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watch One-Minute World News
Last Updated: Friday, 24 September, 2004, 16:31 GMT 17:31 UK
Webscape
By Kate Russell
BBC Click Online Webscape-r

Kate Russell gives us both a widescreen and a pinhole perspective on the WWW, among this week's selection of four new sites from her "favourites" folder.

Asian Film Connections

The Internet has repeatedly proved itself to be a fantastic way to open up new avenues of interest. There is a world of culture literally just a couple of clicks away.

If you have a broadband connection, it has never been quicker to explore the world, and our first site today takes us on a trip through Asia, using the medium of film as our tour guide.

Asian film connections is available in four languages - one of which, luckily for me, is English.

The elegant opening page is immediately welcoming, and the sparse use of information makes it quick-loading and a natural click-through.

Once inside, the design is equally appealing and if you have an interest in Asian films then the content is well considered and easy to read.

Even if you do not have an interest in the art form, you might find you get a taste for it after reading these pages, where contemporary feature films from China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are explored through short clips, filmographies, and reviews by critics and film scholars from all over the world.

Clicking a section in the left hand panel takes you to a page of further information, with sub-sections appearing on the left to guide you through. Your main headings can now be accessed across the top. The films are broken up into their regions, and clicking the lotus flower at any stage will bring you back to the opening page.


BBC Human Body and Mind

How sensitive are you? I am talking scientifically, not emotionally.

If you want to put yourself to the test and find out how much you know about your body's senses, our next web page could be just the ticket.

bbc.co.uk's own pages are a first class resource for study across many subjects at all levels.

Interactivity really helps to reinforce the message, and here in the Human Body and Mind section of the Science and Nature pages, you will find a couple of neat little exercises that will test what you have learnt so far.

Explore at your own pace, but the pages I specifically want to point out are in the Senses Challenge.

I will try not to give the game away too much so that you can test yourself fairly, but it is basically a series of interactive activities that aim to measure your sensory ability in several key areas.

You will be asked to do things like judge the size of objects compared to others, and to click on the colour a word is written in - not so easy when the word you are seeing is an alternative colour!

After each question you can click through to a full scientific explanation of why the brain and senses work the way they do, to help build your knowledge further.

See how many you can score first time around - and let me know if you beat my score of 12 out of 20!


Self-sufficientish.com

Time to go back to basics now, using the hi-tech medium of the Internet to gather information about living off the land.

Whether you live in the city and want to make a bit more of your garden and local natural resources, or you are a country dweller wishing to live in harmony with nature, these personal pages at Selfsufficientish.com are stuffed full of great tips and advice about how to live off and with the land.

From replacing flour with a substitute made from ground acorns that have fallen in the park, to using a carnivorous plant to combat fruit flies swarming about your compost bin - I found the tips and ideas to be innovative and practical.

There are interesting recipes and advice about wild foods on the front page, where you'll also find links to articles, tips and advice on subjects as diverse as reducing your impact on the environment by using public transport, and making a natural outdoor storage pit, known as a "clamp", to keep your root vegetables fresh over the winter.

The design is simple, but that does not worry me as it is in keeping with the nature of the content.

Altogether a really interesting site, which might just inspire you to become more self-sufficient too.


Pinhole photography

Our final website today was sent in to us by viewer Christina - and is a fascinating account of the equipment and techniques used in pinhole photography.

This site is the home of an intriguing collection of information and images.

Do not be put off by the opening page, which looks a bit strange with the author's own brand of unique pinhole art displayed - including, among other things, a gallery chronicling a day in the life of the inside of his mouth.

Click through to either this gallery, or a gallery of non-oral pinhole pics, to see the kinds of things you can create yourself. Then, further down the front page, click through to see how you can build one of these cameras for your own enjoyment.

It really is much easier than you would think; the hard bit is done for you by nature.

I particularly like the idea of creating a camera obscura in my home to impress visitors with a live projection of the outside world onto the walls and ceiling - but you do need a room you can black out completely if this technique is going to work.


If you have any suggestions for this page, please visit our "Contact us" page to get in touch.


Click Online is broadcast on BBC News 24: Saturday at 0745, 2030, Sunday at 0430, 0645 and 1630, and on Monday at 0030. It is also shown on BBC Two: Saturday at 0745 and BBC One: Sunday at 0645. Also BBC World.

Other items in this programme were:




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