Welcome to this week's Picks. There are times when we grow weary of wallowing in the mudhole of post-modern, mirror-shaded pop-culture and yearn for a simpler, less cluttered existence. The Australian poet Banjo Paterson captured our mood exactly when he wrote:

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all

We hunger for his "vision splendid of the sunlit plains untended", but since the Australian Outback is a tad beyond our budget, we'll have to plump for something a bit closer to home. The Irish town of Galway, for instance, which enters our unofficial list of happening places, thanks mainly to the sterling work done by The Complete Guide to Galway.

The site is a textbook example of its type. There is a wealth of material on local pubs, clubs, banks, shops and accommodation. There are even special offers in some of the restaurants, exclusively for Internet surfers -- a powerful incentive, especially if you love your food as much as we do.

The mere idea of eating reminds us of Napoleon's adage that an army marches on its stomach -- which was presumably his way of getting the trencherman into the trench. What he didn't point out was that a victorious army often ends up marching on the stomachs of its defeated opponents -- though we don't suppose that a call to arms along the lines of "join up and decorate the landscape with your lower intestine", offers much in the way of incentive! All of which nonsense brings us to World War I: Trenches on the Web, which we can state, unequivocally, is one of the best sites it has ever been our privilege to visit.

Trenches on the Web is a global collaborative project pulling together individual testimony, contemporary reportage and scholastic investigation, in an attempt to explain the catastrophic conflict that was The Great War. The content is so good that is it difficult to pick out individual highlights -- but don't miss the section on British Trench Warfare or the sobering lists of casualty figures. Be aware that pictures showing the true horror of war are dotted around this site like mines.

If it whets your appetite for more military matters, click on over to the National Army Museum which promises to reveal "the compelling story of the British soldier in peace and war". We were particularly struck by the neatness of this site. This is obviously the product of a military mind -- the pages are drawn up like regiments and mustered with parade-round precision. We imagine the webmaster must be a clone of the Windsor Davies character from the 1970s sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum -- a man who periodically draws himself up to his full height, puffs out a be-ribboned chest, twirls his handlebar mustache and mutters proudly about his "luvverly boys".

Our next pick couldn't be more different. The Zone is an exuberantly sloppy new site where pictures come in all shapes and sizes and layout is ... well ... arbitrary. The Zone is an extended e-zine with album and gig reviews, interviews and much more. We hope they can keep up their obvious enthusiasm and not fall into the malaise that seems to afflict many of these sites, resulting in a plethora of "404 file not found" and outdated "under construction" messages about six months after launch.

Perhaps The Zone will become one of those labours of love that then turns into a vocation which lasts a lifetime. Midlands mother Vicky Stone knows the feeling. In 1988 her daughter, 17-year-old Kate, died in a car driven by a young learner driver, who was being supervised by another 17-year-old who had only recently passed her driving test. Vicky launched The Learn and Live Campaign to help prevent similar accidents. Two years later -- on the anniversary of Kate's death -- the House of Commons passed a law requiring drivers supervising learners to be at least 21 years old and to have a minimum of three years driving experience.

Seven years on, The Learn and Live Campaign is still going strong, seeking changes in the law to increase road safety among young people.

With this in mind, it makes sense to round off this week's Picks with a complementary site -- John Farlam's Better Driving Pages -- which aims to promote safe driving by offering hints and tips for experienced and new motorists. There is an instructors area, a section on avoiding road-rage, a guide explaining how to avoid nodding off when driving alone, finally motoring the message home with a monthly tip.

As we at Picks are in the process of learning the elegant art of piloting a large hunk of shaped metal through London's narrow, winding thoroughfares we have decided, for this week only, to make John's site our Pick of Picks. We're off to practice reversing round corners and polishing our spark plugs. See you next week ...

Sites featured in Picks of the Week

• The Complete Guide to Galway - fine site laying bare this favourite tourist resort.
  
• World War 1: Trenches on the Web - global warfare portrayed in unflinching detail.
  
• The National Army Museum - fighting through the ages.
  
• The Zone - intelligent culture e-zine.
  
• The Learn and Live campaign - triumph out of tragedy.
  
• John Farlam's Better Driving Pages - staying safe on the road.
  

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