Network: Websites
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Comic Relief
http://www.comicrelief.org.uk
Red Nose Day is on 12 March, but the latest and first permanent site has been running for weeks now, with an end-of-the pier theme and a virtual pet in the form of a Dawn French Tamagotchi. Online donations are, of course, actively solicited, though it seems that this time the site's attractions themselves are offered free. Jonathan Ross introduces Shockwave frolics including a Celebrity Dance-A-Thon and a Pick-a-Nose Quiz.
New Media Encyclopaedia
http://www.newmedia arts.org/
An ambitious guide to that hard-to-define creature, the "new media" artwork or installation, this trilingual site has been created by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and other institutions in Germany and Switzerland.
The file-index design holds a catalogue of works and artists from all participating museums, with links to descriptions, images and some multimedia content. The list runs from Abramovic to Yakult with some more familiar names (Godard, Chris Marker) in between. There is a glossary of movements and thinkers - not much on computer and Net-related activity, though this is an ongoing project. The site also wants to be "a locus of debate".
Ireland Film and Television Net
http://www.iftn.ie
This information-packed resource for the Irish film industry recently gained a Webby award nomination. It's a comprehensive, no-nonsense sort of site serving all levels of the business, from a cineplex in Co Meath needing a new projectionist, to details of a new Fox film on the life of St Patrick. A finance section gives details of tax incentives, there are pages on training and facilities, and a clickable location map lists the remarkable range of films shot in the country, from Man of Aran to Saving Private Ryan. News is updated daily, as are weather details, and there is a separate e-mail newsletter. Perhaps it will catch the eye of film-minded judges at the Webbies later this month in San Francisco.
Net Rezonator
http://netrezonator.imgsrc.co.jp/
A highly irritating bleeping noise introduces this site dedicated to world harmony and trans-verbal communication through music. Download the applet, however, and the sounds become peaceful and, as it says, resonant. An octave row of tuning forks may be struck by the cursor to produce a pleasing musical mix selected from a "palette" of piano, bass, horn, glass and xylophone. Others may then access the site and join in from their own computers, "jamming" over the Net and with luck achieving some plangent, New-Agey improvisation - a sort of musical chat room, with visitors' IP addresses displayed top right.The aim is to "free mass unconsciousness of human being". Odd little pictures of school kids harmoniously marching and dancing serve to illustrate the concept.
Cornwall Eclipse 1999
http://www.cornwall eclipse99.com/
The latest commercial site to cash in on the events planned for 11 August in the cosmic schedule asserts that "totality is the total experience" (man). There are links to scientific accounts of the phenomenon and reports of the last time it happened here, for 23 ghostly seconds in 1927. Also details of special tents, glasses and "chaser packs" and lots of those all-important property ads. For more of the same try Eclipse 1999 (http://www.adjudicator.co. uk/eclipse/) with its cheesy sound-track and second-by-second countdown.
Send recommendations for interesting, quirky or, at a pinch, cool sites to websites@dircon.co.uk
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments