Sunday Style InSite Feb. 18, 2001

Sunday Style In-Sites Feb. 18, 2001

Chinese Recipes: If you're looking for tips on Peking-style stir-fry cooking and Cantonese-style steamed dishes, you've come to the right place. Here, chef David Fong, who has "over 20 years experience in preparing and cooking Chinese dishes", offers winning recipes to dishes like 'Fried Beef and Peppers', 'Roast Duckling with Pancakes', 'King Prawn Toast' and 'Chicken and Cashew Nuts'. Yummy! His instructions are crisp and clear, and besides ingredients lists and cooking times, the recipes come with appetite-whetting pictures. The main page has a quick guide that organises some interesting recipes under 'Appetisers', 'Main Course', 'Desserts', 'Side Dishes' and 'Vegetarian Dishes'. There're also pages devoted to vegetarian dishes. As someone who has taken up cooking out of necessity, I found the simpler recipes here quite successful and am now looking forward to getting oil-soaked cooking up the trickier dishes... when my clean-freak mom is visiting relatives out of town again.

International Society for UFO Research: If you strongly believe your mother-in-law is an alien from outer space (how else to explain her undiminished enmity towards you?) or that all those bad (as opposed to wet) dreams you've been having are probably the result of experiments on your head conducted by extraterrestrial superbeings, this is where you should head for illumination... or even more titillating obfuscation. You can submit reports of your own experiences of the weird kind or describe UFO sightings if you've even been lucky enough to see saucer-shaped objects in the sky. But the section that'll fascinate most visitors to this site is 'Case Database' which contains some of the wackiest and most entertaining UFO reports -- or tales, if you're a skeptic -- you're ever likely to find online. There're also tons of UFO links, and the 'UFO Archive' and 'Articles' pages have enough 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' stories to fill your dreams with flying objects and funny-shaped creatures. The main page is stark in its presentation but it lays out all the links with the kind of clarity that time-conscious surfers will appreciate.

Internet Mental Health: With a goal "to improve understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness throughout the world", this online resource offers comprehensive information on mental health problems that should be useful to both specialists in the field and the layperson. There's a general introduction that offers "helpful tips" on the subject, while the guidelines in the 'Disorders' and 'Diagnosis' sections touch on such things as symptoms and treatments. There's also a 'Discussion' page that promotes interactive message boards for such topics as bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. The 'Medications' section, which should be helpful to medical professionals, examines "the 72 most common psychiatric drugs" and their effects on patients, while 'Research' features reports on the latest medical breakthroughs and findings. The home page is effectively conceived and user-friendly, with a main page and links that load pretty swiftly.

SpaceKids.com: Yet another excellent space exploration site that's designed to offer children an entertaining virtual tour of the Universe. Besides providing all the relevant information on planets, galaxies, comets and constellations, SpaceKids.com helps to answer such mind-boggling questions as the distance between Earth and the moon and how the sun generates heat. There's also a 'Games' section where kids can have some effects-filled fun, via Shockwave, playing space travellers. The colorful and attractively-designed home page includes 'News', 'Photos' and 'Movies' sections and regularly updated features like 'Daily Quiz' and 'Did you Know?' Definitely a great idea for a classroom project, and teachers will find some useful tips, and even a 'Homework' page, to make this virtual space tour a great learning experience.

Dr Thom’s Sex eClinic: Here's the dope on almost everything you wanted to know about sexual health but were too shy to ask your doctor. The info at this e-clinic, put together by an established obstetrician/gynaecologist who's helped by a team of experts, sheds light on topics like sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and abortion. And if you had for some reason skipped the male/female anatomy lesson at school, you have a chance to catch up by studying the "maps" of the male and female bodies here. Most of the articles are accompanied by "medical pictures that may offend" but are more likely to be elucidating, and you can have the contents in Chinese if that's your language.

World Rallying: Fans of motor rallying, especially the World Rally Championship, will find everything they need to know -- and more -- at this stats-packed site. There are the standard 'News', 'Reports' and 'Photos' pages, augmented by sections devoted to profiles of top teams and racers and links to other motor rally sites. There's also a 'WRC Discussion Forum' that features some lively debates on various topics, like driving strategies and the souped-up machines that are used to conquer treacherous courses. The design may not be anything to shout about -- the signposts would look more aesthetically pleasing with a thinner font and smaller typeface -- but the information is neatly arranged, with clear links to the races for the 2001 season.