Anne Frank Homepage: Anne Frank's 'Diary' is a moving and harrowing wartime document that has become one of the most widely read, if not known, books in the world.
This virtual shrine to the courageous young Jewish girl, who had the strength of mind to record her deepest thoughts in a diary while hiding from the Nazis during the Second World War, does a great job of evoking the times she lived in.
There's a short biography of her sad yet inspiring life, with some interesting photos, and excerpts from her diary -- reproductions from her actual notebooks accompany some of these -- offering a riveting representation of things as she perceived them.
You can go on a virtual visit of the house she spent her last years in and order up a CD-ROM on her, though some might see this as crass commercial exploitation.
There're also e-mail cards and other pretty things, but what really matters here is the fact that after exploring all the pages at this site, you'd probably want to go out and grab a copy of 'The Diary of Anne Frank'.
The site is beautifully put together though in the end you'll realise that it doesn't really offer as much as you'd want.
Coolmath4kids: Have you ever wondered why you weren't so good in maths at school? It could be that you were just not brght enough though more likely, it was because the teachers just didn't know how to make it a fun subject.
This "amusement park of math and more", designed for at kids (ages 3 to 13), actually demonstrates that juggling numbers can be really entertaining.
Every lesson is conceived as a game -- 'Number Monster', 'Lemonade Stand', 'Brain Benders', 'Arithmattack' etc -- and mathematical problems are conceptualised in the kind of fun-evoking context that would awaken enthusiasm rather than put off young children.
The home page comes with instructions for parents and teachers, and such attractions as 'Online Calculators', 'Science Movie' and 'Coloring Book' should keep the young ones attentive once the numbers games get too boring.
The site is grabbingly colorful with a neat trick -- a snake of numbers follows and dances around the mouse pointer.
Prometheus: Compared to the Web sites of many of the established journals, the online version of this British intellectual publication -- the name, of course, refers to the Greek demigod who was one of the Titans -- is a bit stingy on content.
But the little that's available for online perusal is of an exceptional standard.
For instance, the current issue has a long and intriguing feature titled 'The Final Frontier' in which former astronaut Joseph P. Allen offers a fascinating insider's view of travelling aboard the space shuttles Columbia and Discovery.
There're also probing pieces like 'The Information Age' where three sociologists "offer a critical assessment of Manuel Castell's seminal trilogy 'The Information Age', and 'Tolerance, Politics and the Japanese Imagination', an interview with Japanese Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe.
Of course, you'd wish all the articles summarised on the main page were hyperlinked, but at least there's a 'Back Issues' section with more marvellous manna for the mind.
The home page is dull and bare but effective enough for what it offers.
Rough Guides to Travel: Backpackers and shoe-string trippers have sworn by the Rough Guide series of travel books for years, and a quick tour of this site will show you why.
It has plenty of current travel tips and is packed with short, sweet descriptions of people and places. It also trots out all the dos and don'ts in the countries you'd be travelling in and picks out must-see spots with nifty little assessments and pictures to go with them.
Actually, you might be surprised to discover that you can get almost all the information found in the Rough Guide books (they cost a bomb these days), and the fact that it's free should mean something, especially if you believe in getting the most by spending the least.
The main page spotlights various places to visit, and three pull-down search boxes -- 'Countries', 'Featured Cities' and 'Complete Index' -- and a general search box help you chase down the bits of info you're seeking without the need to look through sub-pages.
Most of the entries include highly useful snippets on accommodation and transportation options.
The home page is basic and breezy and doesn't take toilet trips to download.
Salon.com: Covering a wide range of topics and boasting a style that's punchy, spry, witty and chatty, Salon.com is one of the most interesting of the online US magazines you'd ever come across.
Sections like 'Books', 'Comics', 'News', 'People', 'Politics' and 'Tech & Business' offer plenty of great reads, and you'll find some provocative stuff under 'Mothers' and 'Sex' though you might be relieved to know that neither is directly related.
The 'Hot Topics' menu is also pretty interesting as are the audio-book excerpts -- the 'Top 20 Spoken Word Recordings' list featuring the work of such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien, T.S. Eliot, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath and Edgar Allan Poe is especially recommended -- and recipe selections.
You also get the latest world news "from the wires" and all kinds of features and snippets on pop, pop culture, popcorn etc.
The site, which is updated daily, is a bit cluttered but still easily navigable. Indeed, it's so crammed with content that you could practically park yourself here for at least an hour to enjoy the verbal feast.
U.S. National Library of Medicine: While governments and world organizations have been spouting soundbites about how the Internet is going to revolutionize research and development activities, few of them have actually done anything to spark off that revolution. Indeed, they have shown more enthusiasm for creating business models than for efforts to ease research so far.
Anyway, for research to thrive, a free and extensive online library is imperative. And ideally, it should be modelled on something like this.
Not only is it an excellent resource for doctors seeking new or better answers to old medical problems, it also gives medical researchers and practitioners from around the world a chance to be informed about the latest breakthroughs in the kind of thorough manner only afforded at symposiums.
The most valuable feature here is Medline, a biomedical abstract database ("the world's largest medical library") that one academic has described as "wonderful; you can download abstruse topics at 2 in the morning if you have a patient with a problem".
The well-designed main page offers links to sections like 'Health Information', 'Library Services', 'Research Programs' and 'General Information'.
Project announcements, press releases and other newsy items can be found under 'New and Noteworthy'.
For an edifying look into the availability of specialised information on the Internet, check out David I. Lewin's essay 'Online Science Journals'.