Tour plan
The Tour de France is celebrating its centenary this year, and on July 5, the race will start from Paris as it did in 1903. Mountain stages include the immortal L'Alpe d'Huez and the amazing climb up the Col du Tourmalet. If your team has not made the cut this year, you can still play on the net. The Internet Tour de France Game 2003 is a fantasy game where you pick your own squad of 15 cyclists and get points for results. It has been going since 1994. Graham Chapman from Velogames is also running a fantasy tour game, for the seventh time. Cycling News is a good place to research form. www.letour.fr/2003/presentationus
http://lcg-www.uia.ac.be/~erikt/tdf
http://users.iclway.co.uk/
http://lcg-www.uia.ac.be/~erikt/tdf
http://users.iclway.co.uk/graham.chapman
www.cyclingnews.com

God slot
And "Gzus said, I wil B with U 24/7, 2 d end of time," or would have done had He been texting you. You can also take a quiz, find your way through a labyrinth, vote for your favourite karaoke carol, and read an interview with Sally Phillips from Channel 4's Smack the Pony. This site might have been put together with the slogan, Why should the devil have all the fancy Flash animations? Nor is this the place for internecine battles. "The cost of the site has been met by all the major UK Church denominations, including the Church of England, the Catholic Church, the Baptist Union, Methodist Church and the Salvation Army."
www.rejesus.co.uk

Potter time
Most of the internet will presumably be deserted this weekend as everyone who can read devours the latest JK Rowling. But the book launch could be good news for Harry Potter sites, especially the ones where readers can chat in open forums. DarkMark, for example, has message boards and chat rooms. The UK has its own Harry Potter Forums site, and even better, a group known as HPFGU: Harry Potter For Grown Ups. Many of the participants seem to be producing their own fanfic stories, and by the time you finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, you will no doubt be able to continue at Fiction Alley.
www.darkmark.com
www.harrypotterforums.co.uk
www.hpfgu.org.uk
www.fictionalley.org

Blog watch
Technorati is an important site in the competitive blogging business since it tells you which sites are linked to yours, and how many days, hours and minutes ago the link was added. You can also get a list of the top 100 interesting posts made within the past three hours, from the 383,876 weblogs watched, and it offers keyword searching. It supports simple commands but if you hit a popular topic, it can be slow: all the results are displayed on a single page. Keyword search is still in beta so suggestions for improvements are welcome.
www.technorati.com

Talking Birds
"All first memories feature singing or the number four," and "Colorado Springs, US, is an exact replica of Worthing, England, revolved through ninety degrees to the west" are just two of the "10 audacious new theories" being tested by data miners at Webdemographic. The site provides feedback forms so you can agree or disagree with these statements and provide your evidence, if any. Data may be processed using the already legendary Random Raffle (Patent Pending) method. Yes, but is it art?
www.webdemographic.com

Top dog
The kids-only section of President Bush's White House site now features a Barneycam. Barney is the First Family's Scottish terrier. Other animals with White House pages include Spotty the Springer spaniel, Willie the cat, and Ofelia (sic) the longhorn ("I enjoy grazing and daydreaming on President Bush's ranch in Texas"). All this is a marked contrast with the No 10's site, which provides nothing for kids and is strangely silent about Humphrey, the official mouser during the Thatcher and Major years.
www.whitehouse.gov/kids/barney
www.number-10.gov.uk
www.catsincharge.co.uk/humphrey

Most unwanted
The playing cards that featured Iraq's "most wanted" have been followed by a deck of America's Most Unwanted. Jacques Chirac merits an ace, obviously, while the Dixie Chicks are on the four of diamonds. The pack costs $12.95 plus shipping, but is available only in the US.
www.thanxfornothing.com

New & noted

Young Artist of the Year Awards
www.art-works.org.uk
Fiat's centenary
www.fiat.co.uk/Tell_Me
Spot the dick:
www.fscwv.edu/users/rheffner/ydkd

Six of the best: Blockbusters

Animatrix
www.intothematrix.com
Finding Nemo
www.findingnemo.com
The Hulk
www.thehulk.com
X2
http://x2-movie.com
Terminator 3
http://terminator3.com
Bruce Almighty
http://brucealmighty.com