On this (once again) rainy Saturday in Seattle, some links I’ve found particularly enjoyable  for “enterprising distraction:

1. Blastr:  Where is a nerd supposed to get all his/her genre news?  Look no further, my friends: Blastr is here.  Run by the people at the SyFy Network, an bizarre assortment of news and tidbits from worlds beyond.
2. Christian Classics Ethereal Library:  A clearing house for scads of public domain written material from the two millennia of Christian history.  Not always the most user friendly, but a good source to start exploring nonetheless.
3. Mark Halperin’s The Page:  Outstanding and concise comments on the state of American politics.  A must-stop in this election year.  See also the conservative Drudge Report, progressive Huffington Post, and more mainstream politics sites Politico and Real Clear Politics.
4. Trekmovie: If the only news you care about is the new Star Trek movie, check out this site.  Good stuff about the film and more!
5. Alternate History:  For historians like me, thinking about what might have happened can provide a break from thinking about what really happened. Check out the “what ifs” of history on this fascinating forum.
6. Google’s Ngram Viewer:  The ultimate time-waster.  Track the prevalence of a word or words over time by means of their appearance in Google Books.  Take a look at the use of the word “fart.”  Really popular in the colonial era, apparently.  Fascinating.