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What's New - US Picks - Yahoo! Aust./NZ Picks - Yahoo! Canada Picks - Yahoo! France Picks - Yahoo! Germany Picks
Irish Picks - Scottish Picks - Picks of the Week
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What's New - US Picks - Yahoo! Aust./NZ Picks - Yahoo! Canada Picks - Yahoo! France Picks - Yahoo! Germany Picks
Irish Picks - Scottish Picks - Picks of the Week
We've had fun finding the sites that make Yahoo! UK & Ireland one of the best places to find UK or Irish sites, so we thought we'd share a few with you. If you have any suggestions, please send us a note about them. Also send any general thoughts or comments about Picks of the Week or even suggest sites you'd like us to consider for the next issue. Click here if you only want to view the list of sites.
Jane Austen thought little of Birmingham. "One has not great hopes of Birmingham," she wrote in Emma, "there is something direful in the sound." Almost 200 years later the place is still trying to live down its image as urban angst made concrete. At this point we should declare an interest -- Picks Central misspent three years of its youth among its sooty spires, and came away with distinctly mixed feelings.
But that was before we encountered The Euphoria Project. This look at some of the hidden features of the city (which is introduced with the downbeat phrase: "To speak its name is to speak of a Betaville, an anonymous space consisting not of people, but of things, of subways, motorways, factories: of means to an end.") is never less than intriguing and often down-right weird. It certainly shows the city in a light we'd never considered. Check out in particular The Confidential Vegetable Experiment, a plan to plant a variety of tubers in public locations and then take pictures of them. Why? Who knows, but you have to admit it's an arresting concept. And don't miss the tour around some of the city's lesser known public buildings, artworks and open spaces. The Euphoria Project may not dispel the gloom that seems to enshroud the city -- but it does at least make it appear a more interesting type of gloom.
Birmingham, however, is a laugh-riot compared with our next Pick -- a cultural experiment to create a text-based cyber city that goes under the name of Paradise. This is a great idea -- an imaginary city of 1,000 buildings, with visitors invited to conjure up the stories that that unfold behind the virtual bricks and mortar. But, we have to ask, why is everyone so miserable? Roads are called things like Guilt Street and Murder Street, while every individual contribution seems to explore themes of alienation and death. It's like the perpetually wet city in the movie Seven only without Morgan Freeman to cheer everyone up. We at Picks have decided to submit a number of upbeat offerings and try to get the sun to shine in Paradise. We urge everyone to do likewise.
Continuing with the urban theme, though our next Pick is not for the faint-hearted. Urban75 makes free use of a wide variety of frank language but has an undeniable spirit and, praise be, a sense of fun. We particularly liked the Useless page including a collection of JavaScript games that add new meaning to the word pointless. Mr Insult was a big hit in our office -- although it really is one for adults only, while the Tiny Pictures special demonstrates the depth to which the terminally bored will sink. Additional sections deal with rave culture, a football section, a collection of listings and much more. This is underground online agitprop as it should be.
Moving swiftly on to a less contentious subject -- Christmas (or Winterval as Birmingham council attempted to rechristen it in one of their more politically correct moments) is coming, the goose is getting fat, and we’ve turned our attention to the procuring of presents via a hamperful of online stores. Among the best is Giftstore UK, which has one of the largest collections of suitable presents we have encountered. Among the goodies on offer are flowers, cards, games and toys and a selection of music and videos. The interface is straightforward -- we were able to buy an action man sniper (complete with 20 accessories) in just four clicks, and the pages are designed so you don’t have an interminable wait.
Of course the buying of presents for small children (and large children such as ourselves come to that) is fraught with difficulty. If you get it wrong you will face Christmas afternoon attempting to come up with diverting activities for kids who believe that they have been shortchanged in the gifts department and you are personally to blame for serving up the worst Christmas since Christmases began. But forewarned is forearmed and while we cannot help you choose the perfect present for your delightful little bundle we can give you a pointer should it all go horribly wrong. Check out Bizarre stuff you can make in your kitchen for a welter of more or less messy things that will entertain even the most bad tempered youngster. We know from personal experience that the stupid egg tricks section is a winner, the shrunken head is actually a lot less ominous than it sounds, and the psychic motor will soon restore that expression of dumbfounded awe to their cherubic little mugs. A surefire winner.
Hopefully you will join us again next week when we will be serving up another selection of the best Picks the web has to offer...