I'm trying a new semi-weekly project where I keep track of any posts on the Steem blockchain which I've found worth reading. Here's the stuff I've enjoyed reading over the last few days.

Happy reading!

Steemitself, tools, and community

Let’s Grow Steemit Together - Direct Engagement Experiment Week #2

by @paulag

"Last week I set my self a challenge. Based on the data, I made a list of over 500 accounts that are at that critical drop off point, to see if I could engage with them and potently decrease the churn rate. I gave me self a month to contact all of them. If I have contacted you and asked you to come…"

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Introducing: Stem Assistant - No more wasting VP on science content thieves.

by @mobbs

"I'm very excited to introduce a little project designed to improve the reliability of curating trusted users in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics, and I'm now officially opening it up for the public to use: Stem Assistant We at steeemSTEM, like every curation team out there, are…"

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Steem tools and tips I wish I knew when I was just getting started

by @retro-room

"Steemit is an amazing platform which gives content creators a place to share their passions and earn an income from their writing, videos or music. However, there is an overwhelming amount of information to learn. I've been posting almost every day on Steemit for nearly a year and over that time,…"

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The Curation and Engagement Leagues - More than 25 STEEM in prizes this week!

by @abh12345

"Welcome to this weeks Curation and Engagement leagues, kindly sponsored by @carlgnash and @paulag. To enter the leagues drop a comment below (Lifetime membership - unless you ask to be removed) The leagues (tables) are reset each week and so any time is a good time to join! On your marks, get set,…"

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Want To Grow? Make Meaningful Comments And More Of Them

by @glenalbrethsen

"How It All Started After my first month on Steemit, I began to write a statistical report post of my progress. I wanted to see what I was doing, and therefore, see if I could improve on those numbers the following month. I do have a business background, so I will often end up with benchmarks or…"

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Introducing @deadwitnesses - Easily see the activity of witnesses you vote for

by @deadwitnesses

"tl;dr Click here and have fun: http://duplibot.com/deadwitnesses/ What are witnesses? Witnesses are the block producers on the Steem blockchain and their role is beyond important. These are the people that literally write the blocks and keep the blockchain itself online. Steem operates on Delegated…"

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Stem

The Care and Feeding of an Evil Interstellar Empire

by @procrastilearner

"All Hail The Empress of Earth!Author: Presidencia de la República Mexicana image link CC BY 2.0 license Let's imagine that it is 1000 years in the future and humans have mastered space travel, except that it is slower than light space travel. The reason for this is that the speed of light cannot be…"

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Long Live the Mosquito: Cautioning Against Deliberate Extinctions

by @mountainwashere

"@bitfairy recently wrote an article that was featured on steemSTEM Distilled advocating the extinction of mosquitoes. And, indeed, there are some good reasons to take the idea seriously. Malaria is the most notable reason- this mosquito-carried disease kills nearly half a million people every year.…"

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Critical Review of a recently published discovery that RNA can induce an epigenetic engram (memory)

by @alexs1320

"Only a week ago, one of the most remarkable scientific articles was published. All the major media took the story and it started to spread like a wildfire. I was drinking my morning coffee and almost jumped in the air when I read the title: RNA from Trained Aplysia Can Induce an Epigenetic Engram…"

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EGYPTOLOGY: Science in Ancient Egypt, Part #1

by @laylahsophia

"My dear readers, today I wanna re-start my blogging activities here on steemit after a quite long period of absence for which I truly apologize. But now I am back with a fresh subject that might be as fascinating to you as it is to me: Science in Ancient Egypt. You will be probably surprised of what…"

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Particle physics @ Utopian - Detecting particles at colliders and implementing this on a computer

by @lemouth

"In order to allow Utopian contributors to design LHC analysis codes that could be helpful to particle physics, it is first necessary to explain what one detects in a collider experiment such as those ongoing at the Large Hadron Collider (the LHC) at CERN. In addition, it is also needed to be able to…"

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The Wonderful World Of Coprolites (Poop Fossils)

by @procrastilearner

"David Monniaux link CC BY-SA 3.0 license So this is an odd topic. The very fact that not only can dinosaur poop become fossilized but that people also would want to study those fossilized leavings is something I would never have guessed. Coprolites, or poop fossils, are actually a fairly informative…"

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What gives cockroaches the ability to survive without their heads, and why can't humans do the same?

by @dandymee

"Introduction Decapitation (cutting of the head) could easily be termed as the most gruesome way any human being could be killed, but it has been established that cutting a cockroach’s head may not be such an instant threat to the insect’s life. This is because unlike humans and many other higher…"

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Why CRISPR (GENOME EDITING) needs to be taken more seriously

by @funmiakinpelu

"Hi Friends, Like one of my friends would say, it's a jungle out there; the world is terribly twisted to make living hard. But even more, within us, there is an unfriendly forest of way laid twigs, earth and noises; to live, to keep living is to shut the noises down, cut down the wayfaring twigs and…"

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Name That Rock! Win SBD!!!!!

by @luanne

"If you haven't heard, yet, I like rocks! Love 'em, actually!! So what better than to have a Rock Contest? In the picture above, and ones below, are several different rocks! You must name them ALL correct to win! Here are some more pics! Rules for the contest are below pics! UPDATE!! BONUS! There's…"

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Geodes vs Thunder Eggs

by @roswellrockman

"I was recently asked on this site: "What's the difference between a geode and a thunder egg?" In all honesty, there is not much difference at all. They are both formed from volcanoes and they both have crystalline structures in them. There are many different interpretations as what makes one a…"

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Art, games, and geekery

Comic Book Original Art Collection: “Out of the Darkness” (Dragonlance) print & remarque, by Larry Elmore

by @steven.nam

"In the comic book OA world, super-realistic artists get their fair share of love. Frazetta and Dell’Otto come to mind. Then there’s another level of realism in the fantasy genre — rendered by such legends as Boris Vallejo, Luis Royo, and Larry Elmore. I’ve always had a soft spot for Elmore’s work on…"

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Ethereum Bottleneck (Trigger Warning)

by @overkillcoin

"Mocking the 2nd most overrated crypto is very ETH-y to do! Let's zip on over to blocktivity.info to watch Ethereum creak under the weight of 800,000 daily transactions:Well done, ETH! Backlogged and using 100% of your capacity. We're mighty proud of your balls of s̶t̶e̶e̶l̶ styrofoam!Let's go check…"

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My first contact with 3D software

by @theartofrez

"Hello people! I tried using Zbrush program at my friends place, this is actually my first piece of 3D work combined with a little Photoshop. Dunno if I should continue down this path since I am an illustrator first and not into models that much, but it turned out ok I guess. There are not many words…"

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Art - Zombie Terminator (notebook sketch with steps)

by @theartofrez

"Hellouuuuu! Feeling really pumped up today, I decided to draw a terminator.... Zombie Terminator... For some reason unknown, oh wait, my colleague asked me to draw him a terminator, that's it :D So I added a little zombie flavor to it. It was drawn and sketched in a notebook at work, then colored…"

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How to make a seaglass pendant: How To: Weekly contest by @starjewel

by @starjewel

"This is my entry in the contest How To: Weekly - created, sponsored and judged by @aoart and @roscoeh. I will show you how to make a sea-glass pendant using wire. This method will work for any un-drilled stone, any shape, and it will always come out good, trust me. All you need is to pre-made the…"

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Coloring Book Contest for Steem Basic Income

by @phoenixwren

"Who says grown ups can't have coloring books? this is a page I did in my Magical Jungle coloring book Color a picture, take a photo, and post it in the comments for a chance to win a share of @steembasicincome! If you don't have a coloring book, you can print out a picture online to color, or use a…"

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Ocean of Art 35: Dive in and discover some promising new Steemit artists / Minnowsupport Curation Team

by @juliakponsford

"To help promote and improve the artistic community here on Steemit I am doing a weekly curation! Most of the artists I have chosen are still minnows and are waiting to be discovered and others that I will feature have just plain impressed me! All of these posts will be voted on by me and also our…"

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Big beautiful world

The 4000 Years old Cypress Tree 🌲🌳🌳🌲

by @nainaztengra

"This one is a real beauty and a marvel of nature. I wonder how these things happen in the universe so marvelous and unbelievable.. This ancient Cedar Tree is considered to be one of the oldest creature on earth. This tree is more than 4000 years old and the scientist believe that it can reach upto…"

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Boseong Green Tea Festival (보성다향대축제) Part 2

by @mr-bike

"Last weekend I went the green tea festival in Boseong, so yesterday I made a post about the food that I ate when I was there. I ate a lot, and you can see it all here 😋 Today, I am going to post all my other pictures involving the tea festival, so I hope you all enjoy them. Boseong Green Tea…"

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Fieldwork, geology photos from Antarctica #1

by @snowyknight

"Antarctica! I feel privileged to have been to Antarctica. Hopefully these photos, taken from in the field, doing fieldwork in the middle of the most remote continent on Earth gets some love from people here! The Glaciers and mountains here are not to be missed. Go if you ever get the chance! Can you…"

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Magic McGregor: a Langeberg valley jewel

by @fionasfavourites

"A visit to McGregor is a conscious decision: you can’t just drive through it and suddenly stop for a coffee and look around. About two or so hours’ drive from Cape Town, and located half way along the Road to Nowhere, McGregor is the best-preserved Victorian village in the Western Cape, if not South…"

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Gloucestershire, The Peak of Clarity

by @mobbs

"Warning: This is going to be a very green post @mobbsclan, having lived in Leicester his entire life, decided to move to Gloucester to live in a less sh**ty place. A little harsh on Leicester, but hey. I went to visit for a couple of days again this visit to England and he, well, took me on an…"

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Drone photography Friday 3 - Andes Geology from the air

by @snowyknight

"Time to go into the laboratory - the chasm! Drones are powerful. Annoying if you are trying to enjoy nature and they are buzzing by your head but if you are trying to see places that are difficult to get to or to observe places impossible to get to, they are the way to go. Photos are also powerful,…"

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Not the Blue Lagoon (Iceland Day 6)

by @eonwarped

"Right next to the thermal vents from last time lie the Mývatn Nature Baths. This kind of hot spring lagoon is well worth experiencing. Our traveling friends opted for this location rather than say the Blue Lagoon since this was significantly cheaper when exploring the options. The Blue Lagoon is…"

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The Amateur Mycologist - Puntas Arenas, Chile: Part 1

by @dber

"These posts are not for foraging. They are intended for entertainment and intellectual satisfaction only. These posts are not a field guide nor comprehensive in any way - their accuracy is not assured in any way. Do not eat wild mushrooms unless you are a professional, have substantial professional…"

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UBI, alt currency, community

TimeBanking: Alternative Community Driven Economies

by @walkerland

"Have you heard about TimeBanking? Imagine being able to trade your skills for services you need, with no exchange of money. As homesteaders we often seek out barter and trade deals but it can be challenging to find like minded people. An organized economy based on the age old principles of fair…"

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@mannacurrency is now a Minnow 🎈🎈

by @mannacurrency

"We are elated to announce that @mannacurrency reached Minnow status. Earlier today, our account passed the 500 Steem Power level. We want to thank all those who support this project with their delegation and upvotes. Our intention is to become a part of this community. We see a lot of parallels…"

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From EgoSystems to EcoSystems

by @clumsysilverdad

"I gotta be honest, I’ve got these notes in my e-files but I don’t remember where I got the article from. However, it’s too good not to pass on. The following are the “eight institutional innovations” that could update our economic systems to operate more intelligently and shift the economic logic…"

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So, what's all this then?

My goals here are to foster interaction on steem and provide visibility for good content.

Why not just resteem

This is basically a UI issue; I've noted in my feed that some great accounts which resteem dozens of times a day tend to drown out other posts. Until there's a way to separate author-content from resteems in there general steem-verse (i.e. on Steemit), I don't like resteeming much.

Criteria and format

The only real criterion I have is that the article should be something I was happy to have read. Ideally, it would be recent enough to still be active for 3 to 4 days after I post. A few other other things:

• There's no restriction on category, though I tend to read more STEM/nerdy stuff
• The list is not exhaustive
• If I left you off, it's not because I don't think your post was worth reading
• I'm still figuring out how to arrange topics
• Post order is like the point system on 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' - meaningless
• If you're a prolific author, I might only list one post in full format, then mention others.
• If I post your stuff a lot, I may leave you out from time to time to make room for others.
• If time allows, I may provide commentary on posts, but right now I'm letting them stand on their own merits.
• Artists! I'm trying to post your art in such a way that people can see enough of it to know if they want to follow the link. I definitely don't want to just repost your stuff in full resolution. Let me know what makes you happy.

Call to Action

I enjoyed compiling this list and you can do it, too. Even if your vote counts for nothing and you have 3 whole followers, start keeping track of what you actually liked reading and let the world know about it. I don't think there's a relevant tag yet, so let's go ahead and use #readinglog. If there is a better tag out there, let me know.

Remember, a community without interactions is just a bunch of people. Comment, vote, promote, even resteem!

Copyright Info

Logo modified from CC0 material on Pixabay by OpenClipart-Vectors, and released under the same.

Preview images are from the referenced posts and source information should be contained therein. Preview text is directly quoted from post and the property of that post's author(s).