Some more of our favourite thought-provoking websites
By Ben Hindmarch in Study Break / Sun February 17, 2013
The internet is full of ways to waste time: some more productive than others. We've gathered 10 of our favourite places to waste away time in the ways in which your brain will thank you for.
Brain Pickings
A brilliant website by Maria Popova. Learn about what matters in the world and why through a subjective lens. Maria writes about literature, science and romance in a concise and accessible way.
Mental Floss
Describing itself as 'intelligent read, but not too intelligent,' It features articles to make you smile and feed both sides of your brain. Full of interesting fact, a visit to Mental Floss is guaranteed to leave you a little wiser than when you came.
Information is Beautiful
Information is Beautiful is a series of books and this website that visualises data in some incredible ways. Our favourite visualisation is the heirarchy of digital distractions.
Intelligence Squared
Intelligence Squared is a series of debate events around the world. Starting in the UK in 2002, it now operates globally and has featured speakers such as Richard Branson, Julian Assange and Jesse Jackson. Some fascinating video content to explore.
Marc & Angel Hack Life
An intelligent approach to self-improvement. Some great articles, although prepare for a lot of sunset photography!
WiseGeek
It may not look like much, but the WiseGeek website is full of information and useful tips on anything geeky. It could do with a bit more organising to avoid incredibly long lists of articles, but it's still an invaluable resource.
LSNED (Learn Something New Every Day)
As far as we can tell, the LSNED blog likes to cover the things that we haven't given a second thought to. We learnt that smaller plates affect our perception of when our bellies are full and now know how to answer our children's questions about space without looking clueless.
The Why Files
The Why Files takes a story behind the news and delves into the science behind it. The website seems to be concerned with US news, but is still an interesting read. It also appears to be aimed mainly at kids, but given the standard of most TV journalism these days, you will most likely learn more from this than 20 minutes watching the news channel.
IO9
One of our geekier favourites, IO9 covers 'science, science fiction and the future'. A great place to be for fans of Star Wars, but also information about how we fail to detect asteroids and an exploration of Hungarian Bauhaus designs.
FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
FEE targets teenagers and young adults, the future world leaders with inspiring and educating content about the ethical and legal principles of a free society. Although personally speaking I have no desire to be a future world leader, it's still useful to understand concepts like croynism and be able to discuss the finer points of inflation.
If you found these links useful, take a look at our previous post - 10 Websites to make you think