THE CATCH

Well, OK, there’s sort of a catch. We’re hoping that IF we share with you the secret of how to stay on top of all these great science stories for your own personal edification and enjoyment, THEN you’ll occasionally start posting a story paragraph or two here on SFT, sharing what wonders you’ve found with others who care about science and sci-fi as much as you do. It’s like stone soup. If everybody shares what they dig up on the Internet here at SFT, the best of the best daily will be here for all to see and enjoy.

The top 20 come from five basic sources: Moreover, SciQuest, Ananova, SciTech Daily and Sci-Fi Today (yep, that’s us). The first four scour the web daily and generate comprehensive lists of science story headlines with links to the original text, wherever it is on the web. SFT basically scours these four, picks the best headlines, and expand each of those headlines into a paragraph or two with lots of juicy links not found in the original story. So when you come to SFT, our goal is to give you the very best science and sci-fi stories of the day with click-through depth you won’t find anywhere else.

So without further ado, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

THE TOP 20 SCIENCE NEWS URLs:

Moreover Headlines : Biology
Moreover Headlines : Environment
Moreover Headlines : General Science
Moreover Headlines : Genetics
Moreover Headlines : Human Sciences
Moreover Headlines : Medical (UK)
Moreover Headlines : Medical (US)
Moreover Headlines : Physics
Moreover Headlines : Public Health
Moreover Headlines : Robotics
Moreover Headlines : Space
Moreover Headlines : Technology
SciQuest Headlines : Biological Sciences
SciQuest Headlines : Earth & Space Sciences
SciQuest Headlines : Engineering Sciences
SciQuest Headlines : Health Sciences
SciQuest Headlines : Physical Sciences
Ananova Headlines : General Science
SciTechDaily
SciScoop Science Forum

A few notes are in order. Moreover is the premier news source on the net hands down and if you don’t know about them, you should. To check them out directly, on the Moreover website homepage you want to click on the “Showcase” button in the upper right which will take you to the Moreover search page. While their database is cooler than cool, I think their search page is a little restrictive so the Moreover links above are obtained through a “skin” site called Headline Scanner which delivers the exact same stuff with a cleaner interface. Moreover / Headline Scanner catalogs a LOT more than science stories…check out the other categories at the top of any Headline Scanner page.

SciQuest is basically a Moreover that does only science and indexes many specialized journals in addition to the mainstream media covered by Moreover. There are two reasons to go to SciQuest in addition to Moreover. One is that while there’s going to be a lot of duplication, you will frequently find a gem at SciQuest you will not find at Moreover. Secondly, Sciquest has a much more comprehensive breakdown structure for indexing their science stories that goes back farther in time, which is important because it addresses a couple of problems. For example, maybe you don’t want to wade thru all of Moreover’s Health stories just to keep up on AIDS news. Also, on the “main category” Sciquest pages listed here, frequently the day’s earlier science stories have already spilled off the bottom of the page. To be sure you don’t miss anything, you have to also check out the sub-specialty pages of interest to you listed on the left column of a “main category” page. Yeah, I could have listed the SciQuest subspecialty links here, too, but then the story would have been The Top 120 Links and who’s going to read THAT?

Ananova is a British version of Moreover that doesn’t link directly to the (usually British media) story but instead summarizes it with a short paragraph of their own. If you find an interesting Ananova story you want more detail on, it’s usually off to Google to find out more. There are some subcategories of science on the Ananova main science page that are worth checking out for somewhat older stories. As an aside, I personally am a great fan of British humor and Ananova has another page worth checking out that (mostly) has nothing to do with science called Quirkies which along with its subcategories is ALWAYS good for a laugh, and we all can use more of those.

SciTech Daily is a New Zealand site run by cute Kiwis Vicki Hyde and Amie LaRouche that was nominated for a Webby Award last year in science. They choose top science stories, write a one sentence intro and then cut to the source link. They have a FABULOUS list of links along the left column of their homepage (and lots of other cool ones on other pages), most of which are covered by Moreover but still a very useful reference.

And then there’s Sci-Fi Today, which because it is a Scoop site is oriented more towards community interaction than these other science news sites. We’ve been going for less than 90 days and are still operating under the “if we post it, they will come” principle. To some extent SFT is still (and always will be) in an outreach mode, trying to build a community by running things like our new You-Can-Be-A-Science-Jounalist-In-One-Easy-Lesson course…

AND THAT’S NOT ALL !!!

I can hear that murmuring in the back of the crowd saying yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty good list of URLs but man, that’s too much trouble to check ALL those links every day! You, doubting sir, are WRONG! All of these webpages, EVERY SINGLE ONE, are available to you DAILY with a SINGLE MOUSECLICK!!! And a mere SECOND MOUSECLICK will banish them from your screen once more! (Well, yeah, if you actually want to READ them, then you gotta click the little X in the upper right corner one at a time to get rid of them, but still, this is as easy as it’s gonna get until they perfect jacking in for the human brain…)

You can turn this (or any!) list of 20 URLs into the equivalent of a barrage of pop-up ads by downloading and setting up a free little program called NetOpener. I found out about this nifty utility from Chris Pirello’s Lockergnome newsletter; the review for NetOpener is about a third of the way down this page. The program author’s download site is in Greece and is sometimes offline; if you have trouble, a US download mirror for the program is here. What a coincidence that NetOpener can handle up to 20 URLs, and that’s exactly how many I’ve listed! Now, before you actually install NetOpener, there’s a couple of other things you need to get, too. NetOpener is a compressed ZIP file and if you don’t have a way to un-zip a compressed file, you need to download and run Cam Un-Zip so you have a small free utility to unzip downloaded files. You should also download and run the Visual Basic 6 RunTime Service Pack which will harmlessly add some necessary files to your Window installation required by NetOpener. Finally, if you’re gonna OPEN 20 Internet Explorer windows at a time with a single click, it helps if you have a utility that will CLOSE them all in a single click, too, and that’s what the free IE Killer will do for you. After it’s unzipped, you can stash it in the NetOpener folder that gets created on your desktop and use it when you need it.

(Some other programs that say they will also do the open-multiple-IE-windows-in-one-click routine are VIP NetLink Browser, Dominica and SurfTabs but I haven’t tried ‘em, just listing them here if you have trouble with NetOpener).

OK, now that NetOpener is sitting there waiting for you to load it with 20 URLs, here they are (same order as above) so you can copy and paste:

www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC075&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC025&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC085&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC035&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC095&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC055&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC045&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC105&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC065&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NF205&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=NC115&Z=100
www.headlinescanner.com/?X=N1125&Z=100
www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_disciplines.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio
www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_disciplines.d2w/report?nav_banner=earth
www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_disciplines.d2w/report?nav_banner=eng
www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_disciplines.d2w/report?nav_banner=health
www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_disciplines.d2w/report?nav_banner=phy
www.ananova.com/news/index.html?keywords=Science+and+discovery&menu=news.scienceanddiscovery
www.scitechdaily.com
www.sciscoop.com

Once you’ve loaded all of these into the NetOpener program, you can click on the X in the upper right corner and a box will come up before exiting to ask if you want to save these URLS as default. Of course you do. Congrats! You’ve just created the most educational set of pop-ups on the planet!

BUT WAIT !!! THERE’S MORE!!!

If you’ve gotten to this point, you are officially a science reader. Hooray! But remember, this is a You-Can-Be-A-Science-Journalist-In-One-Easy-Lesson course! To make the jump from mere reader to Exalted Science Journalist is easy: click here to become a SFT member and click here to submit a story. Hey, don’t be scared of that blank page; this isn’t your dreaded high school English class. Exalted Science Journalists get to open up multiple windows on their computer screen so they can cut and paste the words of others when they can’t think of their own! All you’ve got to do is follow…

THE SFT WRITERS MANIFESTO:

EVERY SFT story should strive as much as possible to meet the following five criteria, listed in order of importance:

1. ATTITUDE – Provide some kind of hook-twist-cleverness-humor-wit-teaser that makes the SFT version seem special and worth coming to SFT to read, ESPECIALLY IN THE TITLE. This is Number ONE because without it, nobody is motivated either (a) by their past experiences at SFT or (b) by what they see in front of them when looking at a headline box to click on the RSS feed to jump to SFT in which case the next four points are irrelevant no matter how good you do on them. Note that (a) is more important than (b) – if they have smiled or laughed or said whoa on many previous visits, they’re more likely to commit to a click for just one more. If they HAVEN’T laughed or smiled or said whoa on previous SFT visits, they ain’t comin back cuz it ain’t worth it to them, and we’ve lost them for good.

2. INSIGHT – Provide some sense of overview/context/connection about why a reader should care about this particular story as being significant to humanity/science/them instead of just an isolated/geewhiz/one-time progress report. The more cosmic the import of the story (up to bordering on but never crossing over into National Enquirer style sensationalism), the better. This may take some words/sentences in buildup before you actually get to 5 and then 4 below.

3. LINKS LINKS LINKS – Provides other/multiple/free-association links to various versions/aspects/tangents of the story. Use Google freely on key names, words and concepts in the main source article to find these. The more of these the better! Links-links-links is what makes good-better-best use of the webpage medium. It adds additional words and effective depth to the SFT version. It is ultimately what makes reading the SFT version of the story preferable to reading just the key story link in 5. By definition SFT can’t say more than the key story link in 5 below if that link is the only one in the SFT version!!!

(3a. From The There’s No Such Thing As A Stupid Question Department – The way you make a link is to (1) type in the single character <and then (2) type in the eight characters A href=” with no space after the quotation mark and then (3) copy-and-paste the URL from the address bar of open browser page showing the page you want to link to and then (4) type in the two characters “> and then (5) write the words you want to appear in blue and underlined as the link text and then (6) type in the two characters </ and then (7) type in the two characters A&gt and you’re finished! These goofy directions are necessary so part of this paragraph doesn’t appear as a link in what you’re reading now…)

4. SUMMARY – Provide a summary of the content of the key story link – usually terser, more to-the-point, and DEFINITELY quoting ALL the sweet quotes, ALL good lines and using ALL the juicy human interest angles in the original AFTER attribution via 5 below.

5. ATTRIBUTION – Provide an awareness that the story exists somewhere else via listing to the key story link, ideally attributing NOT with the phrase “so-and-so is reporting” but just with the mere attachment of the key story link to a special word or phrase of the SFT story intro sentence (which is not necessarily the first sentence of the SFT overall piece – see 1 and 2 above).

THE BOTTOM LINE: Without ATTITUDE, without INSIGHT, without additional LINKS LINKS LINKS, the only service SFT has provided is (5) mere meme propagation and (4) a summary that is by necessity inferior to the original!!! Who’s gonna become a member of a Scoop community like SFT for THAT???

DON’T DELAY – DO IT TODAY!

And why exactly should you want to become an Exalted Science Journalist and not a mere science reader? Again, remember the stone soup parable. If you kick in a SFT story every now and then, so will others, and you get to read ALL of theirs for the investment of the ONE you take the time to write. That’s a good deal, and will go a long way to helping SFT thrive. Besides, it’s fun.

AND YOU ALSO GET, ABSOLUTELY FREE..

…because you stuck around to the very end of the course, a bonus URL you’re sure to enjoy!

-rickyjames