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http://north.audubon.org/
What's good for the goose is also good educational fun for the schoolchildren, and others, tracking migrating chen chaerulescens across the US since February. This ingenious project has been following the flight paths of individual birds, each tagged with a microtransmitter and monitored by satellite. (Full tech details at the site: it's all to do with the Doppler effect). Their changing positions are recorded as raw co-ordinates and as updated maps, enabling visitors to know where a particular bird is at all times. The site itself is rooting for TZ, leg band number 1137- 86841, taking a lengthy breather in South Dakota en route to the western Canadian Arctic.
Hong Kong 1997
http://www.hk1997.china.com
Lily Wong's least-favourite site, this bilingual number from the China Internet Corp concerns "Hong Kong's return to the embrace of the motherland". At its centre is a narrative history of the colony, with the role of perfidious Albion outlined at length and rather difficult to argue with. There's a detailed account of the opium wars, but the site soft-pedals more recent controversies - visitors to the site will find no mention of Chris Patten, nor, of course, of Tiananmen Square. The title page features a minute- by-minute countdown to the hand-over, and there's a special section on the incoming Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region, the "reliable and pragmatic" Tung Chee-hwa.
Aquaria by Jon
http://www.ionet.net/jlower/aquarium.html
This is another of those sites dedicated to cutting computers down to size by a process of gleeful domestication. Jon turns old Apple monitors into what he calls "Macquaria", basically by removing the cathode ray tube and inserting a fish tank. The conversion costs about $200. The artist/perpetrator is at pains to point out that he doesn't have anything against Apple in particular: IBM clones, he reckons, aren't even good enough to house goldfish, though he has turned one former PC desktop unit into a comfort station for his cat.
Lindbergh
http://www.longines.com
The plane weighs 2.5 tons, there are heavy crosswinds and the runway's covered in mud. Will you get off the ground? Yes, if you wait long enough for the applet to download, remember to start the engine (cue deafening audio) and nudge the joystick gently with the cursor. Once airborne, follow the coastline as far as you can before turning over Newfoundland, and don't try any aerobatics - the whole system is likely to freeze in mid- air. This clever flight simulator game is the highlight of watchmaker Longines' site. Likely new Lindberghs who set the fastest record win a conventional transatlantic trip. The earthbound can gaze at loving close-ups of the new "Spirit" range of watches, based on the aviator's own design and complete with rotating bezeln
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