A friend asked me to compose a list of useful sites and research resources so I thought I'd write a post on it. I'm sure there are tons of different top 10 or top 20 lists but this is my go to list for useful resources.

Searches

https://duckduckgo.com/
Anonymous clearnet search engine. Has some nice integration with other search engines like Google for example.
Also this link is a useful resource for duckduckgo users.

https://www.startpage.com/
Another useful search engine that anonymizes your search results. Startpage doesn't store your queries and has an auto log out feature that erases your search history. It also has a nice app for your mobile. Works on both clearnet and tor's darknet.

http://etymonline.com/index.php
Look up the origin and root meaning of words.

Natural Health and Household Resources

Note these are just a few quick reference links. This is NOT an excuse not to do real research.

https://www.diynatural.com/
Nice DIY site for helping you find out how to make natural alternatives to common household products and WHY to make these products yourself. Good go to site for getting off household chemicals and going organic.

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/367/desserts/pies/
Recipes for pretty much every kind of food you want. Seriously if you like to cook or even just want something simple go here. Food is important.

http://www.pfaf.org/user/default.aspx
A HUGE database of edible and medicinal plants. Good reference resource for locating useful plants to research for particular problems. However the entries are a little light on the details so it will require further research. Still there are over 7,000 plants in this database so as I said, good starting point.

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils
Not perfect by any means by I found this blog to be quite handy for looking up useful medicinal essential oils. Good reference point.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Good site for cross referencing and finding scientific papers to back up claims. Yet another researching tool. It's a bit technical but when combined with Wikipedia and a bit of reading you should be okay.

https://www.wikipedia.org/
A bit biased in my opinion but still a useful resource for looking up terms. Still not the end all be all. Gives a nice general picture of most things but requires further study if you're serious about the subject. A nice decentralized user moderated dictionary.

Video Streaming Services

https://www.youtube.com/
Your standard Google sponsored and owned video service. Good for research and entertainment alike. Not too friendly towards pirates.

https://vimeo.com/
Another streaming site but with more of a focus on user creativity.

https://www.hitrecord.org/
It's kind of a mix between social media and video streaming. Basically it's a production company which outsources the production to internet users. This means you. Produce content, upload it, download other users content and remix it and edit it, upload said remixes, and in any way produce content and contribute. Essentially at the end of the day if they use your content they pay you for it.

http://www.tubeplus.ag/
A nice go to video movie streaming site. Technically they're just linking to other sites that host the videos that one COULD look up if one was so inclined. Whether you want to get knitpicky about copyright is your choice. If you don't like piracy then simply skip the site.

http://www.ted.com/
Awesome inspirational and educational talks.

Anime and Manga

https://www.watchcartoononline.io/
Nice anime and American cartoon video streaming site. Great selection but seems rather sketchy when it comes to more adult themes.

http://kissanime.ru/
Better anime site (with an American cartoon counterpart) with a somewhat larger selection.

http://www.goodanime.co/
Excellent selection however it's all subbed anime. Don't try for their dubbed section. I've tried several times and I keep getting popup ads. (Opened the page in another page and it says the page is for sale so meh.) But the rest of the site seems to work fine.

http://www.animeget.io/
Another anime streaming site with fully functioning sub and dub.

Open Source Software

https://www.osalt.com/
A great resource for finding alternatives to proprietary software, albeit it seems to have been awhile since they updated it.

http://alternativeto.net/
Another site for finding alternative software and open source software. Nice extensive database and cross referencing.

http://permaculturenews.org/2017/01/10/open-source-tools-permaculturists/
https://opensource.com/article/16/12/yearbook-top-open-source-creative-tools-2016?sc_cid=701600000011jJVAAY
Two very useful articles containing very extensive lists on useful open source software that can act as alternatives to conventional apps. Very handy resources to have on hand, both the lists and the apps.

http://distrowatch.com/
Monitor the variable cornicopia of Linux distributions.

3D Graphics

https://www.blender.org/
Open source CG modeling software.

http://www.textures.com/
http://texturify.com/
Free CG texture databases.

https://pixabay.com/
Over 860k High quality creative commons licensed stock photos.

Okay that's enough for now. Hopefully someone will find this list useful.