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Retrieving hominids from Siberia

RESEARCHES with the Uncover document retrieval service have turned up a impressive result, writes Andrew Brown. I was trying to track down a report about early hominid remains found in Siberia (as one does). This had apparently been mentioned in Science magazine, but I could not find it in the on-line table of contents.

But I did know the name of the archeologist, Yuri Machonov, so I searched the whole database on that. I found two English articles, one clearly on the right subject in a magazine called Arctic Anthropology. Eight hours later, I had been faxed all 35 pages of it, for dollars 13.00 ( pounds 8.50). Clearly this is a service that is more valuable the more abstruse your interests are. Though the service delivers faxes, they can only be ordered by modem. Access is by Telnet to database. carl. org.

SOMETHING unlikely to be covered in Uncover is Blam], a 'hypermedia magazine for the Macintosh.' In fact it is a CD- rom, which aims for the solar plexus, or slightly below. The editors say they are disgusted with the standard Macintosh interface. 'Each issue of Blam] will feature a unique and elegant interface which propels the user into the boisterous bowels of Blam] For example, in Blam]2, the user will be confronted with the disgusting, acne-ridden face of a teenage transsexual'

Anyone excited by this prospect can write to: Necro Enema Amalagamated, PO Box 208, Village Station, New York, NY 10014; or send an E-mail message to blam1@mindvox. phantom. com

CHEAPER and more wholesome is the latest sampler from Software Toolworks: for pounds 7.95, you get a CD-rom with 11 demo programs, inlcuding the San Fransisco Zoo presents . . . The Animals], Chessmaster 3000, and The 20th Century Video Almanac.

THE BEST news on E-mail is the latest issue of the Mini-JIR, an E-mail sampler for the Journal of Irreproducible Results, a magazine published at MIT, devoted to bad or merely enjoyable science. The latest issue contains a special 'Bobbitt reattachment', commending an article on 'Surgical management of the amputated penis'. Apparently the practice of Bobbitting is common in Thailand, where the victim's prospects of recovery are further diminished by the ducks which every family keeps and which devour every titbit that comes their way.