It's great outdoors

sites : Roger Ridey finds Web sites for adventurers and animal lovers

Active site: If you are the adventurous sort, the Great Outdoors Recreation Page (http://www.gorp.com) has an abundance of information and resources on things to do and places to go in the great outdoors. The site is broken down into three main sections: attractions, activities and locations.

In attractions you will find links to comprehensive sources of information on US national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, etc. In activities you can follow links relating to biking, bird-watching, climbing, and many others. Best is the locations section which, in addition to the US includes links to Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, South America and even Antarctica.

For example, click on Europe and you are presented with a list of general Internet resources that can be broken down by country. Click on UK and you link to dozens of sites that provide information and resources on just about any outdoor activity you can name. There is also a news-stand, a bookshop and a section that links you to suppliers of outdoor gear.

Creature site: If you love animals, visit the Electronic Zoo (http://netvet.wustl.edu/e- zoo.htm), where you can find hundreds of information sources about all creatures great and small.

The zoo has links to dozens of animal-related electronic publications, organisations, mailing lists and newsgroups, and an image collection with more than 100 different sites from which you can download photos of your favourite critters, such as the momma moose and her calf above (chosen in honour of Mothering Sunday and courtesy of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game).

Supersonic site: If climbing mountains or hang-gliding are not your idea of exciting holidays, how does flying your own MiG29 fighter sound? No, you don't have to defect to Russia and join the air force, you just have to visit the Fly With Us site (http://www.interedu.com/mig29/mig29/). Here you can find information about war planes for hire, a list of the prices and the co-pilots (sorry, no soloing) who will accompany you.

You can get a five-day stay at a formerly top secret Russian air base and three flights in a MiG29 for just $12,000, breakfast included if you can keep it down. And if you are in the market for a used plane, there is a section listing aircraft for sale at bargain prices. So fly home in a 1993 model Yak-55M with low mileage and Hungarian registration for a mere $50,000. Sidewinder missiles optional.

Talking site: Spend too much time at your computer and you might start talking to yourself. But what if your computer starts talking to you? That is what happens at the AT&T Bell Laboratories Voices site (http:// www.research.att.com). Just choose a type of voice - man, woman, child, singer, raspy, gnat - type in an "utterance" of up to 50 words and hit the "say it" button. A sound file will be downloaded and, provided you have an audio software setup, you will hear the words spoken by your computer.

You can save the file to be played again and again. Or you can create a new voice by mixing those listed above. Think of the things you could get your computer to say!

If you know of any interesting sites, e-mail details to: network@independent.co.uk