Good online news sites, blogs, etc.

Puscifer

Lately I've been feeling really guilty about not staying up to snuff with what's going on in the world. I check out www.cbc.ca/news and the BBC on a daily basis, but sometimes I feel like I'm missing out good articles that can be found on other sites, so my question to you guys is where do you people go on the world wide web for news, op-ed pieces, and other various worthy articles?

Also, what magazines do you guys check out on a regular basis as well?

I enjoy reading The Economist and Adbusters, but that's pretty much where my foray into magazines ends.

Maybe this may have been better suited towards the H/A forum?

Thanks for the tips, regardless.

KalTorak

I usually read whatever www.nytimes.com has to offer.

AngelHedgie

Well, I have Google News setup as a startup tab.

Satan.

My MSM comes from NY Times, Google News and BBC World. I get some overlap but putting them in the same tag (folder) in Google Reader makes it easier to move through. If I miss a day, I will end up with about a 400 story backlog which I usually pound through quickly.

fjafjan

My only real beef with Google news is as one of their swedish sources they chose a right extremist ("imigrants turkerjurb!" style) online newspaper. Now I doubt the credability of most of the headlines I read there because of it.

thanimations

I read New York Times and the Washington Post online, and the occasional Arizona Republic even though it's largely useless. Google news is another thing I'll peruse, though I have a whole bookmark folder with other news sites I'll look at if I want to see what's going on at various places.

Dalboz

I used to read Disinformation, but it's gone downhill, IMO. Although I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe just changing tastes.

Professor Snugglesworth

I've been feeling the same, stuck in an office all day with no real insight on what's happening outside the world. The thing is, with regards to news sites, I was hoping for a site that sort of filters out the small irrelavent news (like politics. nyuk nyuk nyuk.) and instead categorizes news by the level of batshit insane stories always on the top.

I was also looking for a news site that deals exclusively with hilarious or comically ironic news. Someone mentioned The Onion, but it's my understanding that not everything on that site is 100% real.

It needs to have actually happened for full hilarity, in my book.

thanimations

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

I've been feeling the same, stuck in an office all day with no real insight on what's happening outside the world. The thing is, with regards to news sites, I was hoping for a site that sort of filters out the small irrelavent news (like politics. nyuk nyuk nyuk.) and instead categorizes news by the level of batshit insane stories always on the top.

I was also looking for a news site that deals exclusively with hilarious or comically ironic news. Someone mentioned The Onion, but it's my understanding that not everything on that site is 100% real.

It needs to have actually happened for full hilarity, in my book.

I don't read it but a quick search pulls up:

http://www.davesdaily.com/

So that might be what you're looking for if you want funny or bizarre news that's true (supposedly).

Professor Snugglesworth

That seems to be what I'm looking for, but unfortunately that site only links to the appropriate website with the news, and so far my work PC is blocking about half the content.

The Cat

pandagon.blogsome.com
www.timesonline.co.uk
http://girl-wonder.org/girlsreadcomics/

the first and third are more current-affairs and analysis blogs, but a lot of what they cover you'll never ever see in a paper.

Tarranon

http://jonswift.blogspot.com/ is generally worthwhile, but go there for the humor, not the news.

Satan.

fjafjan wrote: »

My only real beef with Google news is as one of their swedish sources they chose a right extremist ("imigrants turkerjurb!" style) online newspaper. Now I doubt the credability of most of the headlines I read there because of it.

Yes, how dare they include news from all sides.

fjafjan

Satan Himself wrote: »

fjafjan wrote: »

My only real beef with Google news is as one of their swedish sources they chose a right extremist ("imigrants turkerjurb!" style) online newspaper. Now I doubt the credability of most of the headlines I read there because of it.

Yes, how dare they include news from all sides.

Yeah I really want to read less than credible stories from biggots, how dare I not listen to biggots?

TL DR

The Consumerist is often good for a chuckle.

Mostly stuff involving stupid corporate decisions, sometimes happily ending with the company folding under a deluge of hate mail.

Satan.

fjafjan wrote: »

Satan Himself wrote: »

fjafjan wrote: »

My only real beef with Google news is as one of their swedish sources they chose a right extremist ("imigrants turkerjurb!" style) online newspaper. Now I doubt the credability of most of the headlines I read there because of it.

Yes, how dare they include news from all sides.

Yeah I really want to read less than credible stories from biggots, how dare I not listen to biggots?

Better to know what they are thinking than to be ignorant of them. *shrug*

JamesKeenan

I admit, I mostly only ever end up reading what comes to Digg and Newsvine.

Newsvine is actually better, in my opinion. It seems articles make it to prominence a lot faster, and there are a lot less stupid stories. The 5 hottest left handed actresses and seven year old cat pictures and shit.

RandomEngy

I use Netvibes for my RSS aggregator. It's been reviewed as basically the best on the web.

I like Ars Technica for tech related news; they actually call people and confirm things instead of reporting on what some blog said, plus their writing doesn't suck.

TheGuero

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

I've been feeling the same, stuck in an office all day with no real insight on what's happening outside the world. The thing is, with regards to news sites, I was hoping for a site that sort of filters out the small irrelavent news (like politics. nyuk nyuk nyuk.) and instead categorizes news by the level of batshit insane stories always on the top.

I was also looking for a news site that deals exclusively with hilarious or comically ironic news. Someone mentioned The Onion, but it's my understanding that not everything on that site is 100% real.

It needs to have actually happened for full hilarity, in my book.

Dude, Fark!

werehippy

www.reddit.com is good for random news.

www.marginalrevolution.com is a good economics blog, and it'll link to interesting stuff all over.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars is a really top notch blog on chruch/state issues and religion in general.

Finally, of course, www.gamepolitics.com is a great read for any gamer.

Loren Michael

I tend to read The Atlantic, particularly their blogs. James Fallows is pretty much raw awesome, and he's in China!

I also peruse The New Republic, and I watch Bloggingheads.tv whenever I can download an episode or two.

fjafjan wrote: »

Satan Himself wrote: »

fjafjan wrote: »

My only real beef with Google news is as one of their swedish sources they chose a right extremist ("imigrants turkerjurb!" style) online newspaper. Now I doubt the credability of most of the headlines I read there because of it.

Yes, how dare they include news from all sides.

Yeah I really want to read less than credible stories from biggots, how dare I not listen to biggots?

I'm not certain about the particular paper you read, but that sentiment may not necessarily be a "right extremist" position. In particular, what do you think of this?:

In Europe, though, the face of "religion" is increasingly Islam whereas elements of the secular consensus are part of a national identity that elements of the right can embrace. It was explained to me, for example, that one thing Dutch people worry about when they worry about Muslim immigrants is that socially conservative Muslim immigrants might spoil their same-sex partnership law. I joked that conservatives should love immigration, then. But in reality the forces of indigenous religious conservatism are way too weak for anything like that to happen. So instead of a system of cross-currents, where both a cosmopolitan left and a traditionalist right find something to admire about growing diversity, you get a substantial block of people pushing against Muslim immigrants from both a secularist and a nationalist perspective.

From the point of view of an American liberal, it's an awkward situation. One doesn't want to say "you guys should get rid of your progressive views on gender roles because it would make it easier for Muslims to assimilate" but at the end of the day it is much easier for Muslims to go along get along in a country like the US where traditionalist attitudes have more political clout. Of course, if more American conservative Christians decide to go the Pat Robertson route and decide to support Rudy Giuliani on the grounds that fighting Muslims is the ultimate expression of Christian values, then our advantage here will rapidly erode.

Gorak

I tend to read the BBC and The Register and Schnews regularly. I try to read indymedia, but it normally seems like it was written by a 14 year old.

In print there's the fantastic Private Eye to keep up on the latest sleaze.

Ferrus

I've got The Daily Irritant as my startup page.

Mai-Kero

fair.org.

BoingBoing even though I find half the posts slightly ridiculous.

Leitner

The (London) Times = timesonline.co.uk

Dynagrip

Mai-Kero wrote: »

fair.org.

BoingBoing even though I find half the posts slightly ridiculous.

I hate Cory Doctorow so much.

[Tycho?]

I read:

Slashdot
Wired (has improved a lot over the years, they now have blogs on a wide variety of topics, I enjoy Danger Room in particular, it deals with military and security stuff)
BBC
Reuters International
Al Jazeera Middle East
Google News (geared towards international)
Local news site
BoingBoing (random, tech, geek, culture stuff)

[Tycho?]

Dalboz wrote: »

I used to read Disinformation, but it's gone downhill, IMO. Although I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe just changing tastes.

I think I know why:

Free-Energy Battery Inventor Killed at the Airport?
Avatar http://pesn.com
Posted by JacobSloan 1 day 1 hour 40 minutes ago View profile
Arie M. DeGeus, a developer of clean energy technology, died mysteriously at the airport. Was it heart failure, or the assassination of an individual who posed a threat to Big Oil? One wonders.

Satan.

• Engadget
• ESPN
• Slashdot
• Autoblog (car enthusiast blog)
• Joystiq
• Ars Technica
• TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
• With Leather (funny as shit sports blog)
• Slashfood
• Engadget HD
• Engadget Mobile
• Download Squad (software blog)
• NCAA Basketball (feed from Y! News for anything related to college ball)
• MLB Trade Rumors (*airhump*)
• Google News
• New York Times
• Infinite Loop (Ars Technica's Apple-centric journal/blog)
• The Offside (soccer blog, best place to get info if you're in the US)
• BBC News: World
• NCAA Football (feed from Y! News for anything related to college ball)
• TMQ (Tuesday Morning Quarterback, a NFL column on ESPN.com)
• Escapist Editorials (Yahtzee hurr)
• Bless You Boys (Detroit Tigers blog)
• Apple Trailers (Feed for all the film trailers that get posted to Apple)
• Detroit Pistons (feed from Y! News for anything related to the Pistons... just nice to keep up with scores etc.)
• Detroit Tigers (feed from Y! News for anything related to the Tigers... just nice to keep up with scores etc.)
• Kit (Ars Technica's "technology" journal... rarely updated and often pretty crappy)
• NASCAR (shut your fucking mouths)
• Start Cooking (Really nice, really simple recipes)
• Detroit Red Wings (feed from Y! News for anything related to the Red Wings... just nice to keep up with scores etc.)
• ESPN Ombudsman (I like to hear someone bitch about ESPN... professionally)
• Cooking for Two (LJ blog of some dead-ass simple, low-portion recipes)
• mandolux (the most awesome desktops you aren't using, heathen)
• PostSecret (you're on the internet and don't know what this is?!)
• Gmail Blog (Nice to hear about new features)

That's a dump of my Google Reader subscriptions. Questions? Feel free to ask.

flamebroiledchicken

Dynagrip wrote: »

Mai-Kero wrote: »

fair.org.

BoingBoing even though I find half the posts slightly ridiculous.

I hate Cory Doctorow so much.

...why?

Podly

News:
NYT (nytimes.com)
Boston Globe (boston.com)
Free Williamsburg (freewilliamsburg.com)

Linkage:
Kottke (kottke.org) <---My favorite blog on the net
clusterflock (clusterflock.org)
the best thing I learned today (bestthing.flyingpudding.com)

Books:
Book By Its Cover (Book-By-Its-Cover.com)
Book Fox (thejohnfox.com/bookfox)
Critical Mass (bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/)
The Elegant Variation (marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar)
The Reading Experience (noggs.typepad.com/the_reading_experience/)

Music:
The Rest is Noise (therestisnoise.com) <-- A personal favorite
Catalysts and Connections (etobiasblog.musiced.net)
David Byrne Journal (journal.davidbyrne.com)
Music Matters (musiccognition.nl/blog)
Musicology in 1000 words or less (amusicology.com)
SoHo the dog (sohothedog.blogspot.com)

Mai-Kero

flamebroiledchicken wrote: »

Dynagrip wrote: »

Mai-Kero wrote: »

fair.org.

BoingBoing even though I find half the posts slightly ridiculous.

I hate Cory Doctorow so much.

...why?

The goggles and cape, probably.

fjafjan

Satan Himself wrote: »

fjafjan wrote: »

Satan Himself wrote: »

fjafjan wrote: »

My only real beef with Google news is as one of their swedish sources they chose a right extremist ("imigrants turkerjurb!" style) online newspaper. Now I doubt the credability of most of the headlines I read there because of it.

Yes, how dare they include news from all sides.

Yeah I really want to read less than credible stories from biggots, how dare I not listen to biggots?

Better to know what they are thinking than to be ignorant of them. *shrug*

Except I don\t want to mix up what they are thinking as opposed to what is actually occuring, as it is now if I look at a google news article I have to considering wether it might be from a bad source.

I'm not certain about the particular paper you read, but that sentiment may not necessarily be a "right extremist" position. In particular, what do you think of this?:

I think alot of the worries are real, but I think it's not something that, atleast here in Sweden, is something that is yet acceptable among mainstream secularists here, while it is more true in Denmark and the Netherlands for example. I myself find it worrying that there is a growing religiosity but there is a difference between having a concern with that and wanting to get rid of immigrants and too much immigration is the source of "insert problem".

Satan.

Baby with the bathwater, works every time.

Ohtsam

TheGuero wrote: »

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

I've been feeling the same, stuck in an office all day with no real insight on what's happening outside the world. The thing is, with regards to news sites, I was hoping for a site that sort of filters out the small irrelavent news (like politics. nyuk nyuk nyuk.) and instead categorizes news by the level of batshit insane stories always on the top.

I was also looking for a news site that deals exclusively with hilarious or comically ironic news. Someone mentioned The Onion, but it's my understanding that not everything on that site is 100% real.

It needs to have actually happened for full hilarity, in my book.

Dude, Fark!

I'll second fark

Satan.

Fark fits the bill but after a while it just got boring. My advice is to stay the fuck away from the comments unless it's a Photoshop thread.

flamebroiledchicken

Satan Himself wrote: »

Fark fits the bill but after a while it just got boring. My advice is to stay the fuck away from the comments unless it's a Photoshop thread.

Listen to this man.

Also, I didn't know Cory Doctorow wore goggles and a cape. I just think he has a ton of really smart things to say about copyright law so it was confusing to me that someone would hate him unless they worked for the RIAA/MPAA or something.
Edit: Also, after a bit of Googling, it seems like the cape and goggles was just an XKCD joke.

Loren Michael

fjafjan wrote: »

I myself find it worrying that there is a growing religiosity but there is a difference between having a concern with that and wanting to get rid of immigrants and too much immigration is the source of "insert problem".

I don't disagree with you entirely, as there's certainly a lot of hyperbole all over anti-immigration sentiments (see: Bill O'Reilly), but that said, I think it isn't crazy to assert that some immigrants will likely cause certain problems. I'm hearing reports of a resurgence of extreme homophobia in the American northwest for example, largely spurred by... can't remember, Russian and/or Ukrainian conservative theology.

...

Also, I fucking love BoingBoing. Cory Doctorow is hit or miss in his fiction, but I've really enjoyed his hits. Also, yeah, smart shit on copyright.