Online Fun

There are lots of ways to - um - "spend" time online. I'm shifting to my downstairs computer lately and I'm rearranging my online routine. This morning, checking out my old bloglines links, I noticed Bloglines Most Popular Feeds. "Most Popular..." anything doesn't usually work for me. But just look at what I found.
Forty nine sites covering technology - geek stuff and gadgets.

Twenty seven links to Music, Movies, Cartoons, TV and Literature.

Thirty two news sites. Maybe I shouldn't think of Snopes as news, but I do.

Fourteen Business and Finance sites including Kiplinger, Motley Fool and Money.

Thirteen Art sites

Fifteen Science sites

Fourteen sites covering Food, Fashion, Travel and Cars. (Don't ask me why these form a category in my mind. I just hate to say "miscellaneous.")

One truly miscellaneous, or perhaps interdisciplinary site. Kottke led me to spend much of my online time this morning at places like

• WSJ: How the Presidents Stack Up. Graph shows that since Truman every president except Clinton has left office lower in ratings than they started. In fact, since Truman every president except Clinton has left office with approval ratings below 60% (some far, far below 60%.)
• Strange Maps where you can find a US map with states labeled for countries with similar GDPs. Fascinating not only for the comparison of GDPs but to observe one's gut reaction to connotations. Why would I rather be Colorado, which is comparable to Finland, than Arizona whose higher GDP is comparable to Thailand? At Strange Maps you can also find The Cultural Inglehart-Welzel Map of the World. I want to live in one of the countries at the upper right of the map: Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, et al. Well, really I want the US to be at the upper right of the map. Actually, though it is in the top 15% of Self-Expression values, it's well below the midpoint for Secular-Rational values.

I wish I could take time to give you all the links I had fun with. But, really, I've got to get to work.