Circle line
A new website is looking to end the age-old headache of finding a good babysitter. The Babysitting Circle brings together local groups of parents around the UK to babysit for each other. Families enter the date and time they need help, and the message goes out to the circle of between 10 and 30 members. Anyone able to help simply replies by email.
Security, obviously, is an important point: the organisers suggest circles hold social events to get to know each other, and point out that using other mothers - rather than inexperienced teenagers - is both cheaper and safer. New members cannot join circles without the majority of members agreeing.
In what is, presumably, an effort to drive up the number of registered users and so reach critical mass, membership of the circle is free, although using the babysitting feature costs £14.95 a year www.babysittingcircle.org
Tube talk
Sometimes community websites can be a little contrived, trying to bring together a group of people too busy, disparate or indifferent to contribute to the message boards the webmaster has tacked on the site.
No such problem at Tubehell, where the forum seethes with the indignation of hundreds of London commuters. They are drawn to the site (motto: "I am not a sardine, I am a human being"), not just by the boards, but by the wealth of travel information that Tubehell provides.
The data on delays, closures and the various indignities forced on tube users daily is gathered from a legion of "Tubehellers" who report back as they go about their business in the capital. The information is then posted back out via web, SMS and Wap. Indeed, the fast 'n' simple Tubehell Wap site is one of the best uses of the much-mocked technology I've seen.
Plot revealed
First we had the Naked Chef, now we have the Naked Novelist. Only this time, the Naked subject really doesn't plan to have any clothes on as she works. Fiction writer Carol Muskoron has decided to write her latest novel in the nude, posting instalments as she works on her website www.nakednovelist.com In a perhaps inspired move to get more hits on her website and, er, gain more exposure, she is also providing a live RealVideo stream of herself at work.
That video feed wasn't working when Online looked in (purely in the interests of research, naturally) and we will have to wait and see if it ever gets going, but in the meantime there is always plenty of free fiction to read, which was why you were interested in the first place, wasn't it?
Party pieces
The General Election of '97 might be remembered as being the first where we could debate the merits of parties and candidates on the web. The poll of this year will probably go down as the first where we all played silly Shockwave games that mocked the politicians, in preference to joining in the earnest discussions. Few of the games merit a mention - it all became a bit dreary after the web-design agencies jumped on the bandwagon - but MTV's superb Stereo MPs page merits a discussion. Choose the venue (Ibiza beach is my favourite) pick the music and set the lighting, and dance, Anne Widdecombe, dance! www.mtv.co.uk/content/fun/games/stereo_mps.
Kicking sand
Football fans are in a state of denial now the season is over, reduced to feigning illness so they can catch morning screenings of the Copa America on Channel 5 and - more bizarre - watching beach football on satellite.
Now this slightly-less-than-great game is coming to the UK, including Hyde Park, where the organisers, one presumes, will embark on the bizarre exercise of dumping imported sand over perfectly good grass to create a beach on which to play football.
The deep, dry, golden sandpits appear to reduce most players to Sunday League level, so it is difficult to imagine Cantona, Barnes and Waddle recreating their glory days, but doubtless thousands will turn up to watch them try. I'd think it more fun to find a patch of Hyde Park's old-fashioned grass to play on yourself, and cheaper too, but if you want you'll find more details at the informative, and ever-expanding, Umbro site at www.umbro.com/beachsoccer
Better answer
Stressed? Tired? Irritable? These are all symptoms often felt after reading yet another "stress guru" advise on wacky ways to overcome the pressures of an overflowing in-tray and 200 unread emails.
On this occasion it is Craig Mardus, an American therapist who tells us that when it all becomes too much we should conjure up our "most torrid sexual fantasies - the wilder the better" to make it all feel better. "Imagine yourself with Pamela Anderson, or Harrison Ford," he says.
Luckily, much of the other advice at Stressbusting.co.uk is of a little more practical use. And it is interesting to note that the site is sponsored by the Scottish Tourist Board ( www.visitscotland.com ), which gives a clue to the best way to relieve stress_ instead of spending your hard-earned on therapy, take a holiday. Visit www.stressbusting.co.uk
New & noted
• Fighting down-sizing and end-to-end solutions (but with Flash, alas_): www.deathbyjargon.com
• Test out new home decorations on a virtual sitting room: www.beeb.com/goodhomes
• Surfing west-coast style - but the UK, rather than the US: www.westcoastuk.com
• Calculate your net worth: www.norwichunion.com
