Websites

Corncam A cornfield in Iowa reaches slowly but surely towards the sun, a webcam watching its every move. Aspiring to cult status - a sort of somnolent, agrarian Hamster Dance? - this farming site at least pretends to be serious in its monitoring of crop conditions, complete with rainfall and subsoil statistics. Everything looks a bit greener since last week, following application of some nitrogen fertiliser. There's also a 17-verse poetic tribute, and links to other corny sites. A SoyBeanCam is in the works, but its closest relative may really be the Peeling Paint Webcam.

Corncam A cornfield in Iowa reaches slowly but surely towards the sun, a webcam watching its every move. Aspiring to cult status - a sort of somnolent, agrarian Hamster Dance? - this farming site at least pretends to be serious in its monitoring of crop conditions, complete with rainfall and subsoil statistics. Everything looks a bit greener since last week, following application of some nitrogen fertiliser. There's also a 17-verse poetic tribute, and links to other corny sites. A SoyBeanCam is in the works, but its closest relative may really be the Peeling Paint Webcam.

Urbanfetch Those less rurally inclined can be waited on hand and foot by this multipurpose delivery service. Taken, as one tends to be at times, by a sudden urge for a bottle of Ginseng and Walnut bath salts? Ask and it will appear within the hour, between 8am and 11pm in central London, anyway. A selected range of food, drink, videos and gifts caters to those in need of instant gratification, whether in the form of a modest bottle of Diet Coke or a £800 DVD player. And no tipping, please.

RecipeWeb This claims, contentiously, to be the UK's first dedicated online recipe resource, and may be searched by ingredient, cooking time, cuisine and experience level. Popular choices include scampi with coriander pesto, chicory soup with scallops and salmon, and stir-fried Thai chicken breast with green asparagus. Anton Edelmann of the Savoy group and Richard Coates of Belgo offer regular chef's specials, and there's a "culinary counsellor" for personal advice on boiling that egg. Video clips are planned to help people deal with the tricky bits, as well as a search-by-calorie-content option for fatties. Alternative recipes are offered by the previously plugged Mouse House, which now offers a downloadable mousy cookbook to go with its cardboard accommodation for computer mice. Try Mini Mice Cakes, Gingerbread Mice and Men, Cheesy Mice Babies and more.

Halfbakery The visual motif may be a crumbly, half-chewed demi-croissant, but only food for thought is on the menu here. Basically it's a no-holds-barred repository of wacky ideas and inventions, unrestricted by practical considerations. Log on to discuss (for instance) the prospects for Metal Detecting Shoes, a Radio Umbrella, zero gravity executive desk toys, or a cyclists' disintegrator ray, not to mention a Bag-O-Australian-Plague-Locusts for that special gift. Sometimes, however, the reality is a bit of a let down: an intriguing "Drive-thru Salad" turns out to be merely a salad you can eat in your car.

100 Years, 100 Laughs The American Film Institute has revealed the results of another of its controversial movie polls. In the course of a star-studded three hour TV spectacular, the votes of some 1,800 Hollywood players for the "100 Funniest Movies" emerged as a classy selection, with Some Like It Hot at number one, followed by Tootsie, and Dr Strangelove. The people's choice, from the online vote, lowered the collective brow a notch or three, with Porky's leading the way followed by Dumb and Dumber. Crossover titles in both Top Tens were Annie Hall and Blazing Saddles. Participants chose from 500 possible titles, from A Day At The Races to Zelig.

Goosehead.com More star quality here, perhaps, though in some ways inducing nostalgia for when a homepage meant "me and my cat". Fifteen-year-old Ashley Power's homepage, though, is a pitch for multimedia stardom. The web-savvy Californian has created an astutely targeted entertainment site for her fellow teens, including a weekly 15-minute comedy show in streamed video, but perhaps destined for TV, entitled Whatever. Ashley is not without connections, with parents in advertising and actor Richard Dreyfuss backing the site. Somewhat refreshingly, there is also a page for helping with homework, though the main focus is social: "I am big on hangin' out with my buds". The name "Goosehead" comes from an accidentally decapitated concrete goose sculpture in her back yard.

Experience Music Project Reversing the usual order of things, the website arrived almost three years before the actual museum, which has finally just opened in Seattle. Celebrating Seattle-Tacoma's finest, from Bing Crosby to Soundgarden, the already hi-tech and award-winning site now has further enhancements, including a bandwidth-intensive Digital Collection expanding on the museum exhibits. Also on offer is an exclusive Patti Smith interview and a hip-hop timeline, but the real emphasis is on music creation. So take the weekly online guitar lesson, or download the Riff Interactive software and try out a Moby Grape tune from the Sixties. The bricks and mortar version is said to include a tower of 650 guitars playing a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

Send your interesting, quirky or, at a pinch, cool, site recommendations to websites@dircon.co.uk