I only recently started using google reader, and now I don't know how I used the web without it.
For those of you that don't use it - you can use google reader to subscribe to different RSS feeds (like blogs). It will organize it for you and display the most recent posts. It's a much simpler way to read blogs than having to bookmark them individually.
Of course, most people only update their blogs like once every two weeks. So my RSS feed is jammed up with 100 articles from disinfo.com for each post on, say, Hoopla's blog. so I'm looking for more!
I'm curious what websites you guys read. Here's the stuff in my reader, in case you want to check 'em out:
- Chaos Marxism - http://chaosmarxism.blogspot.com - Dolores LaPichio writes fascinating philosophy which blends Discordianism and Marxism. Dolores has studied the Black Iron Prison school of thought, and occasionally posts stuff which absolutely blows my mind.
- Who is IOZ? - http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/ - brilliant brilliant brilliant political commentary from the right
- Hyperbole and a Half - http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com - this is an adorable humor blog by a girl named Allie. She illustrates her life experiences using MS-Paint. Some of her posts are side-splittingly hilarious
- ChaoSkeptic - http://chaoskeptic.blogspot.com - It's Iason's blog! He writes about, guess what, discordianism and skepticism
- Disinfo.com - http://www.disinfo.com/ - this is the "official" website of the "counterculture". It's hit or miss, but they post a TON of content.
- Alamut - http://alamut.wordpress.com/ - Cain hasn't posted since april, but if he ever does, this is one of the spots in which you'll find it
- The Twenty Three Apples of Eris - http://23ae.com - Discordian blog. I post here. subscribe to this.
- Masks of Eris - http://masksoferis.wordpress.com/ - another great Discordian thinker
- Urban Prankster - http://urbanprankster.com/2010/07/god-hates-jedi/ - this is Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere's blog. There's usually tons of great stuff similar to postergasm. He digs culture jamming and other forms of guerrilla surrealism.
- Nooner - http://nnnooner.blogspot.com/ - This is the blog of Dave Nooner, one of the co-designers of D&D 4th edition.He hasn't posted in over six months, but he has some great entries about the history of RPGs
- DU HEXEN HASE - http://duhexenhase.blogspot.com/ - the blog of Baron Von Hoopla, one of our favorite locals
- Aiwazz Sayings - http://aiwazzsaying.blogspot.com/ - another never updated blog. This one contains countless links to fascinating reading
- Play This Thing - http://playthisthing.com - Downloadable indie games. A spotlight on non-mainstream video gaming.
- The Larpwright - http://larpwright.efatland.com - a blog about nordic larpistry
also add:
http://cramul.us - MAH NEW BLAG - not a lot over there yet, but expect it to start filling up once it's reskinned. :mrgreen:
I don't necessarily "read" all of these, but I do carefully examine all of them on a quasi-regular basis:
Design Observer - http://designobserver.com/ - a well respected design blog without a specific design focus
The Dieline - http://www.thedieline.com/ - excellent package design from student work to established pros
I Love Typography - http://ilovetypography.com/ - deep typography nerds and just about no one else keep tabs on this site
Brand New - http://underconsideration.com/brandnew/ - a logo blog
The Font Feed - http://fontfeed.com/ - typography spaggotry
Typography Served - http://www.typographyserved.com/ - more typography spaggotry
Typographica - http://typographica.org/ - even more type spaggotry
TypoJungle - http://www.typojungle.net/ - yet another type spag site
The Type Directors Club - http://www.tdc.org/ - typography competition
Home/Work/Productivity
43 Folders - First place I saw the Hipster PDA, has tips on David Allen's GTD
Goodlife Zen - "practical inspiration for a happier life"
Zen Habits - About the same as the above, but I read both.
Illuminated Mind - And yet a third, but without the Zen leanings.
Hack Your Day - Productivity and organization, computer home and office tips
Lunch in a Box: Build your own Bento - Where I got the idea I needed a real lunch box and not just tupperware
QuinnCreative - Posts used to be on creativity, now....eh. I keep it on just in case
Soy and Pepper - Another eating blog, asian food; has bento recipies
Wandering Chopstics - More of the above.
Presentation Zen - By far the BEST blog on public speaking that exists. Named after the book of the same name. Never again bullet points.
The Simple Dollar - Probably the best blog on finances. Book reviews, simple tips, etc.
Unclutterer - The name, it says it all. Best blog on uncluttering anything.
Science/Political:
Amphidrome - Good blog on tropical marine and freshwater biology from a crayfish specialist. Too bad it's not been posted in a long time.
Bug Girl's Blog - The best bug blog on the web, insect related news through the eyes of a snarky, hilarious female entomologist.
The Other 95% - On invertebrates: Thus, the OTHER 95% of specie on this planet.
Zoologix - On animals but mostly no overlap with the above.
Archetype - On homology, specially shared characters, their origin, and especially in relation to ants.
Gigapedia: Biology/Zoology/Life Sciences - tells me whenever new bio books come in to gigapedia
Catalog of Organisms - A systematics blog on whatever group strikes the author's fancy, which changes about daily.
Macromite's Blog - Mites and electron microscopy. Theres some cool photography here of the very small.
Myrmecos - The ant blog. Pairs nicely with Archetype.
Overcoming Bias - Weird shit, ramblings, transhumanism. Sometimes I don't even glance at this one.
Who is IOZ? - A highly intelligent and well read anarchist fag living in Pittsburg and hating everything. Sometimes, hilarious. Usually spot on.
Verwirrung - PD's Blog
A Three Pound Monkey Brain - A systematics blog from a man I highly disagree with. Includes various discussions on the Phylocode.
Astronomy Photo of the Day
Botany Photo of the Day
Earth Science Picture of the Day
Crl Alt Del
Google Alerts - various; why aren't you using google alerts?
Less Wrong - The rationality blog I post to five times a day.
Myrmician - Probably similar to myrmecos but hasn't been posted on in a long time.
National Geographic POD
Not Exactly Rocket Science - Best science news blog.
Weird Things (=Overcoming Bias)
What's That Bug? - a blogger speculates on identifications for various insect pictures sent in by readers. Sometimes I can find pictures of things here that I find no where else.
Comics/Fun
Piled Higher and Deeper - The real saga of graduate students, in sequential art form. I laugh, because it's true.
MENAGE A 3 - Nearly stupid gay/lesbian/straight/bi zaniness in a four panel strip format
Misfile - Due to a missfile in heaven by a pot smoking angel, a 17 year old street racer is turned into a girl and a Harvard bound girl is set back one year of her life. Long span story, relatively easy to follow, black and white pencil/ink
El Goonish Shive - has references to more pages on tv tropes than any other webcomics. Seriously. I'm not going to even try to explain the plot here, only that it contains a tranformation gun, aliens, monsters, immortals, a squirrel alien hybrid, magic users, martial arts out of anime, and more plot twists than a thirty xanatos pileup. I love it. Art gets better from the beginning.
Questionable Content - snarky jokes, weird characters, questionable that it contains any content; situational comedy, ink and cg color.
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki - Guy watches anime. Anime turns guy into valkyrie (girl). Valkyrie must save universe. Includes Norse mythology. Stupid by some people's sense. I like it.
Dragon Doctors - Relatively poor art on unusually good character spread and fantasy/scifi setting.
Tree Lobsters - The skeptic's equivalent of dinosaur comics.
Dresden Codak - Excellent art and high technology.
Freakangels - Post appocalyptic psychic teenagers manage a portion of London. By Warren Ellis. Need I say more?
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Fanfic about "What if Harry grew up loving science?".
Khaos Komix - Gay/Bi/trans teenagers finding love and acceptance in a series of stories, individuals back to back with their partner's story.
Luminosity - Fanfic about "What if Bella from Twilight was a highly self aware rationality freak?"
Megatokyo - Long running webcomics about two gamers who end up in Japan and what happens to them there.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Science jokes, among others. Can be very funny. Nice punchlines.
The Middlewesterner - Blog of my favorite poet, Tom Montag, on which he posts a poem a day.
YuMe Dream - Weird surreal lesbian webcomics. Artist changes style and medium constantly, which makes for an excellent dream effect.
The Abominable Charles Christopher (http://www.abominable.cc/) - cute, sweet, funny, with a more serious over arching plot line.
Gawker
This isn't happiness (http://thisisnthappiness.com) - kind of hipster-y, but lots of cool pictures.
Boingboing
Crooks and Liars - lefty political stuff
Mindhacks - cool shit about your BRAINZ
Dorf on Law (http://www.dorfonlaw.org) - "Mostly law-related musings by Cornell Professor Michael Dorf and some of his lawyer/professor friends"
I also have to mention Google Play, which pulls from your entire account to find stuff you'll like (I discovered this after some stuff on Mormonism appeared in that feed after chatting about it with a friend) and it usually gets it right.
:eek: how do you guys have time for these all, and to read and post on this forum, AND have a life?
Quote from: Triple Zero on August 18, 2010, 09:18:37 AM
:eek: how do you guys have time for these all, and to read and post on this forum, AND have a life?
I think a lot of these only get updates once or twice a month, or because they are visual, they can be fully enjoyed much faster than an article.
*Deep breath*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/ - the best British documentary maker since David Attenborough, and just as interesting, doing collage style series on game theory, the histoy of advertising and psychotherapy, the relationship between the ideology of Al-Qaeda and the neoconservatives, secretive British elite clubs etc etc. If you've ever seen The Power of Nightmares or The Century of the Self, this is the guy who made them.
http://cryptogon.com/ - one of the best news sites out there. Kevin sometimes veers into conspiracy theory territory, but he often uses reliable sources to back up his speculation (very occasional links to Prison Planet and the Daily Mail, often with apologies from the site owner that he cannot find better sources).
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html - Greenwald is one of the most consistent critics of American foreign policy, civil liberties abuses and the abuse of common sense by the media. Essential reading.
http://www.globalguerrillas.typepad.com/ - John Robb on terrorism, insurgency, organized crime, networks and resilient communities.
http://isnblog.ethz.ch/ - blog of the International Relations and Security Network of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/ - blog of Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator turned whistleblower, with special expertise in Turkish and Azerbaijani-inspired corruption in Washington.
http://www.stiftungleostrauss.com/bunker/ - a former high ranking Republican foreign affairs expert, trying to fight for the restoration of a non-neoconservative foreign policy and to defeat what he considers the greatest threat to American democracy - Movement Conservatism.
http://technoccult.net/ - Klint Finley's excellent blog of weird and interesting news from around the world.
http://www.modemac.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Bulldada_Newsblog - Modemac's excellent blog of weird and interesting news from around the world.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/ - Steve Clemons was a former Democratic foreign policy advisor and a fairly sensible, if otherwise mainstream one.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/ - Floyd is in a similar vein to Greenwald, only more so.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/ - the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, BBC economic news editor Robert Peston
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/ - Dmitri Orlov, on surviving political and economic collapse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/ - CiF, the Guardian's blog centre. Comment is Free, but thinking takes effort and so is rarely used. Still, worth keeping an eye on the place so you know what the institutional left in the UK (and token righties, and Charlie Brooker) are thinking.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/ - the online voice of the Glorious Peoples Parliament of 2010, Long Live the Coalition!
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/ - two of the bloggers here are IR professors, so I like to read them
http://leninology.blogspot.com/ - Richard Seymour's blog. Kinda socialist (as in "he is a member of the Socialist Workers Party" socialist) but usually intelligent and interesting.
http://liberalconspiracy.org/ - the online voice of the pathetic British left-wingers, engaging in wonkery and whining.
http://www.libdemvoice.org/ - the junior partner of the coalition's online blog
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ - sensible online economic analysis (we're all doomed)
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ - good articles and political analysis of news from around the world
http://www.spinwatch.org/ - always nice to know how my news is being manipulated
http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/ - most underrated British blogger EVER. Tech news and political/warfare analysis.
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/ - Jonathan Schwarz's occasionally snarky but generally interesting political blog.
http://alicublog.blogspot.com/ - Roy Edroso's blog, often very funny
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/ - one of the best sources of information on the authoritarian turns of the American state.
http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/ - great blog on religious news from a former Slate magazine writer
http://c4ss.org/ - anarchist/libertarian group blog that is actually sometimes quite interesting (Kevin Carson in particular is always worth reading)
http://chaosmarxism.blogspot.com/ - as above
http://elementropy.blogspot.com/ - HTML Mencken of Sadly No's personal blog, for things which are more srs than SN is intended to deal with
http://www.mrdestructo.com/ - a Goon's blog, where he baits Tea Partiers and trolls Randroids
http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/ - interesting psychology news
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/ - Matt "Goldman Sachs is a giant vampiric squid" Taibbi's blog
http://sadlyno.com - Political snark blog
http://www.schneier.com/blog/ - security news blog
http://superfluousblog.wordpress.com/ - not sure who this guy is, but he has some interesting ideas
http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/ - making fun of idiots, online
http://thepoorman.net/ - different and often less SFW political snark
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/ - a crazy woman who is, for some reason, paid to write
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/ - security news blog
http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/ - naturally
http://wonkette.com/ - the titles along make it worth having this blog on my feed. "Conservative women lock themselves in cupboards, will come out when there is a normal, white President" indeed.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ - former British ambassador, was nearly assassinated after he proved we used intel gained from torture in Uzbekistan
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/ - war news blog
http://www.amconmag.com/larison/ - sensible American conservative critic of foreign policy and the Republican party
http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/ - news about intelligence
http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/ - good analyst of the Arab world
A bunch of other foreign policy blogs that would likely bore you.
Yeah, that's about it.
Quote from: Triple Zero on August 18, 2010, 09:18:37 AM
:eek: how do you guys have time for these all, and to read and post on this forum, AND have a life?
Step One: Get an RSS feed reader (like Google Reader).
Step Two: Insert RSS feeds into reader
Step Three: Check once or twice a day. I usually do first thing in the morning and again in the evening.
Before I did this, I couldn't keep up with anything. Now it's effortless.
Quote from: Triple Zero on August 18, 2010, 09:18:37 AM
:eek: how do you guys have time for these all, and to read and post on this forum, AND have a life?
What is this "life" thing you speak of?
Chicken
Quote from: Kai on August 18, 2010, 12:38:00 PM
Step One: Get an RSS feed reader (like Google Reader).
Step Two: Insert RSS feeds into reader
Step Three: Check once or twice a day. I usually do first thing in the morning and again in the evening.
Thanks. I've done similar things (not Google Reader though) and if I follow everything that seems interesting it'll take me at least 3 hours to tie down all the interesting bits ... After that, as you can imagine (?), I'm mentally exhausted and can't get much work done, so I usually take a nap.
I was asking because I think, apparently, I process information in a different way than a lot of people do. An exhausting way. I was wondering if there's a trick to it, or maybe it's just the way my brain's wired.
I like how google reader organizes things. You can create folders for Science blogs, Humor blogs, Political blogs, Personal blogs, whatever.. if I'm in the mood to read Science, I just click on science and browse through the first four or five posts.
maybe I should give Google Reader another go, then.. it was really, really slow last time I tried to use it (half a year ago or so).
I do check one of my friends' feeds once in a while. Apparently Google Reader allows you to mark an entry in your feeds because it's awesome, and other people can read those. That might be a pretty cool thing if we could somehow bundle all those feeds for the PD people. It wouldn't surprise me if Google had such a feature. And otherwise it's just a matter of combining a bunch of feeds into one (like Yahoo!Pipes can do).
Damn, I've been telling myself I need to use an RSS reader... thanks for the poke Cram.
23 Apples of Eris
AlterNet.org: Belief
Attempts at Rational Behavior
Bad Astronomy
Bay of Fundie
Blag Hag
Dispatches from the Culture War
Epiphenom
erv
EvolutionBlog
Friendly Atheist
Homologous Legs
Jesus and Mo
Masks of Eris
Pharyngula
Rachel Held Evans
Respectful Insolence
Right Wing Watch
Sadly, No!
Skepchick
Skepticblog
The Clever Badger
The Invisible Pink Unicorn
The Panda's Thumb
Tree Lobsters!
Unreasonable Faith
Why Evolution is True
xkcd
Figure out the URLs for yourself, spags. I'm lazy.
I use the Chrome extension Feedly. It organises shit into a magazine type layout, I find it a lot easier to pick out what I want to read from there. As for the feeds, I have some music ones (Pitchfork, NME, PMA), Charlie Brooker's Guardian feed, the A Softer World feed, and then just a bunch of stuff I grabbed out of this thread.
Just added http://youarenotsosmart.com/ a blog about cognitive biases.
That's an awesome site Cain, a lot of the things I know but this is a great way of keeping them all in one place so I can point out people on their shit and not have to go around searching for examples of what I mean.
http://talhoffer.blogspot.com/
The blog of a guy I used to train with in California.
Quote from: Triple Zero on August 18, 2010, 04:10:58 PM
Quote from: Kai on August 18, 2010, 12:38:00 PM
Step One: Get an RSS feed reader (like Google Reader).
Step Two: Insert RSS feeds into reader
Step Three: Check once or twice a day. I usually do first thing in the morning and again in the evening.
Thanks. I've done similar things (not Google Reader though) and if I follow everything that seems interesting it'll take me at least 3 hours to tie down all the interesting bits ... After that, as you can imagine (?), I'm mentally exhausted and can't get much work done, so I usually take a nap.
I was asking because I think, apparently, I process information in a different way than a lot of people do. An exhausting way. I was wondering if there's a trick to it, or maybe it's just the way my brain's wired.
I don't know. I usually just feed through it once in the morning and once in the evening. Most of it I just skim. The rest I read. Takes me about 10-15 minutes. More if there's something particularly interesting, but never more than 20 minutes.