Sunday Style InSite Jan. 21, 2001

Sunday Style In-Sites Jan. 21, 2001

About Rivers and Dams: How do dams affect the environment? Why are free-flowing rivers important? What can you do to perserve ecology's delicate balance? If these are the kinds of questions that often have you fired up, you should visit this excellent site hosted by the International Rivers Network (IRN). It's nothing much to look at but there's plenty of food for thought, especially if you want to know as much as possible about such matters as river planning and 'The Environmental Impacts of Large Dams'. Articles like 'Dams: What They Are and What They Do' and 'A Short History of Rivers' lead you wonderfully into the subject. And once you've grasped the basics, you can move on to the 'Questions and Answers' and 'Bibliography about Dams' sections. There're also some compelling essays, including one by Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy ('The Greater Common Good'). You can also link up with the IRN's other campaigns in various parts of the world, including China and South East Asia.

AFI Online's Tribute to Martin Scorsese: Film buffs fascinated by the genius of Martin Scorsese ('Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull', 'The Last Waltz', 'Goodfellas', 'New York, New York'...) can enjoy the most "complete tour" of his life and work they'll ever find on the Web at this site put together by the American Film Institute. Featuring QuickTime clips from his most accomplished movies, the site offers you everything from biographical details, like his vision-shaping childhood in New York City, to his perfectionist approach to film-making. It's got loads of stuff that will thrill trivia hunters, including storyboards, Press clippings and even CVs of the actors most closely associated with Scorsese. The "tour" is broken up into three parts -- '1942-1973', '1974-1979' and '1980-1997' -- which chronologically trace his career and achievements. The layout -- there's a scrollable frame on top of the sub-pages -- is a bit confusing at first, but once you've figure it out, it's easy to move from page to page .

Association of Football Statisticians: Soccer fans who want to impress their friends with names, dates and scores through the ages can practically swim in a sea of facts and figures at this immense storehouse of football information. Besides stats on teams, players, transfers, suspensions and injuries, you can find previews of upcoming matches and leagues, the latest results and reports on the most recent games. It's a bit heavy on the English League and British soccer, but most hardcore football freaks are gonna have an exciting time feeding on every morsel of info served up here. For those interested in an overview of the game, there's a 'History' link, and 'Gallery' offers plenty of action shots. There's even an 'Obituaries' section, and 'Today in History' highlights major events from the past. The fairly fast-loading site is neatly organized with a search box at the top. And all the main links are clearly arranged on the top left.

MalaysiaStreet.com: One of the more interestingly designed of business-oriented local sites, this offers comprehensive coverage of movements on the local stock market. The reports, presented in a seamless news format, are mainly based on research-based analysis with quick-glimpse features like charts listing the most active, the strongest-gaining and the weakest stocks. Most of the information (Malaysian news on Asian Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones wire news service, forum on stocks, gossip, rumours etc) is free, but you have to register (if you're smart, you'll avoid filling in the fields requesting personal info) to access the features in full. And if you're seeking in-depth analysis ("monthly strategy pieces" and so on), it'll cost you, though the subsciption rate is reasonable. It may be a bit bothersome to have to log in even to get the free stuff -- most sites offering freebies are already doing away with the annoying login system, including The Edge Daily , another great resource for Malaysian stock market news -- but if you're a compulsive market watcher, you wouldn't mind the long load time that's sometimes occasioned by a bad connection for the daily hot tips (also available in Mandarin) and other helpful market reports.

Matinee Today: If you're turned on by film art and film posters, you're gonna find some fabulous treats at this online gallery. The collection includes some classic film posters, including those for 'Dr Strangelove', 'Dracula's Daughter', 'Dishonored Lady' and 'Blade Runner'. There're also reproductions of old, collectible covers of magazines like Cosmopolitan, New Movie, Modern Screen, Screen Stories and Silver Screen. The main page has direct links to 'The Lovely Rita' (the site creator has built a virtual shrine for Rita Hayworth filled with photos and all kinds of visuals for ), 'Posters', '3D Films' and 'Magazines'. It takes a while for the images to load but most of these are of crisp quality. Indeed, if you're resourceful enough, you can actually get them blown up and printed for mounting in your home.

WOS.com: You can't run away from the seemingly ubiquitous Lillian Too here -- after all, it's her series of best-selling feng shui books that inspired this site. But although her name is all over the place, there's really some great stuff here that should at least give you hope of improvements in your life in 2001. Because the home page is crammed with information, it takes a while to load. After that you have to put up with distractingly animated 'New!' signs that remind you of nightclub neon lights. But once you get over the initial irritation, you will find out everything from how to make the 'chi' flow unimpeded in your home to the most auspicious day for your wedding, if you're planning to get hitched that is. One of the most interesting attractions here is the Aunt Agga Feng Shui Column where you can ask all kinds of questions on how you can harness the power of feng shui for a healthier, wealthier and happier life. And then there're the tons of articles -- 'Fishing for Wealth Luck', 'Forward into the Past', 'Feng Shui Gardens', 'Celebrity Feng Shui' ("Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey!", and others) etc -- that will definitely leave you charged and breathless with positive vibes.