|---|---|---|
| prize | winner | winning work |
| 2015 Science Prizes — judged by Nick Lane | ||
| 1 | Ashutosh Jogalekar | The fundamental philosophical dilemma of chemistry |
| 2 | Aatish Bhatia | The Sound So Loud That It Circled the Earth Four Times |
| 3 | Nadia Drake | When Hubble Stared at Nothing for 100 Hours |
| 2014 Science Prizes — judged by Frans B. M. de Waal | ||
| 1 | Eric Michael Johnson | Promiscuity Is Pragmatic |
| 2 | Christie Wilcox | Did Allergies Evolve To Save Your Life? |
| 3 | Carl Zimmer | The Wisdom of (Little) Crowds |
| 2012 Science Prizes — judged by Sean M. Carroll | ||
| 1 | Aatish Bhatia | The crayola-fication of the world: How we gave colors names, and it messed with our brains |
| 2 | Cosma Shalizi | In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You |
| 3 | Holly Dunsworth | Forget bipedalism. What about babyism? |
| 2011 Science Prizes — judged by Lisa Randall | ||
| 1 | Bethany Brookshire | Serotonin and Sexual Preference: Is It Really That Simple? |
| 2 | Anne Jefferson | Levees and the Illusion of Flood Control |
| 3 | Sean M. Carroll | The Fine Structure Constant is Probably Constant |
| 3 | Ethan Siegel | Where Is Everybody? |
| 2010 Science Prizes — judged by Richard Dawkins | ||
| 1 | Ed Yong | Gut bacteria in Japanese people borrowed digesting genes from ocean bacteria |
| 2 | Carl Zimmer | Skullcaps and Genomes |
| 3 | Margaret Morgan | The Evolution of Chloroplasts |
| 2009 Science Prizes — judged by Steven Pinker | ||
| 1 | Adam Lee | Bands of Iron |
| 2 | David Shiffman | The ecological disaster that is dolphin safe tuna |
| 3 | Phil Plait | Ten Things You Don't Know About Hubble |
| Arts & Literature Prizes | ||
|---|---|---|
| prize | winner | winning work |
| 2015 Arts & Literature Prizes — judged by Jonathan Kramnick | ||
| 1 | Joanna Walsh | Ventimiglia |
| 2 | David Kurnick | The Essential Gratuitousness of César Aira |
| 3 | Sarah Blackwood | Editing as Carework |
| 2014 Arts & Literature Prizes — judged by Mohsin Hamid | ||
| 1 | Ali Eteraz | The Death of the Urdu Script |
| 2 | Olga Tokarczuk | Everywhere and Nowhere |
| 3 | Matthew Jakubowski | Honest work: an experimental review of an experimental translation |
| 2012 Arts & Literature Prizes — judged by Gish Jen | ||
| 1 | Melissa Fisher | My First Job |
| 2 | Leanne Ogasawara | Leonardo in the Gilded Age |
| 3 | Syed Haider Shahbazd | The Last Novel |
| 2011 Arts & Literature Prizes — judged by Laila Lalami | ||
| 1 | Namit Arora | Joothan: A Dalit's Life |
| 2 | Edan Lepucki | Reading and Race: On Slavery in Fiction |
| 3 | Elliot Colla | The Poetry of Revolt |
| 2010 Arts & Literature Prizes — judged by Robert Pinsky | ||
| 1 | Tomasz Rozycki | Scorched Maps |
| 2 | Amitava Kumar | Postmortem |
| 3 | Lydia Kiesling | Proust’s Arabesk: The Museum of Innocence by Orhan |
| Politics and Social Science Prizes | ||
|---|---|---|
| prize | winner | winning work |
| 2015 Politics and Social Science Prizes — judged by Ken Roth | ||
| 1 | Kenan Malik | Assimilation vs. Multiculturism |
| 2 | Xavier Marquez | The Saudi Monarchy as a Family Firm |
| 3 | Omar Ali | Blasphemy, blasphemy laws, Pakistan, Charlie Hebdo... |
| 2014 Politics and Social Science Prizes — judged by Mark Blyth | ||
| 1 | Kenan Malik | In Defense of Diversity |
| 2 | Filipe Gracio | Democratic Austerity: Semi-sovereign states, semi-sovereign peoples |
| 3 | Philip Cohen | State of Utah falsely claims same-sex marriage ban makes married, man-woman parenting more likely |
| 2011 Politics and Social Science Prizes — judged by Stephen M. Walt | ||
| 1 | Kenan Malik | Rethinking the Idea of "Christian Europe" |
| 2 | David Graeber | On the Invention of Money |
| 3 | Corey Robin | Revolutionaries of the Right: The Deep Roots of Conservative Radicalism |
| 2010 Politics Prizes — judged by Lewis H. Lapham | ||
| 1 | Stephen Walt | Why America is going to regret the Cordoba House controversy |
| 2 | Dan Froomkin | The Two Most Essential, Abhorrent, Intolerable Lies Of George W. Bush's Memoir |
| 3 | Thomas Wells | Politics: Can't Someone Else Do It? |
| 2009 Politics Prizes — judged by Tariq Ali | ||
| 1 | Glenn Greenwald | Greg Craig and Obama's worsening civil liberties record |
| 2 | Glen Ford | The Great Black Hajj of 2009 |
| 3 | Roger Gathman | Republican Virtue and Equality |
Reception
The 3 Quarks Daily blog has garnered praise from prominent authors, scientists, authors, and artists. Among them:
- Richard Dawkins: I have placed 3 Quarks Daily at the head of my list of web bookmarks.[15]
- Christopher Lydon: For sheer elegance, wit and worldly wisdom ... for consistency of character and manners, ever above the ordinary... 3 Quarks stands alone. If 3 Quarks Daily were a person, wouldn't it be Proust?[16]
- Steven Pinker: I couldn't tear myself away from 3 Quarks Daily, to the point of neglecting my work. Congratulations on this superb site.[17]
- Daniel Dennett: Mighty interesting website! I've added it to my favorites.[18]
- Andrew Sullivan: You guys rock![19]
- Ken Roth: 3 Quarks Daily is an essential stop for any serious reader on the Web.[19]
- Laura Claridge: 3 Quarks is a daily must-read for intellectuals of all stripes. It is perhaps even smarter and better and more comprehensive than Arts & Letters Daily, the de facto gold standard of the smart set on the internet.[18]
- John Allen Paulos: I've recommended your site to a number of friends and colleagues who've bemoaned the dearth of sites with any literary/scientific muscularity. Keep up the wonderful work.[18]
Guest columnists
The Monday magazine is not completely the creation of the 3QD editors; guest columnists are frequently invited. Prominent guest contributors have included:[19]
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References
- ↑ An Audio Interview with Abbas Raza of 3 Quarks Daily, By Adam Kampe, National Endowment for the Arts Magazine
- ↑ About 3 Quarks Daily
- ↑ 3 Quarks Daily on Twitter
- ↑ 3 Quarks Daily on Facebook
- ↑ Boston Review: S. Abbas Raza
- ↑ What will be the fate of Arts & Letters Daily? by Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times, December 28, 2010
- ↑ 3QD posting for Saturday, July 31, 2004
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he has not got much of a bark - ↑ Dialogue Advisory Group: Online Symposia On Peace And Justice
- ↑ Opposing Perspectives on the Drone Debate by Bradley Jay Strawser, Palgrave Macmillan [2014], ISBN 9781137432612
- ↑ Race For The Prize By Gareth, Hot Topic, June 2, 2009
- ↑ 3QD Science Blogging Prize By Sean Carroll, Discover Magazine, May 27, 2010
- ↑ Lapham’s Quarterly: Lewis Lapham Judges the 3 Quarks Daily Politics Prize
- ↑ Listing of 3QD prizes awarded since 2009
- ↑ 3 Quarks Daily announces awards for science blogging ScienceBlogs: May 27, 2009
- ↑ Christopher Lydon on Facebook December 6, 2009
- ↑ Club Troppo: review of 3 Quarks Daily by Ingolf May 14, 2008
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 ValuesAustralia: 3 Quarks and the Higgs Boson
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 3 Quarks Daily: About Us
