There is an awful lot of dross on the web. But every so often you find a gem of a site. One with useful information or views. One that helps you use your brain a bit more and you keep going back to. So these are a few (in no particular order) that I feel loads of people should know about.

I also have a random list of ones that just caught my eye one day.

When you get a mail warning you of a disease, government legislation, get rich quick scheme, virus alert or the like Snopes is the first place you should go to check it out. They are myth and hoax debunkers. From urban legends to chain letters to news paper stories they research the "wow" stories that routinely turn up in your inbox. And you can usually trust them as they provide sources and references for the information they provide. They have unfortunately exposed some of my great pub stories (like the Russian space pen) but the site is a great eye opener. But its often amusing and sometimes the urban legends turn out to be true!

Religious Tolerance is a well researched site with information on religions and religious controversy. I have used it in the past to find out the answers to questions like "exactly what is it that Sikh's and Mormons" believe in. Their information is well researched with good references. And they have a good collection of articles on the positions religious zealots take on everything from creationism to the end of the world. Its a little Christian and North American focused. But being Canadians they understand there is more to the world than just the US :-)

The Register is the tabloid journal of computing news. But don't let that put you off. Based in the UK they write fairly extensively on most aspects of the computing and IT industries. The tone of the articles is irreverent and entertaining with an anti-establishment slant (especially anti-Microsoft). They are usually pretty well informed and their analysis is worth reading. Even the Microsoft employees I know read it to see what is going on. Word of warning though, they are not infallible and I have spotted errors in stories from time to time.

Everything is an online encyclopedia of, well, everything. Anyone can log on and add entries and anything is valid as an entry. It's chaotic, incomplete, unreliable, but oddly addictive reading. And a lot of the entries are reasonably informative. Its a good start when looking for information on something.

Met.ie is the Irish Weather Meteorological Service. An excellent site with just the information you need to live on an island that sits in the north Atlantic in the path of fronts, rain belts, storms, clouds, occasional storms and from time to time hurricane remnants. Their 3hr forecast is interesting just to look at, but the forecasts page takes you out 3-5 days. Which is as much as is reliable in this country. As they say themselves anyone forecasting beyond that is lying as the accuracy levels drop through the floor.

• Move To Ireland, set up by an American living here for 14 years, it provides advice on people who choose to live here. Its an interesting take on how an outside sees our country.

• Seppuku - A Practical Guide, for those looking for more respect from their peers. The traditional Japanese ritual of self-immolation updated for a more modern audience :-)

• The Halifax Explosion of 1917. This was the biggest man made blast before the advent of nuclear weapons. 2000 people died when a WWI ammunition ship caught fire in the channel of Halifax harbour.

• The Political Compass. If you feel that 'Left' and 'Right' (which date back to the French revolution) are a bit too simplistic as political labels then take a look at this one. They site authors have added a vertical axis as well. So through a questionnaire you can rate your on economic rights (left to right) and personal rights (authoritarian to libertarian). They also rate current and historical political figures.