SSSIs (Sites of Special Surfing Interest)

RSS News Readers

I’m quite appreciative of these applications that gather the new items from the sites I like.

Awasu is an app that you download and is fairly simple to install. It does have far more utilities than I can ever use though but still simple to set up and operate. It lets you know when a new item has been found.

Newsgator is a reader that sits on the web and you access your personal setup. This is fine for me at work where we’re not allowed to download and/or install any software. To update it all you do is press F5 for a refresh so basically you check it when you have time to.

Blogs

Blogwatch is by the North West Enquirer weekly newspaper and gives a weekly (natch) round up of some of the more interesting and quirky blogs from this part of England.

Chromasia is a photo blog with some fantastic shots taken by a Blackpool bloke. Apparently this site gets more hits per day than the official Blackpool tourism site!

Martin’s Musings is part of the excellent MoneySavingExpert site (see below) run by Martin Lewis. His blog is informative and occasionally quite humorous.

Sports Editors (BBC) is a blog run by the BBC TV, Radio, Ceefax and Internet Sports Editors. For big events like the World Cup this year they have started doing an event specific blog which I found very entertaining and informative. I got the flavour of the entire occasion with that.

The Editors (BBC) is a blog run by … erm … the BBC TV, Radio, Ceefax and Internet News Editors. It explains some of their reasoning for broadcasting (or not) certain items. Oh … and how to properly pronounce foreign names!

Topsyturvydom by Rob Spence is his take on literature, academia and life. He’s a lecturer in English Literature at Edge Hill University (is that the one with the slightly strange commercials on TV?) and presently lives in the same hinterland as myself. Having read some of his posts he seems to have a similar take on life to myself.

Podcasts

Ouch (BBC) is run by disabled journalists/broadcasters and concentrates on disability issues. Published once a month. Their Vegetable Vegetable or Vegetable? Quiz is a hoot!

Scotsman (Heritage and Culture) from the Scotsman newspaper gives weekly snippets from new books. Previous extracts include Alexander McCall Smith, Carole Hamilton and Michael Gardiner amongst others. Published weekly.

Steve Wright (BBC) is usually a piece called Ask Elvis with an impersonator ’doing’ Elvis Presley and answering every mortal question put to him. It’s a clever single broadcasting idea well executed and very funny. Published weekly.

Wake Up To Wogan (BBC) is an extract of the readers letters read out by Terry Wogan on his Radio 2 breakfast show. The Janet and John stories are priceless. Published weekly.

Vodcasts

StoryFix (BBC) was presumably named a vodcast instead of a podcast because it’s a five minute visual rundown of news broadcasters cleverly edited together with smart quick graphics and links. Published weekly.

Sites

MoneySavingExpert by Martin Lewis does exactly what it says on the tin and gives you good guidance on saving money. I don’t think any of us realises how much money we waste during our lives. Good forum and blog as well. Excellent.

I'll list more as I come across them.