At Picks Central we like to think we maintain a certain tone, an air of je ne sais quoi, an aura of sophisticated cultivation, a ... well you get the picture. So there’s only one thing we can possibly do when confronted with Top Notch -- a site designed for and by people comfortable with the epithet ‘double-hard b**t**ds’ (as they term themselves on the front page). And that is ... take a peek (in the interests of research, naturally). This is a site for ‘geezers’ -- chaps who eat cheese and chips sandwiches and spend their leisure time thinking up ways of annoying staff at McDonald’s Restaurants. ‘Political’ and ‘correctness’ are two words missing from a geezer’s dictionary but, as wiser heads than us have decided, it takes all sorts...

In the future, of course, cloning will have consigned geezers and their ilk to some forgotten corner of history. We’ve seen an advance preview of the science-fiction movie Gattaca -- playing at a cinema near you this week -- so we know. The genetically perfect will form the privileged elite and be the only people allowed to work in space. The rest will be deemed ‘in-valid’. It’s good to see that in the future totalitarian regimes have retained a taste for poor wordplay! Sony has a top promotional web site for the film, which allows you to genetically design your own child and take the helm of a spaceship on a mission to Jupiter’s moon Titan.

Happily, space has not yet been cordoned off by people who look like Uma Thurman so anyone can strive for a career among the stars. That’s where Space Careers can help. It provides an extensive collection of links to the major players in the space industry (with more than 300 potential employers from satellite designers to launch system developers). There’s also a collection of useful resources to help improve your chances. It also has a Space Site of the Week section which currently points to the cumbersomely-monikered Permanent -- Projects to Employ Resources of the Moon and Asteroids Near Earth in the Near Term -- which is currently considering the implications of lunar ice.

In space, as is well known, no-one can hear you scream -- even when you are subjected to the massive gravitational pressures of take-off. Scientists reckon that a force of nine g’s would be enough to crush you like a bug on a windscreen. We reckon that even half of that is pushing it a bit, so one place you’ll never find us is on Oblivion -- the newest and scariest ride at Alton Towers. Their nicely shockwaved site promises that the ride will subject you to lateral forces making you feel disorientated and twice as heavy as normal (we can do the same thing by drinking), while propelling you vertically at 110 kph to certain death. Okay, so we made the bit about certain death up, but these type of rides make us feel very nervous indeed. We’ll stick with the video they’ve helpfully provided to show you the experience, thank you very much.

With a shudder we turn our attention to more stable pursuits -- namely, a tour around the genteel environment that is St Katherine’s Dock. The dock has been part of London life for more than a thousand years, ever since King Edgar (959-975) gave 13 acres of land to 13 knights with the right to use it for profit. In addition to a comprehensive history section, the site contains the online magazine Waterside, and information on local shops and sight-seeing services.

The docks are assured of their place in London’s history -- as is the Millennium Dome, south of the river and slightly east. Those bright people at the Sunday Mirror have had the clever idea of setting up a webcam so you can watch the Dome being built. Though a late-comer to the world of online publishing, the paper has managed to inject much of its brash approach to life into a well-organised site. It is worth spending the time checking out the latest from their columnists, picking up trivia about the forthcoming Oscars, or -- one for the geezers this -- simply browsing their section on the world’s most beautiful women.

See you next week.

Sites featured in Picks of the Week

• Top Notch -- a site for geezers. Not to be confused with geysers.
  
• Gattaca - Send in the clones (we tried, but we just couldn't resist it!).
  
• Space Careers - are you an asteroid-bound boffin?
  
• Oblivion- a ride that thinks it has failed if you don't die of fright!
  
• St Katherine’s Dock - 1,000 years of London history.
  
• Sunday Mirror - bright tabloid debuts online.