News stream
Few things are as fascinating as historical newsreels, whether they're as old as Tsar Nicholas II's coronation in 1896 or as recent as Nelson Mandela's inauguration. Now, Newsplayer, has assembled more than 10,000 newsreels and television news reports from sources such as Paramount, Empire News, French Pathe, Reuters and ITN and put them online in Windows Media Format. There's a catch - full access costs £25 a year - but the free samples are well worth the trip to www.newsplayer.com.
School death
The shooting of a six year old schoolgirl by a classmate shocked America last week, and the Michigan Education Association's website offers a focus for information. Technically the school was in Beecher, just outside Flint, but television pundit and anti-General Motors campaigner Michael Moore considers it a home-town affair. It remains to be seen what effect the shooting will have on the US presidential elections, where Doonesbury's cartoon candidate, Duke, is campaigning with the slogan: "I believe every American - man, woman or child - should be in a position to return fire." See www.Duke2000.com.
Arresting polar pictures
Greenpeace has set up camp in the arctic just a mile from "BP Amoco's dangerous oil project, Northstar" and is reporting its campaign at www.greenpeaceusa.org/arctic. It does have some great pictures - including the shots of polar bears being arrested at a US protest www.greenpeaceusa.org. Meanwhile in Iceland, Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the Free Willy movies, is being returned to the wild. The Ocean Futures Society is following his progress in KeikoWatch at www.oceanfutures.org.
Skipping over the world
Anyone curious about the world - or just desperate to finish that geography homework - will find much of interest in the World Skip. Pick a region, then a country, for a growing set of links in a wide range of categories. It may not be the first place you'd turn for information about the economic giants, but the coverage of dozens of small countries is invaluable.
Top of the pops
UK-based Worldpop.com hopes to become the leading music portal for teenagers and young adults who follow the pop charts. As well as interviews and Radio 1/ Top Of The Pops-style chat, its offerings include a world singles charts based on sales in 52 countries. The rival Clickmusic.co.uk site is offering a No.1 Game which provides a "warts 'n' all insight into the workings of the music industry".
Remember me this way
A new website wants your memories, and is offering to archive them. More accurately, it's offering to put them online so that other people can browse them by date, by name or by subject. Random Access Memory is described as an "experiment in collective recollection", and once you've registered to gain access, it is an entertaining place to browse. Whether any meaningful themes will eventually emerge is another matter.
In passing
Cloning may one day become affordable, so rather than just having Fido or Tiddles stuffed, you can store its DNA and have it cloned later. That, at least, is the idea presented by the punningly-named Genetic Savings & Clone, which also covers livestock, and plans to store samples of endangered species.
Reel world
The Oscars are fast approaching, and the official site at www.oscar.com (or www.oscars.com ) has all the nominations, while Yahoo is providing links to further coverage at http://movies. yahoo.com/oscars/ . Fingers are crossed here for Pedro Almodóvar's witty weepy, All About My Mother.
In brief
Bookseller Bertelsmann Online has launched BOL TV with an interview with Jeffrey Archer. Virtual Sport is welcoming the Formula One season with the chance to manage a team or predict both grid positions and race results, while ZOO football is still fomenting arguments about the kicking game. Radiant Knowledge Systems has launched ePlace "which "will enable professionals to reap the benefits of web conferencing anywhere in the world". Top Table is offering a way to book chic restaurants. Games Domain has added Kids Domain, an excellent "children's channel" for the UK, while PCindex is giving price comparisons on PC parts and peripherals.
