At the start of every work day, I browse a short list of online resources to get a fresh sample of the happenings and themes active around my universe (meaning my particular, teeny-tiny subset of the Universe). I like to begin with a new "gist" of everything, from my peculiar perspective.

For fun, I am publishing the short list of web favorites I check daily to take a quick reading of the state of everything, with apologies to anyone who finds this collection old news. I have noticed that one persons "obvious" can be the next person's "oblivious."

Today's suggestions appear under this web-like "visualization of the Universe as it condenses around fluctuations in the density of dark and ordinary matter," from Argonne National Laboratory's Flickr photostream.

Visualization of the Universe as it condenses around fluctuations in the density of dark and ordinary matter, by Argonne National Laboratory, via Flickr.com
Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, via Flickr.com

The selections I am listing here relate directly or indirectly to science:
  • Spaceweather – Everything about Earth's current space weather and related topics, such as Near-Earth objects and satellite spotting, with engrossing photo galleries and links to more astronomy and space resources
  • Wunderground – Stands for Weather Underground, with easily customized, detailed weather reports and forecasts, and many extra features such as photos and blogs (also
    ads – that barely bother me – and are removable for a small fee)
  • Alltop – Website that can answer the question "What's happening?" in any or many topics of interest, featuring your custom blend
  • SciTech Feed Digest – Before he died at ninety-something, a pal beqeathed to me (for curating), this 50-source feed digest (with an RSS version also) he made at Feed.Informer
  • Stardate – Public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald
    Observatory, publisher of Stardate Magazine, packed with updating
    astronomy information
  • The Night Sky – Details of what to look for in the night sky, month by month, by the
    Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics of The University of Manchester
  • MyWay News – Website for reading news headlines and summaries (and entire AP News
    articles) without banner or popup ads (just Google Adsense)
I may return to revise and add on.

Do you have a list of websites you check daily to get a feel or take of things in the moment? Do tell!