At the start of every work day, I browse a short list of online resources to get a fresh sample of the happenings and themes active around my universe (meaning my particular, teeny-tiny subset of the Universe). I like to begin with a new "gist" of everything, from my peculiar perspective.

For fun, I am publishing the short list of web favorites I check daily to take a quick reading of the state of everything, with apologies to anyone who finds this collection old news. I have noticed that one persons "obvious" can be the next person's "oblivious."

Today's suggestions appear under this web-like "visualization of the Universe as it condenses around fluctuations in the density of dark and ordinary matter," from Argonne National Laboratory's Flickr photostream.

Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, via Flickr.com

The selections I am listing here relate directly or indirectly to science:

• Spaceweather – Everything about Earth's current space weather and related topics, such as Near-Earth objects and satellite spotting, with engrossing photo galleries and links to more astronomy and space resources
• Wunderground – Stands for Weather Underground, with easily customized, detailed weather reports and forecasts, and many extra features such as photos and blogs (also
  ads – that barely bother me – and are removable for a small fee)
• Alltop – Website that can answer the question "What's happening?" in any or many topics of interest, featuring your custom blend
• SciTech Feed Digest – Before he died at ninety-something, a pal beqeathed to me (for curating), this 50-source feed digest (with an RSS version also) he made at Feed.Informer
• Stardate – Public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald
  Observatory, publisher of Stardate Magazine, packed with updating
  astronomy information
• The Night Sky – Details of what to look for in the night sky, month by month, by the
  Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics of The University of Manchester
• MyWay News – Website for reading news headlines and summaries (and entire AP News
  articles) without banner or popup ads (just Google Adsense)

I may return to revise and add on.

Do you have a list of websites you check daily to get a feel or take of things in the moment? Do tell!