Wednesday, April 29, 1998

Nature, history spotlighted in this week's web picks

By Doug Williamson / Abilene Reporter-News

Trees, the Mod Generation, maps and the Titanic highlight this week's venture through the World Wide Web.

-- The wonderful world of trees may be explored at Domtar's site at http://www.domtar.com/arbre/index.htm. You'll have to do a little manipulating on this one, since it's original language is French. On the first page, just click on "English" and it will translate for you. I particularly enjoyed the "A Year in the Life of a Tree" section. These educational pages are aimed at K-12 students.

-- Drop back in history 32 years. Remember Mod clothes? A costume historian has gathered images of the hip styles from the Mod Generation and housed them at http://www.geocities.com/FashionAvenue/5362/. It's a groovy site.

-- Are you tired of all this Titanic stuff? You might check out http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/5601/boat.html. That's the Brotherhood of Anti-Titanicism. Of course, if you love the movie, you'll love http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/1226/.

-- Ever wonder what's happening in the world? Go to http://www.digitaldiscounts.com/datebook.html to see "The World's Events Calendar." It is categorized to help you find your specific interest quickly.

-- The playoffs (National Basketball Association and National Hockey League) are underway. Follow them through http://www.nba.com and http://www.nhl.com.

-- Stealing of road signs is a continuing problem nationwide. Someone might be interested in hanging a "Interstate 0" sign in his living room. Rather than breaking the law, you now can go to http://www.kurumi.com/roads/signmaker/signmaker.html to make your own on your computer screen.

-- We've talked about a lot of mapping programs in this column, but one of the quickest and easiest comes from our friends at Yahoo! You may go to http://maps.yahoo.com/ and type in city and state, or even street address and you will get a zoomable map of the location.

If you have Internet sites you really enjoy visiting, please share them with me through e-mail at williamsond@abinews.com, fax (915) 670-5242, or mail P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX 79604.