Chocolate for the Mind

Newsweek magazine’s RSS feed “Top News” is a great way to get information and opinions on today’s current events.  The feed employs a variety of formats to present information.  For instance, some of the pieces are editorials, some are polls, and others are news articles.  I like the different formats because I can get both facts and opinions on a story in the same feed.  Almost any topic in today’s news that I would want to know more about is covered in the “Top News” feed.  I found stories about the presidential candidates, a widely covered topic, as well as current interest pieces about entertainment and social issues.  The feed publishes several stories a day, so the information is always up-to-date.  However, reading every piece from this feed would be impractical.  Instead, I scan the headlines for eye-catching titles and read only those that interest me.  Skimming through the headlines, I could look for news stories that related to me or looked interesting, so I would not have to read every single piece.  With such a variety of subjects, I can always find something worth reading.  I will keep “Top News” in my Reader as a way to keep in touch with the world and important events. 

One of the feeds I subscribed to from Time magazine, called “Looking Around,” is about art.  All of the stories are written by the same person, Richard Lacayo.  I normally would not have looked at a feed about art, but this one captured my attention with a story about how experts say Guernica, a Picasso painting depicting the horrors of war, is too damaged to move from its current place.  The piece tied art in with current events and peaked my interest in the writer.  I like his comments and opinions on the pieces he looks at and that he does not only review paintings.  I found a few articles in the feed about artistic buildings and one about street art.  I really enjoy the writer’s style.  When talking about a work of art, he uses descriptive, visual language and metaphors that can create a picture in the reader’s mind.  Through his vivid words, the writer lets his readers know exactly what he thinks about a particular piece.  His style is not quite that of a critic because the purpose of his writing does not seem to be to persuade people to like or dislike a work.  Instead, he seems to be giving his personal thoughts on the piece, as if he were writing a blog post.  The writer publishes about once every day or two, so the feed has enough new information to keep me reading but not so much that I cannot read it all.  In this feed, I at least skimmed through every article and thoroughly read the ones that were especially interesting.  I am not sure if I will keep this feed or not because modern art is not something I would like to read about every day.  However, I still consider the feed to be a good source of information on the subject.

I have recently subscribed to and have been reading an RSS feed from Scientific American called “Mind & Brain.”  Usually, this feed publishes an average of two or three stories a day.  I enjoyed skimming the titles for interesting subjects and stories that captured my attention, such as an article on whether girls or boys were better at math.  At first, I tried reading every story, but I soon found that by reading just the excerpt, I could find the posts that really captured my attention.  The “Mind & Brain” feed has information on a variety of subjects, from the effects of drugs on the brain to studies on the way we perceive information.  I like the variety of topics discussed because I could pick out stories that seemed interesting to me.  Reading the feed was interesting because I got to learn more about the mind and how it functions.  This feed is informative and educational, but does not use too much technical jargon.  In other words, it was written for the average person to read.  I like that I can get information on a scientific subject without being a neurologist.  I will probably keep this feed because of all the interesting information I can gain by reading it.  By continuing to read “Mind & Brain,” I will be able to keep up with new developments in the science of how our brains work.