While I was on vacation, I was unable to do anything more than a single email check for over a week. I am admittedly a news junkie, I subscribe to over 100 feeds of various blogs and news sources, and typically scan about 400 headlines each day, following on at least 20 or so stories. This whole process takes me about 0.5-1.5 hours, depending on what day of the week it is. From those sources, I try and distill out what I think are the most relevant stories to anthonares.net and I post them at the sidebar on the right, at the end of the day they are summarized and sent along in my Feedburner feed.
Now that this vice of mine is on the table, I’ll say that I did not miss anything, except for my blogroll (both the one on this site, and the extended personal list I read) and a very few other “traditional media” sources such as Wired news, The Space Review, and New Scientist, while I was offline. This is an interesting observation on the general lack of value that mainstream news outlets bring to the table. News is a commodity, while opinions and insight are of real value.
Anyway, now that I’m back I’ve got a good series of entries lined up for the next few months. I will be continuing the weekly Published Research Synopses, because as it turns out, many of the articles I’ve chosen to review have been timely selections (particularly the most recent review on the two Mars water-related papers). When you read the news headlines, remember that they were written by people who probably read summaries about summaries of the article. Here at Anthonares.net, you can at least get your information second-hand rather than fourth, and in some cases you can even read the original articles yourself.
That’s quite a blackout! Welcome back. By the way, the Tarbuck geology text is a fabulous book. Trouble is too many things to read, as usual, but it’s in the bedside stack and I’ve read the intro chapter so far. Good writing as well a nice graphics and book design.
-Bruce
Bruce,
My reading list lengthened by about 15 books over Christmas. I’ll have to shut myself off from civilization if I ever hope to catch up with it.
I find it interesting that you’ve labeled news as a commodity and put real value into opinions, etc. I spend very little time reading up on the news, checking headlines only to make sure the world hasn’t blown itself up. However, I don’t read much into opinions either. I have a close-net blog group that I check to keep up with my friends and otherwise don’t read editorials or opinion journals. To me, I feel that some connectedness to the world (ie news) is more valuable than hearing what one person out of 6 billion thinks. This is not to say that I don’t enjoy discussions with people, I just feel that news has more valuable than opinions. Of course, there is hardly a news source that is not powered by opinion (ie bias) at some level.
Cheryl,
I would agree with you if I spent far less time reading the news, I would probably do the real news first, and opinions second. However, my media-saturation is such that I get the news in the shower in the morning, on my way to work, on television, and on the internet. If I find a story I like or have been following for a while, I read to the end trying to see if there is more information there than just in the first few paragraphs, but usually come up feeling unsatisfied with the shallowness of the reporting. So, what’s a real commodity is the headline itself, in-depth news reporting is a gem to be treasured, and I find that in the Times, the Post, and the LA Times most commonly.
I guess I meant more than just the opnions of bloggers are what I value. What I really mean is that the experience and knowledge of bloggers provides more useful context for interpreting news stories. The opinions of people I trust, such as prominent news columnists or bloggers are also of great value to me. Also, as a blogger, the opinions of those who comment (particularly those who disagree) are what may be most important because they force me to see other sides of an issue.
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