Site of the Week -- Nov. 1, 1999
elax, Earth creatures: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has arrived.
The most remarkable book in the universe now has an Earth edition, and while it
won't explain how to survive a Vogon poetry contest, it does tell how
to enjoy a trip to Amsterdam.
Inspired and authorized by Douglas Adams, the guide has recruited an army
of field researchers who write on thousands of subjects, all inspired to some
extent by Adams' satirical wit.
Casual visitors can easily search the site for their favorite subjects,
but those who register as researchers will enjoy the site most.
Researchers can submit entries to be included in the guide, and they can track
their posts and online conversations via personal home pages.
The guide's only major flaw is its slight and insignificant "Don't panic"
button. Rather than being printed in large, friendly letters, H2G2's "Don't
Panic" is printed in small, inconspicuous ones. Hopefully this oversight
will be addressed in future editions.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- Oct. 25, 1999
t's a little bit spooky in the dusky corner of the Web that houses
Hauntedhouse.com. The site is a communing place for devotees of simple, dark
pleasures. Need a little unholy help crafting All Hallows Eve mayhem?
Visit the forum for hints on how to suck the sweetest scares out of
victims in homemade haunted houses. And in case visitors don't have
enough time to build a spooky home themselves, there is a searchable database of
haunted-house events to attend.
The site also includes a collection of online costume haberdasheries and a masquerade
contest. Need more spine-chilling mood mixin's? The best, most terrorful
horror titles, from Stephen King to R.L. Stine, are reviewed and
recommended. But the best, the blackest, the bone-tingliest, the marrow-freezingest
feature is the scary story section. Visitors can post their purple
prose or even genuine tales of the bleakest terrors ever encountered.
Extra-woeful bonus? Visitors can rate the stories on how truly frightful
they are.
-- Tamara I. Hladik
Site of the Week -- Oct. 18, 1999
e's a war hero. He's a commanding presence. He's an amphibian. And he
wants your vote!
That's right, Admiral Ackbar, leader of the Rebel Alliance's victorious attack on the second
Death Star, is running for president of Earth. All of the details are available on
the Admiral Ackbar For President campaign site, which includes news
releases, campaign posters, an Ackbar look-alike page, a short manifesto,
and sounds recorded during the heat of the Death Star battle. But it also goes beyond sound
bites, extolling the virtues of Ackbar's tactical skills while readily
admitting his cowardly impulses, such as his exclamation: "It's a trap! All
craft prepare to retreat!" during the Death Star assault.
The site turns this negative into a positive, however, by showing how Ackbar's
clown-like floundering during the Star Wars assault actually inspired
his men. It's this comedic genius, coupled with his "fish for everyone"
platform, that will undoubtedly win him the Earth presidency.
-- Kenneth Newquist
