Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole? - <AUTHOR> I'll start --- I once spent a couple days on a summer job looking through industrial incidents related to the Great Boston Molasses Flood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood). Wikipedia is definitely full of very interesting rabbit holes. <comment><USER2> I posted a list of them a while ago. For several years I was interested in alternative worldviews -- grand sweeping theories of reality. Here's my list:

[http://ribbonfarm.com](http://ribbonfarm.com)

[https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences](https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences)

[http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/](http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/)

[http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.co.uk/](http://unqualified- reservations.blogspot.co.uk/)

[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/)

[https://meaningness.com/](https://meaningness.com/)

[http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/](http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/)

Enjoy :)

<comment><USER3> I remember that list, because I said then what I'll say now - posting a list like that on a site like this is akin to handing out bags of heroin at a school :P . But I guess it's what the OP asked for.

<comment><USER4> At least you learn something from reading these sorts of sites. Heroin doesn't do that...then again I may just be justifying an addiction.

<comment><USER5> Some neuroscientists would argue that addiction is a form of "learning".

<comment><USER6> Were their experiments be recreated and properly peer-reviewed? Some reviewers argue that neuroscience experiments are mostly not worth the candle.

[http://andrewgelman.com/2016/09/21/what-has-happened-down- he...](http://andrewgelman.com/2016/09/21/what-has-happened-down-here-is-the- winds-have-changed/)

<comment><USER4> The replication crisis definitely leaves a lot of room for questioning. However, even if all the studies we have were properly replicated we still wouldn't understand addiction perfectly. We still have a lot to learn, just look at how vague definitions of addiction are still [http://www.dsm5.org/documents/substance%20use%20disorder%20f...](http://www.dsm5.org/documents/substance%20use%20disorder%20fact%20sheet.pdf) But both addiction and learning involve the brain's dopamine circuitry; ironically when responding to your point I can't read the relevant articles I found because they are behind paywalls. This article has some interesting commentary but the sources are paywalled: [https://www.thieme- connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.10...](https://www.thieme- connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0028-1124107) Most likely there is a connection, but anyone who claims to understand it entirely at this point is overconfident.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Browsing medical diagnosis codes... [https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/2016-ICD-10-CM- and...](https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/2016-ICD-10-CM-and- GEMs.html)

Some of the most mildly interesting:

V9543XD Spacecraft collision injuring occupant, subsequent encounter

W5602XD Struck by dolphin, subsequent encounter

X35XXXD Volcanic eruption, subsequent encounter

X52XXXD Prolonged stay in weightless environment, subsequent encounter

Y0881XD Assault by crashing of aircraft, subsequent encounter

<comment><USER8> I don't even... why in the world would it be important for a doctor to differentiate being struck by a dolphin or struck by orca (side note: orcas are dolphins!).

<comment><USER9> I believe it's for statistical purposes(if it's anything like death codes here in Aus).

If there is an uptick in dolphin strikes, the Government(or some environmental management group) may do something about the dolphin problem.

<comment><USER10> Wouldn't it also hide increases of "injured by a sea creature" that could be more useful in policy making.

<comment><USER9> I don't think so, though I don't know in practice I imagine there would be categories that aggregate the individual codes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For me, it's definitely Ribbonfarm:[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/)

I stumbled into Venkat's blog about two and half years ago and I'm still trying to find my way out. The rabbit hole gets even deeper when you look at his list of recommended reading. The material on John Boyd and OODA loops in particular has been bouncing around my head for about a year. Ribbonfarm quickly turns into a choose-your-own-adventure type of experience as it's very easy to bounce between articles and start looking everything that you don't know.

If you're interested in getting below the surface level of how organizations, teams, and business cultures work Ribbonfarm is the best place I know of that really digs into the details. If you're expecting the typical "be a leader, not a manager" platitudes, then you'll be disappointed.

<comment><USER12> I discovered ribbonfarm after being pointed to Rao's outstanding series about office politics, through the lens of the Office which is here:

[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais- principle/](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/)

Then I decided to read much more material from the blog, but for the most part I have been disappointed. I feel like the authors there love intellectualism to the point that they create fancy constructs even when there isn't much return. Basically I feel like it's trying too hard to be clever. I have found a few gems there, however.

Not trying to pick a fight with anyone, just wanted to share my own experience here.

<comment><USER13> It's good in general to be careful of the "this is what I think people are like" genre of blogging. Especially when it's presented with such certainty. See also: slate star codex, TLP. At least those two are working psychiatrists. Venkat Rao is just a guy with some opinions that he has retrospectively derived from his own career progress, as far as I can tell. It smacks of rationalisation.

<comment><USER14> Did TLP just completely stop after being outed or is there something still happening with a book?

<comment><USER13> In my imagination he went completely insane trying to write the porn book.

If you want a good continuation, check out Jordan Peterson, who has a much wider framework into which TLP's somewhat narrow worldview can be fitted. He is also a practicing clinical psychologist, as well as a professor. This video summarises a lot of his ideas, but they are fully explained and justified in his university courses, which are all on the channel. "Personality" is a first year course, and "Maps of Meaning" is I think taken by third or fourth year psychology students.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOw0eJ84d8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOw0eJ84d8)

(You're probably best off ignoring the culture war drama he's currently embroiled in. Unfortunately the youtube algorithm has now placed him firmly in the alt-right nexus because of this, so his videos might shit up your reccommendations. This is not a reflection of his ideas, far from it.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> My current rabbit hole has been the world building stack exchange ([http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/)) which is (ostensibly) for writers working out scientific or historical justifications for the worlds they invent.

Some of the thought that goes into answers is really cool. Good ones from recently are:

\- [http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/59175/what-...](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/59175/what- kind-of-weapons-could-squirrels-use)

\- [http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/59171/is- th...](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/59171/is-this- alternate-history-plausible-hard-sci-fi-realistic-history)

\- [http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/58745/stand...](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/58745/standardisation- of-time-in-a-ftl-universe)

<comment><USER16> I used to love it, but I do feel that the quality of the questions has dropped significantly since it started. There are now many people trying to find a justification for their pet plot idea, or trying to have the community fix the gaping hole in their universe.

That said, there are some amazing answers, well thought out and well researched, and I love some of the questions about cultural impacts of technological or biological speculation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> [http://www.27bslash6.com/](http://www.27bslash6.com/) \- lots of crazy stories from David Thorne

Some particular good ones are:

[http://www.27bslash6.com/f26a.html](http://www.27bslash6.com/f26a.html)

[http://www.27bslash6.com/arguments.html](http://www.27bslash6.com/arguments.html)

[http://www.27bslash6.com/covers.html](http://www.27bslash6.com/covers.html)

<comment><USER18> Love this site. This one: [http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html](http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html), makes me giggle audibly every time...

<comment><USER17> I completely forgot about that one! It may very well be the best. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Slate Star Codex: [http://slatestarcodex.com/](http://slatestarcodex.com/), for a lot of interesting socio-philosophical discussion on a variety of topics.

Meditations on Moloch is one of my favorites:

[http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on- moloch/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/)

<comment><USER20> "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup" is one of the greatest pieces of political writing ever. [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate- anything...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything- except-the-outgroup/)

<comment><USER21> It's interesting how much this reads like footnotes to Derrida , especially in the beginning (other cliffnotes here: [http://www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/#SH7c](http://www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/#SH7c) or [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ce/s6403/jacques_derrida.pdf](http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ce/s6403/jacques_derrida.pdf) if you feel like reading the original). It's nice to see ideas move from so theoretical that LW and associated communities would likely dismiss to digestible forms like this. It gives me hope for communication amongst outgroups that are pretty virulently opposed to each other (Continental theorists and let's say the vanguard of popular "rationalism"), mostly due to their proximity.

<comment><USER22> I don't seem to have enough context to follow the point you are making. What are continental theorists? In what way are they apposed to the Less Wrong crowd?

<comment><USER21> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_philosophy)

For the reasons for the opposition, it's difficult to point to any article that doesn't almost willfully misunderstand the other side. I haven't listened to this episode, but In Our Time is usually good about bringing in experts from both sides to discuss issues: [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/bridging- the...](http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/bridging-the-analytic- continental-divide/)

You can probably substitute "The Less Wrong crowd" for "analytical philosophers", as they're sort of the hobbyist or non-institutionalized version of the latter. You could also just try reading the Derrida article I linked to see why people with a rationalist bent have historically recoiled from his writings.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> TV Tropes is the definitive rabbit hole: [http://www.tvtropes.org](http://www.tvtropes.org)

For me, a close follow-up is the SCP Foundation: [http://www.scp- wiki.net/](http://www.scp-wiki.net/)

<comment><USER24> I'm a cofounder of All The Tropes, a noncommercial advertising-free fork of TV Tropes: [https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Main_Page](https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Main_Page)

Because we don't have advertising, we can take a low censorship approach while protecting your privacy. We'd love to have you come on board if you have many hours that you're not using.

<comment><USER25> I've been interested in ATT, but the community is significantly smaller, and the community is a big part of the draw of TVT.

What disgusted me was what TVT said in response to ATT. There was a thread essentially claimed it was a weird XXX trope site that was ripping them off: nobody corrected this perception, and nobody even disagreed, despite the fact that looking at the FAQ for five minutes would have made it abundantly clear that this wasn't the case. The mods then said that ATT "didn't deserve any more attention or discussion" and pretty much outright said that mentioning it further was asking for a ban.

It says something about a community when they aren't mature enough to discuss their competitors and legitimately assess them, instead constructing strawmen and saying that anybody who talks about it will be banned: TVT, of all places, ought to know better.

<comment><USER3> I'm not familiar with this situation, but if what you're saying is true, I can see where the perception came from. The unfortunate reality is that the Internet is full of sites which just copy-paste an existing popular site (Stack Overflow, various fandom wikis, etc.) and slap a bunch of ads on it hoping to make some fly-by-night profit. If I had came across ATT, I absolutely would've assumed that's what it was and would not have taken the time to read their FAQ explaining otherwise.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure how you would have gotten that impression with the 100% lack of ads. Aggressive adblockers, I can only hope. Either way, brand-name attraction is strong.

If you'd like to be a little more familiar with the situation, there's a write-up of the copyright situation here: [http://blog.brentlaabs.com/2013/12/the-edge-of-creative- comm...](http://blog.brentlaabs.com/2013/12/the-edge-of-creative-commons.html) with HN discussion [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7749189](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7749189) There's also the statement of why we forked: [https://allthetropes.org/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Why_Fork_TV_Tro...](https://allthetropes.org/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Why_Fork_TV_Tropes)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Things I won't work with: [http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/thi...](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane)

Accident reconstruction/investigation videos. NTSB, CSB, and OSHA have some really in-depth ones: [https://youtu.be/tMsjJWJFBbA](https://youtu.be/tMsjJWJFBbA) [https://youtu.be/gDTqrRpa_ac?list=PLUXYDid45duP- lg8Kh_hSw841...](https://youtu.be/gDTqrRpa_ac?list=PLUXYDid45duP- lg8Kh_hSw841OY4r2Dz7)

Also, +1 for TV Tropes

Edit: Also, [http://www.scp-wiki.net/](http://www.scp-wiki.net/) has some classics.

<comment><USER27> "Things I won't work with" deserves an extra highlight! I am not interested in chemistry at all but I read all the blog posts about once a year because the author is just so good with words.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> The US Civil War has been mine for the last couple of years. The sheer volume of history and contributing factors, decades of build up, aftermath, affects on the US today, etc. My goodness, the economics of the whole thing are just fascinating.

All the internet debates I saw when the confederate flag came down got me really interested in how so many people could know TOTALLY different things about the most historically significant event in the country.

Now I've got about 12 books covering things in different ways (and there are so many more). Thanks to the Library of Congress and Google's efforts to scan books it's really easy to check citations as you read when you're having those "There is no way that's real" moments followed by "Holy crap! That's real?!?!"

The whole thing has sparked an overzealous interest in history, which is the subject that interested me the least when I was younger. Now I give serious consideration to pursuing a doctorate one day with the aim of being a History professor when I get closer to 50 (which is still a decade or so off).

<comment><USER29> I have been to Gettysburg multiple times. Once did a guided tour of the battlefields with a guide. It was very interesting. I wasn't born in this country (WWII is the major battle I learned about) but it was still fascinating seeing sites and learning the history, since it is my new country I want to know as much as possible about it. It is a different understand to see the place and be told, here is where attacked, then retreated, so many people died here and so on.

What are some other interesting US Civil War battlefields or sites (Antietam, I would guess, Fort Sumter?)

<comment><USER30> Fort Sumter isn't really a major site (it's got a lot of name recognition, but not much happened there compared to other places).

Antietam is one - the bloodiest day in American history. Then there's a whole bunch in Virginia: The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg, Manassas (site of two major battles). Further south, Vicksburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Stones River are all major sites. You probably haven't heard about any of these (maybe Manassas), but they're among the biggest battles of the war.

The Virginia sites are all huge, historically speaking. Shiloh is a particularly beautiful battlefield. Vicksburg is the most impressive, because it's one of the few with obvious remains of battle - it was basically a trial run for WWI. Most battlefields have a low line of earthworks and some craters, but it's tough to picture what they looked like.

<comment><USER31> The Battles of Manassas are known as the Battles of Bull Run outside of the South. They are both Southern victories and the first was the first major battle of the war.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> TV Tropes is always good: [http://tvtropes.org/](http://tvtropes.org/)

<comment><USER33> There is nothing in the universe quite like a troll on TV Tropes. Maybe a troll on Wikipedia but they're probably all the same person.

Warning: if you say _lampshading_ IRL, no one will understand you. If by strange coincidence you ran into a fellow Troper, you'd have to type it out.

<comment><USER34> "Lampshading" existed as a term used by writers etc. well before TV Tropes came along. I'm pretty sure I first heard it on Usenet in the 90s in a newsgroup primarily for SF writers, where it was well understood. Many terms on TV Tropes are pretty recent, but a lot were already established elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm partial to everything2.com. Back in the early 00's, everything2 tried to be a Wikipeida, where people could post multiple entries on a topic. The best part is reading 16 year old, long form essays about places. The recent stuff is short stories, but the essays of the bay area from the peak of the bubble are fascinating.

Highlights:

* [http://everything2.com/title/The+NoCal+Super+Layoff+Unemploy...](http://everything2.com/title/The+NoCal+Super+Layoff+Unemployment+Collecting+BBQ+Moonlit+Bowling+Noder+Meet)

* [http://everything2.com/title/San+Mateo+bridge](http://everything2.com/title/San+Mateo+bridge)

<comment><USER36> I grew up reading everything2 and I dearly wish the internet was still more like that

Some links:

* [http://everything2.com/title/catting+weird+things+to+%252Fde...](http://everything2.com/title/catting+weird+things+to+%252Fdev%252Faudio)

* [http://everything2.com/title/How+to+destroy+the+Earth](http://everything2.com/title/How+to+destroy+the+Earth)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> [http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse/sort-by- votes](http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse/sort-by-votes)

Discover new command line utilities or combinations of them to solve various things. Learned all kinds of useful stuff. Things like I know but always forget about:

       python -m SimpleHTTPServer

To server the current directory on port :8000

Then there is silly stuff like:

       dd if=/dev/dsp | ssh -c arcfour -C username@host dd of=/dev/dsp

To output your microphone to a remote computer's speaker [note: you probably shouldn't be using arcfour in general for ssh, and it might be disabled on your site].

<comment><USER37> helpful tip to build upon #1: you can pass a valid port number to the SimpleHTTPServer command to open that port instead of 8000.

<comment><USER38> What about specifying the interface?

Last time I checked it wasn't possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I enjoy listening to simulated activations of the EAS (Emergency Alert System) on YouTube. A few interesting ones:

Nuclear Attack: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZIynuYDRVA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZIynuYDRVA)

Alien Invasion: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKre_8rufrw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKre_8rufrw)

Russian Invasion:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYOlnuxZzNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYOlnuxZzNQ)

Clown Sightings: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUugY4VfgZc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUugY4VfgZc)

I always find the EAS activation tone to be kind of bone chilling (which I suppose is its intention). I hear it so infrequently here in Canada that it really grabs my attention immediately.

Listening to the fake ones online probably makes it worse, though. When I heard the emergency alert tone come on the radio while driving from Toronto to Ottawa, I checked the skies for UFOs. Ended up just being a tornado warning. :)

</comment><comment><USER40> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws)

Which contains (apart from the obvious Murphy's law and Occam's razor) such pearls as the Peter Principle, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and Hofstadter's Law. 20+ tabs guaranteed!

<comment><USER41> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists)

<comment><USER42> I like that it references itself under 'Miscellaneous'.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> TVTropes is the big one, the vortex from which all other rabbit holes stem.

The SCP foundation is also excellent, and The Digital Antiquarian is my new favorite.

Fallen London is a browser MMOCYOA on steroids, and it's glorious.

The Jargon File (before ESR ruined it with the latest round of updates) was amazing, and still is great fun.

Bash.org is another classic rabbit hole, although far from the best for that purpose.

And Youtube contains many rabbit holes, but my favorite by far is Tom Scott's youtube channel. Also of note is Tom & Matt's Park Bench, where he vlogs with Matt Grey on a semi-regular basis, Yahtzee Crowshaw's channel, where he used to play games with Gabriel Morton in his "Let's Drown Out" series, and Channel Awesome. Just, all of Channel Awesome.

<comment><USER43> Fallen London is dangerously brilliant - think of browser games like Kingdom of Loathing, but with a spectacular depth of storytelling and complexity. It also has an interesting rapid-feedback structure; instead of things like lengthy 'fights' everything runs on probabilistic outcomes.

...would you happen to know if Ambition: Enigma is real? No hints, but one of the devs suggested it wasn't and I'd like to at least know if there's actually something to look for.

<comment><USER25> I have no idea. I'd say check the wiki, but that's spoilerific. By the way, did you see the excellent article about the Seeking The Name quest on RPS? [https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/06/20/seeking-mr- eaten...](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/06/20/seeking-mr-eatens-name/)

<comment><USER43> The wiki implies it's probably real, and links to two relevant things, but doesn't go further - Enigma is locked down almost as hard as Seeking The Name there.

I hadn't read it until just now, but that's a really good piece. It's a fascinating quest, to the point where I have a second character for it and have seen it discussed in several places. I think StormingTheIvory had a pretty good essay, despite being a source I usually have serious issues with.

It's an utterly bizarre quest. I think there's an important hole in game design literature centered around things like Seeking and I Wanna Be The Guy. It's this whole school of consciously abusive game design that completely contradicts basic principles. Seeking The Name is even weirder than most, because you can't even justify it in terms of skill challenges. The best analogue I have is the self-destruct button in Starship Titanic, which is literally just a big red button you can hit to lose the game.

RPS is the first source I've seen offer a _justification_ for this sort of behavior. If a game can't be genuinely punishing, then what's the point of putting up challenges in the first place?

<comment><USER25> StormingTheIvory's article was interesting. I have no idea what your issue with STIT is, so I can't comment on that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Secure Contain Protect [http://www.scp-wiki.net/](http://www.scp-wiki.net/)

<comment><USER45> This is a wonderful rabbit hole. It can be hard to find a good entry point but worth perservering, particularly if you're alone somewhere late at night.

<comment><USER46> In my opinion it's fine to start from top rated entries.

[http://www.scp-wiki.net/top-rated-pages](http://www.scp-wiki.net/top-rated- pages)

<comment><USER47> I have mild OCD, so I ended up reading all of them in order over a few months.

<comment><USER48> A few months? Man, that's fast.

Literally one of the things on my bucket list is to 'catch-up' on SCP. But I read so damn slowly and new entries are added all the time, so, it's likely never gonna happen.

Still enjoy the hell out of scaring myself at night by reading them, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> [https://urbit.org/](https://urbit.org/) \- deep and exciting one

This article [1] is a good start even though it's 6 years old. It's not vaporware anymore, I haven't checked it in a while, but it seems to be actively developed.

If you feel that you've learned enough programming languages that you have a problem finding anything new this may give you some dopamine.

1\. [http://moronlab.blogspot.com/2010/01/urbit-functional- progra...](http://moronlab.blogspot.com/2010/01/urbit-functional-programming- from.html)

<comment><USER50> Urbit reminds me of a programming language that was featured a while back on Hacker News. It was a purely functional language and each function and data structure was addressed by its cryptographic hash. Functions and data structures did have convenient labels, but linking was done by the hash. So you can have as many different versions of a function as you like. Your code is never broken by updates. You can apply updates at your convenience.

<comment><USER36> I believe you are thinking of [http://unisonweb.org](http://unisonweb.org)

<comment><USER50> Yes, that's it. It's beautiful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> The Bureau of Labor Statistics ([http://www.bls.gov/](http://www.bls.gov/)) is just fascinating enough and just badly organized enough that I never seem to be able to get to the same useful piece of information twice. And thus I constantly find myself looking at other interesting facts about the US labor force.

<comment><USER52> As an intern project years ago I had to all the BLS data into a database for analysis. Any time I ran into an issue I would call them directly. Little known fact that every BLS data set has a source.txt file with a phone number to call. You might think of government agencies as massive bureaucracy, but I was amazed at how helpful and knowledgeable everyone I spoke to was (and that the calls were answered at all). They would answer my immediate question and often explained the logic that went into the data structure.

Making survey data structured is quite challenging and I gained a lot of respect for the work they do.

Anyway, if you go down this rabbit hole, maybe make it an IRL rabbit hole and giving them a call may help get to your answers quickly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II) easily.

I grew up when the History Channel was nicknamed the "Hitler channel". I've read Manchester's the Last Lion, Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and will soon be ordering Ullrich's Hitler - Ascent. Saving Private Ryan is in my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

This is currently my wallpaper: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/US_Army...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/US_Army_WWII_field_artillery.jpg/1280px- US_Army_WWII_field_artillery.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER54> Atlas Obscura - a collection of the world's most interesting/peculiar, and downright strange places. It's like a marriage of a world map + Ripley's Believe it Or Not.

www.atlasobscura.com/

<comment><USER55> This made it to the front page of HN a couple months back, but it's worth posting again:

[http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-nyos-the- deadliest-l...](http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-nyos-the-deadliest- lake-in-the-world)

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Reading medical study meta-analysis published by The Cochrane Collaboration[0]. There's some fascinating results that run counter to current medical advice.

For example, "Vaccines to prevent influenza in healthy adults" concluded, in part: "Vaccination shows no appreciable effect on working days lost or hospitalisation."[1]

[0] [http://www.cochrane.org/evidence](http://www.cochrane.org/evidence) [1] [http://www.cochrane.org/CD001269/ARI_vaccines-to-prevent- inf...](http://www.cochrane.org/CD001269/ARI_vaccines-to-prevent-influenza-in- healthy-adults)

</comment><comment><USER57> List of unusual articles on Wikipedia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles)

<comment><USER58> I like Wikipedia random too: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random)

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> I enjoy rabbit holes with much less meaning, such as:

[http://z0r.de/](http://z0r.de/) or [http://www.theuselessweb.com/](http://www.theuselessweb.com/)

The last one is great. I once discovered this gem:

[http://www.pointerpointer.com/](http://www.pointerpointer.com/)

<comment><USER60> [http://www.pointerpointer.com/](http://www.pointerpointer.com/) is coool

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> Currently my favourite time wasters are learning channels on youtube. Especially not the "weird" ones like VSauce because I think those are pretty unwatchable. I like SciShow / SciShow space even though that's borderline weird :)

My current fav is Sixty Symbols, endless very interesting videos: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvBqzzvUBLCs8Y7Axb- jZew](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvBqzzvUBLCs8Y7Axb-jZew)

Also PBS Space Time, MinutePhysics, MinuteEarth.

<comment><USER62> You might also like: cpgrey - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C_jShtL725hvbm1arSV9w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C_jShtL725hvbm1arSV9w)

Kurzgesagt - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXVk37bltHxD1rDPwtNM8Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXVk37bltHxD1rDPwtNM8Q)

(not as educational, but funny): exurb1a - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimiUgDLbi6P17BdaCZpVbg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimiUgDLbi6P17BdaCZpVbg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> One of the earliest www rabbit holes I remember visiting: [https://www.chroniclesofgeorge.com/](https://www.chroniclesofgeorge.com/)

Surprised MF has not been mentioned, yet. [http://www.metafilter.com/](http://www.metafilter.com/)

<comment><USER64> Wow, it has been years since I've been to this site. Thank you!

I used to customize this ticketing system. It was Peregrine Service Center before HP bought it. And we had a George too. Ah... the memories

<comment><USER65> Sorry—we used Remedy Action Request System at the George job. Source: I'm the webmaster and I was there :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> * C3TV, the Chaos Computer Club media library with hundreds of conference talks: [https://media.ccc.de](https://media.ccc.de)

* Art of the Title, in-depth analyses of movie title sequences: [http://www.artofthetitle.com](http://www.artofthetitle.com)

* Damn Interesting, it's damn interesting: [https://www.damninteresting.com](https://www.damninteresting.com)

* LEGO subreddit, do I need to say more? [https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/)

</comment><comment><USER67> It's a little bit dated now, but the C2 wiki is a fun place to read about software development. There are quite a lot of patterns, anti-patterns, practices, rambling debates and just generally interesting ideas: [http://wiki.c2.com/?DesignByCommittee](http://wiki.c2.com/?DesignByCommittee)

<comment><USER68> Absolutely love C2. Filled with funky little gems about finding meaning in life and work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> Sam's Laser FAQ by far: [http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm](http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm)

I could read that thing all day. It's been around forever, and it reminds me of what the Internet used to be...lots of useful content, simple layout, "hypertext". LINKS!

He's been maintaining it for years and my go-to source for anything laser related.

</comment><comment><USER70> Back in the mid 90's there were 2 rabbit holes I loved to visit. One of them was the Monty Python website :-)

The other one I haven't been able to track down. I'm hoping someone here can tell me what happened to it. It was an art site called "The Place" hosted by a university in Canada. It was a mixed media site with art, poetry and short stories. Does that ring a bell for anyone? I loved that site and wanted to visit it again many times. But "The Place" is a difficult term to search with these days.

</comment><comment><USER71> Orion's Arm is a collaborative world building project for the far future. The articles on monopole physics and wormholes are quite detailed, and the implications of higher levels of sentience are very interesting. [http://www.orionsarm.com](http://www.orionsarm.com)

The SCP foundation has been mentioned, but a lot of people don't know they have a sister site. [http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com](http://wanderers- library.wikidot.com)

The wikipedia articles about unsolved problems in physics and emerging technologies are huge click holes for most nerds:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics)

Reading about neolithic archaeology is way more fun than you might think. 10,000 years ago people built these huge sites with literally stone age technology, and the nature of their rituals and beliefs are mostly unknown.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic#Early_settlements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic#Early_settlements)

Shodan is a search engine for devices on the Internet. Looking at other people's queries is a good way to get started. Every time you think, there's no way someone would connect one of those to the Internet, you find out that at least 10 people have gone and done just that. [https://www.shodan.io/explore](https://www.shodan.io/explore)

Running an NTP server in the public pool gives you the IPv6 addresses of all kinds of whacko IoT stuff. Every once in a while p0f can't figure out a TCP/IP stack that's connecting to my server, so I connect back and there's sometimes a really weird device with an open telnet or HTTP port or something. About once a month I have to call someone to tell them that they misconfigured their firewall when they turned on NTP and I'm logged into an air conditioner on a cruise ship or another bizarre combination of thing and place that I never thought I'd ever say out loud. Browsing the logs is a never-ending source of amazement.

PSA: connecting to public NTP servers exposes you to people like me, don't do it unless you have to.

<comment><USER72> Great answer, thanks. Following the comments in your profile page is a rabbit hole by itself - another rabbit hole: looking at other comments by people with great HN contributions...

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> I enjoy watching conference videos.

[https://www.infoq.com/](https://www.infoq.com/)

Also search youtube for conference video playlists.

I have my mythtv set up so downloaded conference videos show up as a channel just like a recording on my mythtv system, so I can just sit on the couch and watch a clojure conf or whatever just as if it were a recorded PBS program. Very convenient.

As a side issue I raided archive.org for hilarious black and white silent films of Buster Keaton who was quite a comedian about a century ago.

</comment><comment><USER74> [http://www.filfre.net/sitemap/](http://www.filfre.net/sitemap/)

The Digital Antiquarian - a very well written running history of computer games, especially adventure-y ones from the beginning to about 1989 now.

</comment><comment><USER75> I listen to Robert Greenberg's classical music appreciation audio courses. He has published courses on Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, Mahler, Verdi, Wagner, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and also on horizontal subjects such as orchestral, piano, opera, baroque music, romantic music, symphony and quartets (and much more).

Sample: [https://youtu.be/whgu7nX0sZc?t=522](https://youtu.be/whgu7nX0sZc?t=522) (debunking some Shostakovich myths)

Greenberg is a gifted speaker, a composer and and music professor himself. He's sharing with us a burning passion for everything classical. If not for the informational content, then at the very least it's worth listening to him in order to infuse with his passion.

After taking some basic notions about composers and music genres, I started a YouTube safari for unknown music and composers, I am 7 years into my search already. I listened to hours of classical every day since I started. YT is a treasure trove of historical recordings, you can do comparative listening and refine your listening abilities.

There are so many composers almost nobody heard about, even professional musicians, that it's mind boggling. After all, there is a long history of classical music, hundreds of years in the making, and the level attained by Bach 300 years ago was already (and still remained to this day) cutting edge.

Imagine how interesting it would be to browse videos and papers from 300 years history of computer programming. We are overwhelmed even with the production of the last decade. Classical music has such a wonderful deep history that is endlessly entertaining.

A list of Robert Greenberg's courses is here: [http://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/robert- greenberg/](http://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/robert-greenberg/)

</comment><comment><USER76> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritzker_Architecture_Prize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritzker_Architecture_Prize)

It has links to architects and those pages in turn have links to beautiful buildings. Also the wikipedia pages of art museums tend to be awesome timesinks as well, you can click through every artist and all of their famous artworks.

<comment><USER77> Related to this, I'm not sure how many people use them, but there are categories at the bottom of every page which group together similar articles, navboxes that list articles that are related, and at the left side of the page "what links here" which lets you find incoming wikilinks. Oh, and on the talk page there are Wikiprojects where you can find categories for projects built around certain areas like Film. Lastly, Wikipedia's Featured Articles are some of its highest quality ones and usually go quite in depth while being well- written and interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER78> Great question! YouTube.

I don't use YouTube at all for music recommendations/discovery but every once in a while, I'll chance upon something amazing.

A comment on an upload of Seventh Wonder's The Great Escape[0] led me my discovering Shadow Gallery's First Light[1], which I enjoyed almost as much. (Almost. SW's track, based on Henry Martinson's 'Aniara' poetic cycle is, in my opinion, at another level. Martison was awarded a Nobel prize for his work but unfortuntely commited suicide as a result of fierce criticism against this decision).

0: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMjO7y-98Ak](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMjO7y-98Ak)

1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Qt1eqJ26s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Qt1eqJ26s)

</comment><comment><USER79> Ulillillia: [http://www.ulillillia.us/sitemap.shtml](http://www.ulillillia.us/sitemap.shtml)

Useful sections include the one on tips to speed up mowing the lawn. Less useful ones focus on things like how to open soda bottles.

<comment><USER80> I was surprised to find someone else posting Nicks site :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER81> [https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/HomePage](https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/HomePage)

The nlab is a remarkable mathematical resource open to everyone. I've been using it to contextualize my mathematical learning since I was an undergraduate.

</comment><comment><USER82> Shadertoy! [http://www.shadertoy.com](http://www.shadertoy.com)

</comment><comment><USER83> * Unusual religions on wikipedia particularly Scientology.

* Rogue waves (it is not that deep of a hole but for some reason I find it interesting).

* Knot theory and category theory (again not sure why).

* Social Psychology on wikipedia

* Ben Thompson's Badass blog (more for humor and a little old now. not sure if it is updated) [1]

* If you are an older mid to late 30 something like me X-Entertainment [2] used to be an awesome rabbit hole (no it is not a porn site). Sadly it is very very broken rabbit hole with collapsed tunnels all over. The author's penchant (Matt) for 80's crap ultimately succumbed to complete utter disorganization and proper backups. It is a 404 wasteland. I recommend googling "x-entertainment and he-man" (yes it is scary to google such terms but trust me)

[1]: [http://www.badassoftheweek.com/list.html](http://www.badassoftheweek.com/list.html)

[2]: [http://www.x-entertainment.com/index1.html](http://www.x-entertainment.com/index1.html)

</comment><comment><USER84> This will not be at all well-received here, but in the interest of answering the question earnestly:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2hczx1/adolf_hi...](https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2hczx1/adolf_hitler_the_greatest_story_never_told_2013/)

<comment><USER85> Funny, I just started to read

[https://archive.org/details/TheYoungHitlerIKnew](https://archive.org/details/TheYoungHitlerIKnew)

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> [http://everything2.com](http://everything2.com) is (kinda) still going strong.

<comment><USER87> About a month ago I started visiting again after years of it being long- forgotten. I was pleasantly surprised to see it's still (kinda) going strong. Reminds me a bit of Medium today, but a lot less preachy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER88> Recently I have taken it upon myself to gain a basic understanding of philosophy and linear algebra. I found this primer book ([http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/...](http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/CONTENTS.htm)) and I try to read it when I have some free time.

For linear algebra, I have been watching this MIT OpenCourseWare lecture series taught by Gilbert Strang: [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06sc-linear- algeb...](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06sc-linear-algebra- fall-2011/)

MITOCW is a great place for anyone looking to expand on their current knowledge base and an alternative for those seeking to take a course that they did not have the opportunity to take in college.

</comment><comment><USER89> John Baez, this weeks finds in mathematical physics [1]. He started blogging this in 1993! there's so much stuff there now. I keep finding amazing things in the TWF's, and not wanting to close my browser tabs because it's so precious. And you wouldn't believe what he can do with a bit of ascii art. Truly he is one of the heroes of the internet. (He doesn't do TWF's anymore, but there's a bunch of other places where he posts stuff.)

Try this one for starters [2]. The earlier ones are much more hardcore.

[1] [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/twfcontents.html](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/twfcontents.html) [2] [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week236.html](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week236.html)

<comment><USER90> > He doesn't do TWF's anymore, but there's a bunch of other places where he > posts stuff.

Now conveniently announced all in one place: [https://twitter.com/johncarlosbaez](https://twitter.com/johncarlosbaez) . (See [https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2016/09/twitter.html](https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2016/09/twitter.html) for the announcement.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER91> [https://www.are.na/chris-sherron/feeling- futuristic](https://www.are.na/chris-sherron/feeling-futuristic)

[https://www.are.na/damon-zucconi/worldmaking](https://www.are.na/damon- zucconi/worldmaking)

[https://www.are.na/john-michael-boling/fictional- fashion](https://www.are.na/john-michael-boling/fictional-fashion)

[https://www.are.na/nick-demarco/yuppie-dystopia](https://www.are.na/nick- demarco/yuppie-dystopia)

[https://www.are.na/sam-hart/knot-theory](https://www.are.na/sam-hart/knot- theory)

[https://www.are.na/lukas-wp/arrangement-collage](https://www.are.na/lukas- wp/arrangement-collage)

[https://www.are.na/dena-yago/language](https://www.are.na/dena-yago/language)

[https://www.are.na/david-hilmer-rex/hybrid- organizations](https://www.are.na/david-hilmer-rex/hybrid-organizations)

[https://www.are.na/zach-rose/stoic-electronics](https://www.are.na/zach- rose/stoic-electronics)

[https://www.are.na/morgan-sutherland/diagrams--2](https://www.are.na/morgan- sutherland/diagrams--2)

(disclaimer: I work on Are.na...it still contains my favorite internet rabbit holes, though.)

Related, for maintaining a path during rabbit hole seshs: [https://pilgrim.are.na/](https://pilgrim.are.na/)

<comment><USER92> pilgrim.are.na looks very nice!

<comment><USER91> thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER93> Encyclopedic, opinionated, humorous, and even quantitative guide to 20th century pop and rock, from the point of view of a Russian Linguist [1] who thinks The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan have never been topped:

[http://starling.rinet.ru/music/index.htm](http://starling.rinet.ru/music/index.htm)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgiy_Starostin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgiy_Starostin)

Even if you disagree with him on details, if you have similar taste, you can basically look up any album and see which songs might be hidden gems. It's also amusing to read his take on just when a particular band began to decline in quality.

<comment><USER94> Reminds me of Piero Scaruffi's project at scaruffi.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER95> Reptilians.

You're welcome.

[http://www.alternet.org/story/147967/inside_the_great_reptil...](http://www.alternet.org/story/147967/inside_the_great_reptilian_conspiracy%3A_from_queen_elizabeth_to_barack_obama_ --_they_live%21)

</comment><comment><USER96> damninteresting.com is where I 1st read about the Great Molasses Flood, amongst a slew of other bizarre non-fictional events & people. The wordsmiths make the bizarre accounts even more damn intetesting.

edit: link

[https://www.damninteresting.com/](https://www.damninteresting.com/)

<comment><USER97> The finest compliment is that which the utterer is unaware the recipient can hear (or, more appropriately, 'see,' but that doesn't sound stuffy enough). Thanks for the kind words!

Relatedly, "stuffy enough" is fun to say.

</comment></comment><comment><USER98> [http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts](http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts)

There is always something stimulating and new in the archives, which go back years for some programmes.

Also, every episode of "Short Cuts" (available above) is usually something amazing that you've never heard of. "Resistance" and "Rivals" are both great starts.

</comment><comment><USER99> [https://www.edge.org](https://www.edge.org)

This is a very under-the-radar organization funded by the whos-who of Silicon Valley. See the "Billionares Dinner" they host yearly in Napa.

They have great resources such as Philip Tetlock x Daniel Khanmen Superforcasting mini-course and thorough discussions by great thinkings around tech and ethics.

<comment><USER100> Meh.

I stumbled across _The Edge_ via HN when the annual question issue was posted a few years back. Yes, there is the _very_ occasional good response, but I'm increasingly underwhelmed by it -- the typical answer is self-serving (fund my research!), pie-in-the-sky, self-serving (fund my startup!), underinformed, self-serving (buy my product!), etc.

Yes, there are exceptions. No, Sturgeon's Law has no risk of being revoked.

</comment></comment><comment><USER101> [https://www.brainpickings.org/](https://www.brainpickings.org/)

The title truly says "A meaningful inventory of Life".

I get lost in the labryinths in that blog covering science, philosophy, literature & art.

<comment><USER102> I highly recommend the newsletter: the founder sends out a carefully curated and thoughtful summary of the previous weeks articles so you can pick out the one's that interest you. It's my default Sunday reading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> 1) There is a Wiki for almost everything you can imagine. I am pretty sure you can spend whole weekens just clicking around in some random GoT, LotR or Harry Potter wiki

1.1) My current favorite is reading about the Warhammer 40k universe: ([http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k_Wiki](http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k_Wiki) and [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page](http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page))

2) reddit.com is a never ending source of entertainment if you know how to use it:

2.1) Go to any sub which kind of interests you and sort either by "top" or "controversial" for "all time". "controversial of all time" is especially interesting if you apply it to subs like /r/relationships (if you are into that kind of thing).

2.2) Start with this post on interesting subs: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/28il5s/what_is_a...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/28il5s/what_is_a_primarily_text_based_subreddit_i_could/cibatnb/)

/r/UnsolvedMysteries and /r/AskHistorians are by far my favorite subs at the moment

2.3) /r/ThreadKillers/, /r/DepthHub/, /r/goodlongposts/ are also a good sources of interesting posts

3) If you are into DIY, building boats, woodworking, metal lathes, surface grinding, scraping, and stuff like that, then you will and endless supply of videos on YouTube.

/r/ArtisanVideos is a good source for interesting videos. If you want to find your own content you should have a look at this list: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtisanVideos/comments/3v264a/meta_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtisanVideos/comments/3v264a/meta_lets_make_a_list_of_artisan_youtube_channels/)

My favorite channels are This Old Tony (his newer videos are incredibly well made and very funny if you like dry humor. Check out his video on how to cut threads on a lathe [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb_BURLuI70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb_BURLuI70)), Abom79, Clickspring, Keith Rucker, Keith Fenner, Stefan Gotteswinter, Walter Sorrells, ...

4) Reading trip reports on [https://www.erowid.org/](https://www.erowid.org/) is also a good way to waste a lot of time

<comment><USER25> For 40k, it's hard to go wrong with 1d4chan, the offical wiki of 4chan's /tg/, and home to such legendary tales as Ruby Quest, Love Can Bloom, The Golem's Garden, The Hamlet of Tyranny, Drew The Litch, The Millenial King, the Dread Gazebo, and the now legendary tale of Old Man Henderson, as well as a wealth of bizarre invented games, even weirder settings, and 40k and tabletop related content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER103> [http://history-computer.com/Library/](http://history-computer.com/Library/)

some choice links Blaise Pascal's Privilege [http://history- computer.com/Library/PascalPrivilege.pdf](http://history- computer.com/Library/PascalPrivilege.pdf)

Ada's Sketch of the analytical computer [http://history- computer.com/Library/Ada/Sketch%20of%20The%20...](http://history- computer.com/Library/Ada/Sketch%20of%20The%20Analytical%20Engine.htm)

</comment><comment><USER104> Atomic Rockets by a wide margin: [http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/](http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/)

<comment><USER105> Seconded. This was my immediate first thought as well. I love that someone has thought in such great depth on all of these issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER106> Permanently opened: [https://pinboard.in/recent/](https://pinboard.in/recent/)

<comment><USER45> That made my day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER107> [https://news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com)

</comment><comment><USER108> All of this [http://www.bofh.net/](http://www.bofh.net/)

Bastard Operator from Hell

</comment><comment><USER109> Reading about any mathematical topic on Wikipedia. For example,

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_superior_and_limit_infer...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_superior_and_limit_inferior) \--> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partially_ordered_set](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partially_ordered_set) \--> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_relation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_relation) \--> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number) \--> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy_sequence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy_sequence) ...

Even if I think I know what's being discussed in the article, there's always some interesting extra detail or alternative way of explaining things that's worth reading.

<comment><USER110> Kolmolgorov complexity, conditional entropy, beach holiday write off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER111> The one I'm currently in.

</comment><comment><USER112> gwern. He hits the sweet spot and all topics are worth reading. [http://www.gwern.net/](http://www.gwern.net/)

</comment><comment><USER113> [http://unicode.org/charts/](http://unicode.org/charts/) \- leads you off into reading about languages, writing systems, the history of civilisation, obscure technical fields, medieval typesetting, that sort of thing

</comment><comment><USER114> I lost countless hours reading the archives of The Internet Oracle : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Oracle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Oracle)

I'm actually wary of woodchucks because of that now :D

</comment><comment><USER115> What is a rabbit hole? Is it just an interesting site to waste time on?

<comment><USER116> It comes from a metaphor:

> "Down the rabbit hole", a metaphor for an entry into the unknown, the > disorienting or the mentally deranging, from its use in Alice's Adventures > in Wonderland.

<comment><USER77> Though in modern parlance it seems to me to be used to refer to an endless hole one falls down and never really finds their way out of.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER117> Very recently I've spent a lot of time on ai.stackexchange.com and electronics.stackexchange.com, so I guess both of those are in contention.

Even more recently, I've been indulging some nostalgia related to my time as a firefighter by spending a lot of time on Youtube looking at videos of structure fires from around the world. It's kind of addictive to play "arm chair incident commander" and sit there going "why'd they stretch a 1-3/4" line instead of a 2-1/2?" or "why didn't the first in engine lay their own supply line" or "why aren't they using elevated master streams here", etc., etc., etc.

</comment><comment><USER118> AirVectors is one of my favorite reads; containing well researched, highly detailed articles on aircraft. He updates once a month. The list is immense.

[http://www.airvectors.net/](http://www.airvectors.net/)

</comment><comment><USER119> Scrolling to random places on Google Earth

[https://geoguessr.com/](https://geoguessr.com/)

</comment><comment><USER120> For me, it's any page related to astronomy on Wikipedia.

</comment><comment><USER121> Olegs tarpit: [http://okmij.org/ftp/](http://okmij.org/ftp/)

</comment><comment><USER122> [https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/)

San Diego Air & Space museum archives. Currently they have a quarter million photos there and they're uploading new ones constantly. They have received a huge number of collections from very interesting people. Where else can you see original photos of Glenn Curtiss' first airplane, crashed zeppelin skeletons from World War I and hyper advanced Convair Centaur rocket stage manufacturing? Fascinating people in the photos too.

</comment><comment><USER123> If you want to peek into some obscure video games and history HardcoreGaming101 is a good entry point. [http://www.hardcoregaming101.net](http://www.hardcoregaming101.net)

</comment><comment><USER124> Starting today -> this post on hackernews: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778836](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778836)

</comment><comment><USER125> [http://www.folklore.org](http://www.folklore.org)

Stories about the development of the original Macintosh.

So many gems in this collection, they get submitted to HN from time to time.

</comment><comment><USER126> I love online fiction. Each of the following is very good and will take you many days full-time to get through.

Homestuck: [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6](http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6)

Worm: [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/)

Freeman's Mind: [http://www.accursedfarms.com/movies/fm/](http://www.accursedfarms.com/movies/fm/)

</comment><comment><USER127> Used to be c2.com. Oh it's been back up, a bit different though.

[http://wiki.c2.com/?LispMacro](http://wiki.c2.com/?LispMacro)

<comment><USER128> The c2 wiki doesn't even have text anymore. It's completely javascript and without JS enabled you can't see anything but a loading spinner. It's sad to see such an accessible website fall so low.

<comment><USER127> I wished to find the static pages on github, so far no luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER129> [https://github.com/mrdrozdov/rabbit- holes](https://github.com/mrdrozdov/rabbit-holes)

</comment><comment><USER47> Pagat.com: someone attempting an exhaustive list of card game rules and variants (typically played with traditional decks, so no Magic the Gathering).

</comment><comment><USER130> [http://www.exitmundi.nl/](http://www.exitmundi.nl/) \- a collection of end- of-world scenarios

</comment><comment><USER131> Pokemon glitches are an incredibly interesting rabbit hole. They provide a good mix of video games and low level programming goodness:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/TheZZAZZGlitch](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheZZAZZGlitch)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/ChickasaurusGL](https://www.youtube.com/user/ChickasaurusGL)

These two channels together will give you everything you need to get started and document close to every known glitch in the pokemon games. Well that and perhaps TRRoses old website for background on what exactly is going on in these videos, but that got taken down. Bulbapedia probably still has what you need though:

[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Glitch_Pok%C3%A9mon](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Glitch_Pok%C3%A9mon)

A favorite example of mine:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x9G5BWanWw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x9G5BWanWw)

</comment><comment><USER132> This website of Death Row information, including chilling last words...

[https://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_executed_offenders...](https://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_executed_offenders.html)

Similar: [http://www.goodbyewarden.com/#214](http://www.goodbyewarden.com/#214)

</comment><comment><USER133> I think I can safely pack myself away at home for a good, long while after reading this list.. and I'm gonna add to it.

First off: No Such Thing as a Fish: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6_PRaY3aY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6_PRaY3aY) Or the podcast: [http://qi.com/podcast](http://qi.com/podcast)

I have an interest in historical cooking. This one I've spent hours watching, despite the occasional advertising: [https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson/featured](https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson/featured)

World of Batshit - and other stuff by the same author - got me through a bit and I occasionally pass it onto others. [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWeueTF8l819bt3sC72s...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWeueTF8l819bt3sC72soaG4JtfqJFcg)

</comment><comment><USER134> Something in a much different vein than other sites posted:

[http://drtenge.com](http://drtenge.com) (NSFW)

This is a Tumblr blog going back years of extremely disturbing medical imagery and art of the same style. Oftentimes there's almost no context given to the pictures other than a name of the author or a title which makes them that much weirder. The images also tend to be associated with fascism or BSDM. I've spent at least a few hours trying to find more about some of the pictures because they were just too weird to go without explanation. The guy has one post about how he really values quality and obscurity in his images and nothing else; no explanation as to who he is or why he collects such horrible and terrifying art. I've always wanted to email him and ask what the hell is going on but I'm kind of scared to know.

Obviously don't click on the link if you do not like gore.

</comment><comment><USER135> I spent lots of time reading this and following the linked pages while in graduate school. I learned a lot but it didn't help graduation to come any quicker. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes)

</comment><comment><USER136> I know it's weird, but I enjoy reading the court motions from bankruptcy proceedings. You can actually learn a lot about corporate structure this way.

Of particular interest was the bankruptcy of Target Canada: [https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/target-canada-co-et- al/moti...](https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/target-canada-co-et-al/motion- materials)

The affidavit of Mark Wong, then General Counsel for Target Canada, in support of the filing, provides a lot of insight into how a large corporation would structure their business endeavour into another country: [https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/sites/default/files/Affidav...](https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/sites/default/files/Affidavit%20of%20M.%20Wong%20%28January%2015%2C%202015%29.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER137> Wards' Wiki: [http://wiki.c2.com/](http://wiki.c2.com/)

<comment><USER138> Seconded, it's worse (better) than TvTropes, in this regard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER139> [http://tcrf.net](http://tcrf.net)

Some games have a ton of unused content left in them

</comment><comment><USER140> I see someone already posted [http://www.everything2.com/](http://www.everything2.com/) (my used-to-be favorite) and [http://www.fusionanomaly.net/fusion.html](http://www.fusionanomaly.net/fusion.html) .

Another older one: (somewhat NSFW horror stuff): [http://deathandhell.com/](http://deathandhell.com/)

TBH my current rabbit holes are YouTube and repeatedly clicking "random" on [http://www.smbc-comics.com/](http://www.smbc-comics.com/) .

edit: Another couple old haunts:

[http://www.chaosmatrix.org/](http://www.chaosmatrix.org/)

[https://qntm.org/](https://qntm.org/)

</comment><comment><USER141> Russian dash cams on Youtube.

Simple. Effective.

</comment><comment><USER142> AskReddit's top all time threads. Less intellectual, but very entertaining. Some of these have incredible human stories.

[https://m.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/?sort=top&t=all](https://m.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/?sort=top&t=all)

</comment><comment><USER143> [http://rationalwiki.org/](http://rationalwiki.org/)

</comment><comment><USER144> [https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiLeaks/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiLeaks/)

There's a lot of stuff going around and some of it seems like wild conspiracy nonsense, but the more you dig into it, the more entertaining it gets.

</comment><comment><USER145> MixesDB: A crude but detailed wiki of (mostly electronic music) live mixes and radio show archives: [http://www.mixesdb.com/w/Main_Page](http://www.mixesdb.com/w/Main_Page), what sets it apart is the track listings.

</comment><comment><USER146> "The Geograph® Britain and Ireland project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland"

[http://www.geograph.org.uk/](http://www.geograph.org.uk/)

</comment><comment><USER147> Discovering new human and bot algorithmic artists on twitter by searching for #generated:

[https://twitter.com/search?q=%23generated&src=typd](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23generated&src=typd)

</comment><comment><USER148> First you open you left eye: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics)

the you open your right eye: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_m...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics)

and then you smile at the world: [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Complexity_Map.svg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Complexity_Map.svg)

</comment><comment><USER149> [http://wiki.c2.com](http://wiki.c2.com)

</comment><comment><USER150> Sometimes I read a few months worth of NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) event reports.

[http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event- status/e...](http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event- status/event/)

Patients given excessive doses of radiation. Lost and stolen troxler gauges and their recovery (or not.) Reactor SCRAMS and their various causes, artfully downplayed with technical jargon. Drunken contractors escorted off reactor sites. 30 year old flaws discovered in power reactors.

Someone's got to read this stuff...

</comment><comment><USER151> I have a feeling that it will be this thread!

</comment><comment><USER152> This pretty much does it for me: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists)

</comment><comment><USER77> I'd add [https://publicdomainreview.org/](https://publicdomainreview.org/) which I've found to have a large variety of topics covered. I could also spend ages looking through [http://www.textfiles.com](http://www.textfiles.com). Lastly, [https://monoskop.org/Monoskop](https://monoskop.org/Monoskop), "a wiki for collaborative studies of the arts, media and humanities."

</comment><comment><USER153> Mythology on wikipedia. Pick a category and you can get lost for days:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_D%C3%A9_Danann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_D%C3%A9_Danann)

I also love watching philosophy videos on youtube.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpkRh3qVh_Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpkRh3qVh_Y)

I also highly recommend BBCs "In Our Time" series. Quality broadcasting covering innumerable subjects about history and philosophy.

</comment><comment><USER154> The (very long) Wikipedia article, "The Universe".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe)

</comment><comment><USER155> For me, it's the History of Mathematics archive:

[http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/](http://www-history.mcs.st- andrews.ac.uk/)

</comment><comment><USER156> I have a favorite subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport

Fun to just peruse the stories and spend an hour or two reading. Some of them leave you shaking your head, others leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. And yet others make you want to defenestrate printers... Who knew how much fun* people had in tech support and IT?

*sarcasm for effect

Also enjoy reading the Bastard Operator from Hell stories: [http://bofh.bjash.com/](http://bofh.bjash.com/)

</comment><comment><USER157> I do enjoy spending long amounts of time browsing the archive of WBW: [http://waitbutwhy.com/](http://waitbutwhy.com/)

</comment><comment><USER158> The Giant Bomb [0] and if you are a premium member [1] it's even better. There are hours of timeless premium only videos and podcasts. If you like video games at all or have any interest in video games it's worth every penny and second invested.

[0] [http://www.giantbomb.com](http://www.giantbomb.com)

[1] [http://www.giantbomb.com/upgrade/](http://www.giantbomb.com/upgrade/)

</comment><comment><USER159> Ok, now I have +20 tabs open and I'm only halfway through the comments. We know how most of the times we are compelled to read everything in a page until the end, but we also know how much does this attitude costs to us.

So from now on I will stop reading and only take in consideration those links who will be posted in response of this comment, if any. Let's see if magic, or coincidence, works!

I advise you to do the same! (If only we could come up with an acronym for this thing!)

</comment><comment><USER160> [https://www.reddit.com/r/DeepIntoYouTube/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DeepIntoYouTube/)

Definitely this one.

</comment><comment><USER161> The start of World War II, how Adolf Hitler came to power in the Weimar Republic, why the Nazis gained power and what motivated them to do what they did. I'm especially interested in the "unknowing participants" of the Nazi regime, like Wernher von Braun and Albert Speer. People who basically bought in to the ideal of a better German world and didn't really consider what that might cost in money, lives, and culture.

<comment><USER100> The parallels and precedents from other (mostly) European powers is also telling. England (Ireland, Boer Wars, China, India, Indians, Carribean), Belgium (Congo), United States (look up the history of the American Legion, or of the _Los Angeles Times_ , just to mention two), make the history of Italian and German fascism all the more chilling. That wasn't a fluke.

As for Werner von Braun: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kTKn1aSOyOs](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kTKn1aSOyOs)

</comment></comment><comment><USER162> [http://www.search.lores.eu/indexo.htm](http://www.search.lores.eu/indexo.htm)

Many old things, but most ideas are timeless.

</comment><comment><USER163> My favorite from an information perspective is The Great Leap Forward ([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward)).

Another honorable mention is that I've been having a great time learning about AI techniques competing at codingame.com. It's something that's easy to get into, and hard to leave, for me.

</comment><comment><USER164> [https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang)

I could read this for days.

<comment><USER85> > We detached this subthread from > [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12773066](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12773066) > and marked it off-topic.

You bet ;)

edit:

Shit, I totally missed the point. I see it now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER165> [http://www.halfbakery.com/](http://www.halfbakery.com/) \-- Awesome collection of people's ideas

</comment><comment><USER166> [http://www.edge.org](http://www.edge.org) is up and down, but mostly up.

Reddit can be, depending on your community.

But I miss Kuro5hin.

</comment><comment><USER167> [https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/)

<comment><USER168> came here to say this, they have some amazing content! Sort by top > year/all time gives you tons of good stories.

</comment></comment><comment><USER169> Back when the web was younger and sillier, I used to spend many enjoyable hours reading toastpoints (now defunct). But you can find archives of the limerick and bad fiction writing contests: e.g.: [http://toastpoint.wordandpicture.com/limerick/limerick.html](http://toastpoint.wordandpicture.com/limerick/limerick.html).

</comment><comment><USER93> "How the brain wires itself up during development, how the end result can vary in different people and what happens when it goes wrong": [http://www.wiringthebrain.com/](http://www.wiringthebrain.com/)

Very good at exploding conflations and weakly argued conclusions by those who would popularize and construe results in neuroscience.

</comment><comment><USER170> [http://newsfeed.one/](http://newsfeed.one/)

Reddit, Hacker News and more in one readable page.

</comment><comment><USER116> I don't have a favorite rabbit hole but rather I've developed a link-hopping habit that pretty consistently leads down the rabbit hole. Basically, while looking at a site/article that interests me, I usually end up doing a separate search for any concepts or organizations mentioned, then seeing what they have to offer. Rinse and repeat.

</comment><comment><USER171> [https://encyclopediadramatica.se](https://encyclopediadramatica.se) is a wild ride.

</comment><comment><USER172> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha)

The most remote inhabited island with a strange history with a few founding families, an exodus because of a volcano, an isolated economy/society and research into asthma as a genetic condition

</comment><comment><USER173> [http://www.thebookoflife.org/](http://www.thebookoflife.org/)

Quite nice now and again.

<comment><USER174> I loved this, thanks for sharing!

</comment></comment><comment><USER175> fusionanomaly: [http://fusionanomaly.net/nodes.html](http://fusionanomaly.net/nodes.html)

aitrui: [http://www.aitrui.com/](http://www.aitrui.com/)

deoxy: [http://deoxy.org/](http://deoxy.org/)

levity: [http://www.levity.com/](http://www.levity.com/)

timecube: [https://wayback.archive.org/web/20160112000701/http://www.ti...](https://wayback.archive.org/web/20160112000701/http://www.timecube.com/)

zero: [http://www.t0.or.at/texts.htm](http://www.t0.or.at/texts.htm)

biblioteca pleyades: [http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/](http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/)

</comment><comment><USER176> Wikipedia goes on and on and on and on. Here is a good facebook group with pointers to interesting pages I may not have found otherwise: [https://www.facebook.com/groups/coolfreakswikipediaclub/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/coolfreakswikipediaclub/)

</comment><comment><USER177> [http://practicaltypography.com/](http://practicaltypography.com/)

</comment><comment><USER178> [http://www.pubmed.com](http://www.pubmed.com) .

Search anything medical. Don't know what a word means? Look it up on wikipedia... recursively. Read cited studies. Read studies that cite studies. You could spend the rest of your life reading this stuff. I've been doing it for years.

</comment><comment><USER179> Like many others, my productivity has suffered since Wikipedia became a thing. You may consider me a wiki-binger. I even made a simple webapp to curb my addiction: [http://www.wikibinge.com/](http://www.wikibinge.com/) Still haven't come out of the rabbit hole.

</comment><comment><USER180> Data Elixir - Definitely! [http://dataelixir.com](http://dataelixir.com)

</comment><comment><USER181> [http://www.fusionanomaly.net/nodebase.html](http://www.fusionanomaly.net/nodebase.html) [http://fusionanomaly.net/anomalog2/](http://fusionanomaly.net/anomalog2/) Discordian society

Google Scholar, legal edition

</comment><comment><USER182> The Lawdog Files [http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/](http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/)

Some's opinion, for which YMMV, but some of the stories... Like the one where he served a warrant on a meth lab while wearing a pink gorilla suit. I nearly suffocated laughing.

</comment><comment><USER183> Github is the new Wikipedia for me. I recently ended up reading about [https://github.com/maandree/ponypipe](https://github.com/maandree/ponypipe) via the repo of some obscure window manager that I've already forgotten about etc.

</comment><comment><USER184> [http://clientsfromhell.net](http://clientsfromhell.net)

[http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/9810](http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/9810) (dead, but a lot of content there)

</comment><comment><USER185> The Cutting Room Floor: [http://tcrf.net](http://tcrf.net)

</comment><comment><USER186> One of my golden nuggets from ~15 years ago: 60x 1.com [http://11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111...](http://111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111.com/)

You can click thru 60 times!

</comment><comment><USER187> A list of UFO sightings (including some from ancient history!): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightings)

</comment><comment><USER188> [http://www.themastertheorem.com/](http://www.themastertheorem.com/)

It's a puzzle solving website. It isn't updated very regularly nowadays, but all the old "Theorems" are still there.

<comment><USER189> [http://www.godtower.com](http://www.godtower.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER190> Browsing [http://www.espncricinfo.com](http://www.espncricinfo.com) to read player profiles and then clicking on their first played games and then clicking on different player profiles and repeat.

</comment><comment><USER191> [http://anusha.com/](http://anusha.com/)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/gluse/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/gluse/videos)

</comment><comment><USER192> Gallery of US Nuclear tests. Lots of info at this site, beyond just American tests.

[http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/)

</comment><comment><USER193> Speaking of alternative world views and world building... I recently fell into a Wikipedia hole reading about the Islamic view of Angels, King Solomon and how he bent 72 demons to his will, Renaissance magic, and Hoodoo.

It gets weird.

</comment><comment><USER194> Quora - start with something interesting on the newsfeed and just follow recommended articles from there.

UI/UX is terrible now compared to early days but I can still get lost with hours of learning from some incredible writers.

</comment><comment><USER195> Always good to keep the endgame of humanity in mind: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)

</comment><comment><USER196> Did not want to duplicate others but here is one I did not see on anyones list.

[https://mindhacks.com/](https://mindhacks.com/) \-- Neuroscience and psychology news and views.

</comment><comment><USER197> lesswrong.com

</comment><comment><USER198> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_revolts_in_the_United_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_revolts_in_the_United_States)

</comment><comment><USER199> This is one of mine. I'm into history, in particular local and western history.

[http://www.sptddog.com/sotp/](http://www.sptddog.com/sotp/)

</comment><comment><USER200> [https://gcaptain.com/](https://gcaptain.com/) A maritime news site. Fascinating subject matter and the occasional naval disaster video.

</comment><comment><USER201> [http://bookforum.com/blog/](http://bookforum.com/blog/)

[http://aldaily.com](http://aldaily.com)

</comment><comment><USER202> Here's a database of children's books that have won awards. [http://www.dawcl.com/](http://www.dawcl.com/)

It's an amazing compilation.

</comment><comment><USER203> If you start looking up everything you eat on [http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/](http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/), you know it's gone too far.

</comment><comment><USER204> That's easy, it's HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778836](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778836)

</comment><comment><USER205> I'm very interested in health and fitness and often lose hours at Mark's Daily Apple (primal lifestyle and health blog): [http://www.marksdailyapple.com/tag/dear- mark/](http://www.marksdailyapple.com/tag/dear-mark/)

The Getting Stronger blog is another wonderful health and fitness blog which focuses on training the mind to thrive in difficult conditions, though it has really amazing insights on diet and training as well: [http://gettingstronger.org/about-this- blog/](http://gettingstronger.org/about-this-blog/)

</comment><comment><USER206> /r/datahoarder and /r/controllablewebcams

</comment><comment><USER207> [http://www.yhchang.com/](http://www.yhchang.com/) I recommend "Subject Hello" and "AH"

</comment><comment><USER208> The Alternate History wiki and forum. [http://www.alternatehistory.com/](http://www.alternatehistory.com/)

</comment><comment><USER209> I'm surprised that no one mentioned wait but why yet: [http://waitbutwhy.com](http://waitbutwhy.com)

</comment><comment><USER210> [http://www.sporcle.com](http://www.sporcle.com)

It's not high-brow by any stretch, but is's a great time waster.

</comment><comment><USER211> Without a doubt: [http://internetkholeblog.tumblr.com/](http://internetkholeblog.tumblr.com/)

<comment><USER212> double post, it must be really good!

but unfortunately the URL doesn't open :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER211> Undoubtedly: [http://internetkholeblog.tumblr.com/](http://internetkholeblog.tumblr.com/)

</comment><comment><USER80> [http://www.ulillillia.us/mainindex.shtml](http://www.ulillillia.us/mainindex.shtml)

</comment><comment><USER213> This is deep, never gets boring - [http://textfiles.com/](http://textfiles.com/)

</comment><comment><USER16> TV Tropes.

Just don't go there.

</comment><comment><USER214> do not venture into the contemporary board game landscape without several rooms to dedicated to humidity controlled shelf-space.

<comment><USER215> You forgot the link:

[http://boardgamegeek.com](http://boardgamegeek.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> slatestarcodex.com, I haven't nearly read all the archives and I'm always running into links to Scott's work

</comment><comment><USER216> Social science research Network: [http://www.ssrn.com](http://www.ssrn.com)

</comment><comment> Ono-Sendai [http://www.mathpages.com/](http://www.mathpages.com/)

<comment><USER217> Indeed, lots of very interesting math and physics inquiries, with some original hard-to-find-elsewhere findings.

</comment></comment><comment><USER218> [https://news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com)

</comment><comment><USER219> Anybody remembers that old websites called books.. now kindle - best thing to happen since sliced bread.

</comment><comment><USER220> [http://metacademy.org](http://metacademy.org)

</comment><comment><USER221> [http://deoxy.org](http://deoxy.org)

<comment><USER175> my people.

got any more?

i posted a bunch here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778836#12784417](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778836#12784417)

</comment></comment><comment><USER222> [http://ilol.me](http://ilol.me)

</comment><comment><USER223> I'm sorry but it tempted me, my rabbit hole is: xvideos.com

</comment><comment><USER209> Dwarf Fortress Reddit.

</comment><comment><USER224> Being obsessed with the MBTI personality theory for months

</comment><comment><USER224> Being obsessed by the MBTI personality theory for months

</comment><comment><USER225> Youtube, till I end in the weird side of youtube.

</comment><comment><USER130> The Wikipedia random article button.

</comment><comment><USER226> Hacker News?

</comment><comment><USER227> spy.org. Nothing there. Never has been since the 90s. It's intriguing.

</comment><comment><USER127> libgen.io

ps: sci-hub too

<comment><USER100> Absolutely.

[https://worldcat.org/](https://worldcat.org/) offers a unified online library catalog (though not the materials -- LibGen helps with that).

[https://archive.org](https://archive.org) has a _stunning_ collection of freely-distributable (out-of-copyright or publicly-licensed / public-domain) works.

The local library ain't bad either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER228> oh god... why did I come here? Like I needed to find more rabbit holes.

</comment><comment><USER229> Right now, this thread!!

</comment><comment><USER230> StumbleUpon?

<comment><USER231> StumbleUpon Slots: Open 3 browser tabs with SU, Stumble 3x and if you like all 3 suggestions, you win!

Seriously though, I've found some cool things randomly with SU, and I think it's the slot-machine type of feel that I enjoy the most about it. It's like, "Take me somewhere, Internet!". :-)

It is definitely a dangerous rabbit hole for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER232> Medium.

</comment><comment><USER233> shoegaze music on youtube

</comment><comment><USER234> The Last Psychiatrist, [http://thelastpsychiatrist.com](http://thelastpsychiatrist.com) . Excellent insights into the ways we lie to ourselves, how we react to the media, and how society operates.

I also love ribbonfarm, previously mentioned in the thread.

</comment><comment> o0-0o WOW: [http://drunkmenworkhere.org/archive](http://drunkmenworkhere.org/archive)

This is the rabbit hole you've been waiting for. Be warned!

</comment><comment><USER235> _a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour)_

Now, you wouldn't call that slow as molasses.

<comment><USER236> No, that is exactly slow as molasses, by demonstration. It is the observed speed of a specific mass of molasses under observed conditions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER237> [http://www.shorpy.com](http://www.shorpy.com) \- Old B&W photographs from the Library of Congress research archive.

</comment><comment><USER238> I have been spending way too much time learning about nuclear propulsion of spaceships. Reading a lot about Project Orion, Dedalus, fission fragment rockets etc.</comment>


Helicopter Parenting Has Given Birth to a Generation of Entitled Victims - <AUTHOR> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abilash-gopal-md/helicopter-parenting-has-_b_9657534.html <comment><USER2> Or here's an alternative theory: New parenting styles have led to a generation that refuses to put up with any injustices and unfairness, no matter how small, and the confidence to stand up to the people who inflict those injustices. The older generations, who have implicitly accepted those injustices the same way our grandfathers implicitly accepted racism, can't understand why anyone else would refuse to accept it, and see all these legitimate complaints and attempts to address them, as being "entitled whining." Most likely, our grandfathers would have characterized the entire civil rights movement in an identical manner as well.

I'm not saying I believe in the above theory. But given that every "anti micro-aggressions" complaint that I've read defaults to the same extreme anecdotal evidence, and vague claims of entitlement, I've yet to see the above alternative theory being disproven in any way.

Every generation complains about how the next one is useless[1], and yet, every generation turns out to be smarter than the previous one[2], and historically, has succeeded in making the world slightly more egalitarian, fair, and less discriminatory. Chances are, 30 years from now, people on internet forums will be talking about how their own generation was perfect, how we were Neanderthals on the wrong side of history, and how their kids are ruining the world.

[1]: [http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical- complaint...](http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints- about-young-people-ruining-everything)

[2]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect)

<comment><USER3> > has succeeded in making the world slightly more egalitarian, fair, and less > discriminatory

Or has succeeded in making the world _seem_ more fair. The wealth gap in many developed countries is larger than ever, the media and political institutions, more controlled than ever.

As for anti micro-aggression complaint, that include stuff like this?:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/student- accused-o...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/student-accused-of- violating-university-safe-space-by-raising-he/)

[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418273/university- stud...](http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418273/university-study- certain-rooms-are-microaggressions-themselves-katherine-timpf)

[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418273/university- stud...](http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418273/university-study- certain-rooms-are-microaggressions-themselves-katherine-timpf)

[http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the- rise...](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of- victimhood-culture/404794/)

<comment><USER2> Those are interesting (infuriating?) articles, but it goes back to what I mentioned earlier. One group points to examples of people saying obviously racist/prejudiced/offensive things. The other group points to examples where people over-react in silly ways. You really can't draw any conclusions on the basis of anecdotal evidence unfortunately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yeah, it's really different these days. At age 7, I had free reign of the neighborhood. Played in the woods, damming the creek and catching crayfish. Playing in the attic of an abandoned barn. Flying a kite on a November day, and most of these activities alone.

As for school and grades, we were told that if we got all As and Bs on a high school report card, we'd get to go out to dinner to a restaurant of our choice.

My mom literally told her four teenage sons: "You can do whatever you want, just don't get anyone pregnant or land in jail."

So my grades sucked and I went to a 3rd-rate college. But what I learned was that if I wanted something, whether it was new Marantz stereo or an career in engineering, I could make a plan, work through it on my own and achieve it. I don't bother waiting for someone else to fix my problems or provide me with what I want. I washed dishes in a restaurant to earn money for the stereo, and worked my way though college.

In spite of this self-reliant upbringing, I'd say I am more guilty than not of helicopter parenting my own kids. My thought process was that today's employment environment is different from the one I grew up in. Grads today face a much more global pool of competition for work, both from immigration and displacement of work. I'd watched a generation of manufacturing, call center, and engineering jobs go off shore, and read about how the families that had depended on them suffered. So we worked closely with our kids, helping them to get their assignments done and turned in on time, running forgotten assignments to school, attending every back to school night and teacher conference, checking on their progress online, all so they could get good grades and attend a respected school in a discipline that can not be off- shored. I used to tell them they should be dentists...

I'd say that the balance in parenting needs to land somewhere in between my style and my parents', and regrettably, I won't get another shot at it.

<comment> matt-attack > In spite of this self-reliant upbringing, I'd say I am more guilty than not > of helicopter parenting my own kids.

That's really the key here. It's strange. The helicopter parents of today were gen-x'ers of yesterday who were left to break bones, ride, bikes on their own, etc. This kid essentially:

[http://imgur.com/Q7fQsOp](http://imgur.com/Q7fQsOp)

Why do we not want the same youth that we experienced even when we know that the challenges associated with it are the very traits responsible for our successes?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Maybe if I can live to be a bit older, I can start to remember what rugged individualist stoics we baby boomers all were.

</comment><comment><USER6> > College students across America are holding sit-ins and hunger strikes in > the name of feeling unsafe and discriminated against [...] We're witnessing > the development of a "victimhood culture": an environment in which people > are encouraged to think of themselves as weak, marginalized, and > oppressed...

I don't think we can just blame parents for this. The blame falls on he whole community that serves as a powerful shaming and encouraging mechanism to certain behavior.

</comment><comment><USER7> Curious that you don't hear many such stories from European college campuses. I attended two liberal colleges in two different countries and I can't imagine either give in to obviously unreasonable student demands. Then again, higher education in Europe is mostly free (or at least much cheaper than in the US), so maybe that plays a part.

<comment><USER8> Europe doesn't seem to be immune, there's Bashar Mustafa at Goldsmiths University in London; the diversity officer who wants to #killallwhitemen. Sure, that's just one person, but there's a whole community of young students supporting her.

Though it's not Europe, Canada is worse about this stuff than the US. Lots of (as a hardcore lefty myself I hate saying this) progressives turned regressive via sexism and racism, under the guise of neo-feminism. Petulant children who think all white men are rapists and want them discriminated against accordingly. It's unreal, and it has given the right lots of ammunition to fight equality and humanism.

On another note, I want to point out the irony of Huffington Post calling out these issues. That paper panders to spoiled brats.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> In the local Kingdom (a stick fighting club organization layer) when having events, people call time-out and start complaining and rule-lawyering, the refs make them do jumping jacks to knock the sand out. Then back to fighting. SO, some places they're resisting the trend.

</comment><comment><USER10> excellent article . Instead of these people being coddled by delusional affirmations, as the author suggests, we need to make them aware of their limitations, and then devise strategies for these individuals to live to their full potential,

</comment><comment><USER11> Wow that's a really misleading stock photo.

</comment><comment><USER12> How ironic that this appears on the huff-po.

<comment><USER13> HuffPo will post anything that generates page views.

It's also amusing that a psychotherapist engages in armchair psychology regarding college protesters.

<comment><USER14> Well, he is psychiatrist and he can make observations and try to analyse more general developments in the society. Nothing wrong with this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wonder who coddled Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband: [https://theintercept.com/2015/09/25/dianne-feinstein- husband...](https://theintercept.com/2015/09/25/dianne-feinstein-husband- threaten-univ-calif-demanding-ban-excessive-israel-criticism/)</comment>