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Great Time-Wasters: The Atomic Deathray Reading Room

There's a lot of reasons to love the internet: the instant news; the instant weather; the free por-- um, the instant access to reference material. Lots of reasons.

But my favorite thing about the internet is finding interesting websites that I can bury myself in for hours. Websites with page after page of stuff I didn't know before, or hadn't thought about for years. Websites so big they're impossible to exhaust in one visit. (As you no doubt guessed, I've got aspirations in that direction myself.)

Here are a few glorious behemoths I've found in my decade on the web. I probably could have written a novel with the time I've spent poking around in these websites, but hey. Enjoy.

General Interest

Arts and Letters Daily
A collection of links to thought-provoking reviews, essays and articles from all over the world. Updated five times a week.
Damn Interesting
Fascinating articles on a whole bunch of really strange and obscure stuff. The name of the site doesn't lie.
Salon.com
Simply the best web-only online magazine around. Requires a subscription to access the content, but free day passes are available provided you sit through an advertisement. Well worth the trouble. I visit this site every single day.
SciTech Daily Review
Articles about Sciencey goodness from around the globe (and above it, too). Updated every weekday.
The On-Line Books Page
Over 20,000 books available for free browsing or download. Completely legal: it's books in the public domain or that have specifically been released to the web by the author/publisher. New books are added every few days. Provides links to any major electronic text repository you can think of, indexed by author, title and subject. An incredible resource.

Current Events

Buzzflash
A collection of news items of interest from all over the world, usually pointing out the latest Republican attrocities. Don't even bother going there if you're a conservative. You'll hate it. Those of you not in thrall to Satan might find it worthwhile, however. A very valuable site if you want to stay well-informed from a liberal perspective. Another of my daily sites.
Slashdot
If you don't already visit this site obsessively six or seven times a day, then you're not really a geek. "News for Nerds."
The Top Ten Conservative Idiots
A hilarious take on what our greedy logic-challenged hypocritical brethren have been up to lately. Updated every Sunday evening. A tradition at the Bryant household.

Science

E. W. Dijkstra Archive
Comprehensive collection of papers and notes by one of the greatest minds in computer science. The documents are generally in PDF format.

History

American Memory from the Library of Congress
Seven million documents, images and media files relating to life in this country from before its founding to the present. An amazing website.
Dead Media Project Working Notes
Fascinating look at vanished information technology. I love this site, although it's kind of disconcerting to see things I used to play with in my teens described as "dead media."
Hillman's Hyperlinked and Searchable Chambers' Book of Days
The subtitle of this wonderful piece of Victoriana says it all: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character. Originally published in 1869.
The Photographic History of the Civil War in 10 Volumes
This is an incredible reference work. I wouldn't attempt it without broadband, though. Many huge PDF files.
The Project Apollo Archive
Every single image from the Apollo lunar missions, including all the photos taken by the astronauts themselves. More info than anyone could conceivably need. Space geeks will start drooling uncontrollably.
What Happened All Those Years Ago
Mainly historical trivia, arranged by date and year. Highly addictive.

Humor

And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
A site that forces mad-scientist movies through a meatgrinder. It's run by a gen-u-wine scientist. Lots of fun.
Jabootu's Bad Movie Reviews
I love bad movies. This site dissects bad movies in excruciating detail. One of the funniest sites on the web.
Lileks.com
Among its many charms, this site contains the infamous Gallery of Regrettable Foods, which will cause a stomach-ache for several different reasons. Oh! Don't miss The Peculiar Art of Mr. Frahm. Or, or...
The Devil's Dictionary X
A more than worthy sequel to Ambrose Bierce's masterpiece, The Devil's Dictionary. [Full disclosure: I've contributed three or four of the definitions, and their inclusion is most gratifying.]
The Onion
A serious gut-buster. Heir to the early National Lampoon. Some of the best humor writing out there.

Just Plain Weird

Fortean Times
How to describe the Fortean Times... well... um... Look, just go there, okay?
Stammtisch Beau Fleuve
A multidisciplinary collaboration for Communication, Research, and Lunch.
Urban Legends Reference Pages
Quick! What do you think of when I say "Mexican vacation toothbrush?"

Reference

El Dorado County Library's What's Hot on the Internet This Week
One of the best "What's New" pages I've found.
The Librarian's Index to the Internet
In my opinion the single most useful portal site. Cuts out the crap. Also has a spectacular "What's New" section.
Toonopedia
Don Markstein's impressive encyclopedia of comics and cartoons. You can spend an awful lot of time here.
What A Character
A site dedicated to that guy in that movie that was in that other movie you liked. What's-his-name. You know. He played the crusty geezer.