Web sites

Bill Pannifer cools off with BB on an ice floe and plays Dixie with the Southern League

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation

http://www.fondationbrigittebardot.fr/uk/index.html

Doggy footprints pad across the screen to introduce this Anglo-French site dedicated to the sexagenarian sex symbol's other role as animal rights activist. The approach is refreshingly soft-sell: few explicit atrocities, just winsome but dignified portraits of BB with Alsatian, BB with tabby and BB sprawled on an ice-floe cuddling a rather nonplussed-looking baby seal. There's a page on her current campaign against the resumption of seal hunting by Norway and Canada, and links to animal shelters, including something called "The Dog House", perhaps home for the former boyfriends dealt with in her recent autobiography.

RMS Titanic: Her Passengers and Crew

http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/sterling/titanic/home.html

The events of 14 April 1912 in the North Atlantic have inspired a dozen or so sites of varying interest and tastefulness. This is simply an annotated passenger list, divided into first, second and third classes: "survivors are printed in italics". Where possible, each individual is linked to a photograph and biography. The vessel itself continues to defeat attempts to drag it from the deep, but this unsensational tribute has lots of potential as social history. It also aims, via the Net, to flesh out the identities of hundreds of victims who are still no more than names: a site to remember.

Interbeer

http://www.interbeer.com/

A virtual pub crawl is offered by this new commercial site, where a world map with flags in the shape of bottle-tops shows a selection of international brews, subsequently delivered to your door. Belgium is the most popular destination, subdivided into 10 different categories from Abbaye to Wallonian; for the UK, designer product (Burton Bridge Ticklebrain) prevails over Tennants Super. Illustrated labels are accompanied by details of alcohol content, and other virtues assessed: "Spicy with a sweet toffee finish ... Strong in roasted malt with a moderate hoppy bitterness and a slight fruity character that lasts through to the end." Unfortunately, there's a minimum order requirement of 20 bottles. Cheers.

Backpackers

http://www.backpackers.com/

Too late, now, to lament the loss of the open road: for all but the most intrepid traveller, the world has contracted to the space between cybercafes. So why not dodge the inconveniences of geography and sign up with this service, designed for young globetrotters who want to keep in touch with others of their privileged ilk? This ad-sponsored "travelling community" allows two-way e-mail contact with kindred spirits around the world, avoiding the need to telnet home or establish addresses in different locations, and putting people in touch with potential "travel buddies". Online facilities in Argentina and Nepal are already indexed, though Bhutan and Easter Island may take a little longer to catch up. Meanwhile, not too much nostalgia, please, for dealing with dysfunctional phone systems or waiting weeks for that poste restante envelope.

Robert Huxtable's UK Chocolate Page

http://www.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk/pcyjrjh/choc.html

Parts of the Web increasingly resemble a school tuckshop under siege, with kids eagerly stuffing their pockets with forbidden goodies. This site celebrates Montezuma's favourite bean, with a gallery of wrappers, the chance to vote for top 10 bars and near-pornographic instructions on how to eat certain varieties to prolong enjoyment. A page on "101 Ways to Eat a Mars Bar" is promised.

The Southern League

http://www.dixienet.org/

The Web's most vehement critics of "Yankee cultural imperialism" are based not in China or North Korea, but Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Southern League wants to secede from the Union and reassert what it calls, in a peculiar reversal, "Christian/Judeo Western civilisation". From this distance, what's striking is the stress placed on Europe as a model: the league's founder, Michael Hill, is a professor of British history, and claims a personal connection with the would-be breakaway Northern League in Italy. Welsh and Scottish nationalism are cited, and even the spellings follow the Oxford English Dictionary rather than Websters, which is seen as a vehicle of the North-Eastern liberal establishment. A recent update proudly announces an appearance in a BBC documentary: it's unlikely, though, that many European customers will be found for a $2,100 portrait of Confederate General Robert E Lee as "Christian Warrior Knight"