Websites

JoJaffa http://www.JoJaffa.com

JoJaffa http://www.JoJaffa.com

"Go for it" is the overriding message at this new site devoted to the precept that today is the first day of the rest of your life. JoJaffa himself is an orange-coloured cat, whose grin seems somehow to change according to the new experience recommended: merely enthusiastic in the case of skiing or sailing, downright fiendish when it comes to bunjee-jumping and skydiving. The aim is to lure gentle, unsuspecting souls into new forms of excitement, fulfilment, and radical changes in life direction: options include whitewater rafting, ballooning and even teaching English abroad. Suggestions fall into various overlapping categories such as Adrenalin, Pioneer and Courage, though a Sensuality section disappoints (canoeing?). Each activity has a page of useful tips on how to get started, the appropriate kit, where to do it, and other advice. Less athletic suggestions include starting an Internet business, with links to JoJaffa's own sources of inspiration.

Al Capone's Famous Wall http://www.caponewall.com/

Today is, of course, the day we remember events 71 years ago at 2122 North Clark Street, Chicago, when Al Capone famously tried to bump off his rival Bugsy Moran but instead disposed of a number of minor players in sanguinary 1920s style. Now, actual bullet-chipped bricks from the site of the St Valentine's Day Massacre can be purchased online, and come complete with an elegant display case and certificate of authenticity. When the scene of the crime (an old garage) was demolished in the 1960s, the wall in question was taken apart and each brick numbered and preserved. The wall toured United States shopping malls and exhibitions for a couple of decades but the bricks are now being sold off individually to finance their owner's retirement. A single brick costs only $750 and comes complete with an audio cassette of "specially staged sound effects".

Enlightenment With A Vengeance http://www.ewav.com/

Yet more road reports from an American with a battered laptop in his rucksack. But this one is older and more jaded than most, the sponsorship requests seem tongue in cheek, and the attitude to illustrious predecessors less than awestruck ("On The Road - how the hell did that get to be a classic?"). As our hero meanders across the US, a clickable map leads to observations alternately crude and hilarious, not so much about the places visited than an excuse for long comic riffs and rants on the meaning of life in general. An overall theme is that spiritual leaders and sources of enlightenment should no longer take things lying down, instead offering a vision of "Messiahs rampaging in the streets". Meanwhile, the epiphanies experienced en route tend to be home-cooked, notably a transcendent-sounding green chilli soup sampled in a New Mexico pizza joint. Elsewhere, a Creative Suicide page includes a gruesome-sounding fate called Death By Seinfeld.

Newwings http://www.artwells.com/ newwings/index.html

Gentler enlightenments are on offer at this site, where an oracle is an oracle and nothing to do with Larry Ellison. This is a personalised online version of the I-Ching, with contemporary interpretations of the ancient hexagrams produced at random when a particular problem or question is entered in the box provided. So select a Concern (myself, world, another) and a Realm (truth, work, love) and click on the Eye. The site acknowledges the limits of technology: faced with the resulting series of cryptic divinations, it's up to users to read the lines aloud and "stretch their minds" to interpret the answers.

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