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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
 Posted - 01/28/2008 : 15:20:54
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OK, well maybe it's not entirely your fault.
I've recently taken some time off work. I spent about one week with occasional internet access where I only checked my email and read some basic news feeds.
For most of last week I had next to no internet access, resorting to driving down into the burbs late at night with the laptop and leeching off open (or nearly open) wireless access points. Now I'm back home, I check the "active topics" list and have pages of stuff to read. I spent a good couple of hours last night and am still only down to the "health" folder. I also have nearly 600 unread items in Google Reader, and have yet to properly clean my inbox.
"Well just stop reading everything!" I hear you say. Well, sure, but that brings me to the real point of this post:
What methods/tools do SFNers use to decide what information they consume?
I'm mostly interested in the how, as a relatively accomplished geek I'm pretty competent with the actual tools (that being said, I'm always happy to hear of cool stuff along those lines too).
I figure that people here are just as likely to be information whores as myself, and am curious to hear people's opinions on the subject, stuff like:
How much time do you spend reading things on line?
What are the bulk of your sources (traditional news sites, blogs, forums, other RSS feeds) ?
Do you also consume a lot of other information media? (newspapers are dead to me. I rarely watch TV. I occasionally hear news on the radio in the car, when I'm between podcasts)
How much stuff you consume is nominally work/industry related?
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John's just this guy, you know. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2008 : 16:13:43 [Permalink]
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I read a lot. In addition to SFN (and a couple other forums) daily I scan the article titles on msnbc.com, cnn.com, sciencedaily.com, nyt.com, sptimes.com, baynews9.com, and read anything that catches my attention.
Weekly (not always consistently on these, but mostly) I read the print versions of Science, Nature, Cell, New Scientist, and their associated websites. In the journals I read through the news portions and then read any of the actual papers that are interesting.
I also read some of the monthly periodicals dealing with science, like Seed, Sci-Am, Discover, and Wired if anything on the cover catches my attention. Seed is usually worth reading, almost always something good in there.
I add new sites, journals, papers, if I hear or see something interesting posted here or in other forums. Nature and Science also flood my inbox with emails that have the table of contents and links to briefs of the many sub-journals (field specific) that they publish, so if something interesting pops up there I generally read it (when available online) also.
That said, I can read pretty fast. If its a good sci-fi/fantasy novel I can read 75-100 pages an hour (I usually read 2-3 novels a week for entertainment), if its a technical paper (especially one with high end vocab, or a textbook with new/unfamiliar material) it slows the pace if I want to retain any of it. Newspapers and popular periodicals I burn through in short order.
TV... I really hate most TV. I watch the cable news networks (CNN, MSNBC) every now and then, but they are so tabloid I can't take much. Mythbusters, P&T Bullshit (if they ever have another season), Smashlab (new discovery channel show, jury still out on this one), Stargate, Dexter, Battlestar Galactica, and House (because Hugh Laurie is hilarious) all get captured on my DVR, and viewed as time permits.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2008 : 16:15:39 [Permalink]
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I listen to NPR (National Public Radio in the US) in the morning and afternoon. Online, get my news from Rueters and other various blogs/forums.
For tech info I go to Slashdot and Neowin.
I never read the local paper, and never watch the local or nation news on TV. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are exceptions to this rule.
I use Sage reader in Firefox to hit the RSS feeds I subscribe to every few mins. It is useful for quick looks and I filter what I want to read from that.
Mostly what I read is non-work related though. I tend to stick to skeptic sites/blogs like this one. This one is the one I visit most often.
I also get several magazines that I read, including Sci-Am and Nat Geo. I used to get the Planetary Society, and the Skeptic magazine (forget the actual name). |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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| Edited by - pleco on 01/28/2008 16:20:34 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2008 : 17:20:04 [Permalink]
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pleco said:
| and the Skeptic magazine (forget the actual name). |
The CSICOP magazine is called "Skeptical Inquirer".
The Skeptics Society publishes "Skeptic".
Both good periodicals.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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| Edited by - Dude on 01/28/2008 17:20:33 |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2008 : 18:28:50 [Permalink]
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It was Skeptical Inquirer. I should re-up my subscription. Thanks Dude. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2008 : 20:33:19 [Permalink]
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I read this site, sometimes several times a day. But then, I would…
I haven't given up on newspapers. I get the LA Times and flip through it every morning with my coffee. It's not as good as it used to be, but it is far and away better than any local newscast.
I listen to NPR when I am driving in the afternoon. (Mornings are ipod time.)
I subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer and am a member of the CFI.
I buy Scientific American, Discover, Skeptic and random news magazines off the rack when I see an article that might interest me. I also have access online, through Michelle, to Ohio Link for studies when the need arises. I also buy many books related to skepticism and science. (I haven't read them all. Sometimes Michelle reads them and gives me the lowdown.)
I also read many new age publications. They are free…
And so on and so on…
The bummer is I hardly ever read fiction anymore (unless I count the new age magazines) and I miss it. I just don't have the time for it.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2008 : 14:39:35 [Permalink]
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| Hopefully, everyone is watching and supporting The Real News |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2008 : 15:12:38 [Permalink]
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John.....
Since you asked, the first ten:
1. Summary headlines of The New York Times
2. MSNBC, CNN, FOX (know thy enemy]
3. The Economist
4. REASON
5. SKEPTIC, SKEPTICAL ENQUIRER
6. SFN, JREF, Huffington Post, Move On, Daily Kos
7. A book a week
8. Google news summary
9. Google-assisted web surfing.
10. TIME, NEWSWEEK, U.S.NEWS, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2008 : 15:51:53 [Permalink]
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I used to read MAD Magazine until Don Martin left. (Bummer)
I've read Cracked Magazine a couple of times in the store years ago, but it just didn't come up to the same level.
Of course on a more sophisticated level I've probably read every TinTin adventure.
And naturally I read the description cards for wines from the shelves of the local beverage store.
...and the New York Times. (I usually don't do the crosswords though.)
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/04/2008 : 05:15:02 [Permalink]
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Hmph. How did I miss this thread? 
Ok, I watch next to no television beyond the local news (to find out who shot whom and if I know any of the participants) and a couple of nonsense shows in the evenings. But I read a lot. I regularly read several of the lefty blogs and some of the droolings of the wingnuts as well. I don't trust the national media at all and seldom read them, and then only with a dark skeptism. They lie, often blantantly, as we have all seen.
The only forums I'm active on these days is this one and occasionaly Landover Baptist, but I'm thinking of expanding that horizon.
I read a lot of blogs concerning C/E such as Paleoblog, and I'm always looking for info on new discoveries as well as updates on old ones. My bookmarks are chock full of that sort of reference.
That's pretty much it.... Damn, I need to get a life!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Would you people please shut up
