'These are a few of my favourite things'

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Some noteworthy sites you might care to visit.

The God Edllusion Richard Dawkins Every child, instead of being forced to undergo religious indoctrination at school, should instead be given a copy of this to read.

Dr Who Box Set The superb new series is a galaxy beyond anything that came before.

24 Series 5 One day I will get round to watching an entire series in 18 hours.

TATU's debut album I used to think that Chris Isaak's Wicked Game video featuring Helena Christensen was the sexiest ever, then I saw TATU's All The Things She Said — well what can you say? Я Сошла С Ума Buy the Russian version 200 ПО ВСТРЕЧНОЙ if only to get the superb 'Robot'!

Malena A great film than will never get the success it deserves in Britain, because of the public's attitude to anything with subtitles. Starring the unsurpassable Monica Bellucci.

Stargate SG-1 Series 1 Jaffa — Cree! If you've never got into the best sci-fi series since Star Trek, start here.

Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy My favourite book. I do hope this gets made into a film so that the world is alerted to the threat posed by environmental extremists.

• Agent
  If you don't read Usenet newsgroups, it's probably because you haven't got this software.
• The Alice Band are alas no more (great music, crap marketing — their full names are not even given on the CD!) — a shame as The Love Junk Store is one of my favourite albums of recent years; but Audrey Nugent has a page where you can her some of her songs; and you can catch Amy Bell (aka Amy Belle, aka Amy Lindop) at gigs in and around Glasgow; whilst Charity Hair is now lead singer with The Ailerons
  
• Amazon
  Best internet bookshop & other stuff. Excellent facilities for searching, reviews, recommendations. Speaking of recommendations, see panel on the right:
  
• Apple
  Computers that don't crash. Make the switch, you know it makes sense.
• Association of British Drivers
  For everyone who drives a car and is sick and tired of speed cameras, speed humps, and the endless tirade of anti-car policies and propaganda, and transport policy being dictated by a minority of vociferous tree huggers.
• Campaign For Dark Skies
  Why you can't see the Milky Way from large cities anymore.
• Countryside Alliance
  Combatting the attack on rural lifestyles by the usual bunch of self-righteous interfering do-gooders.
• Digital Photography Review
  If you want to know about digital cameras this is the place to go. Superbly detailed reviews of many cameras.
• Eudora
  The best e-mail software by far, and a sure fire way of avoiding the increasing number of viruses which exploit the security flaws in Microsoft Outlook.
• Exmoor
  An unspoilt corner of England ideal for those who like walking or riding, or just a peaceful break away from it all.
• File Box Extender
  Fed up of Microsoft's pathetically small dialog box for opening files? — Get this software.
• FreeFind
  A free search engine for your homepage — sounds too good to be true doesn't it?
• Funny Names
  The home of Abbie Monk, Cliff Edge, Eve Ning, Fleur Tacious, Lucy Lastick and Toby Hynde — amongst others.
• Google Advanced Search
  The best search engine
• Google groups
  The best Usenet search tool
• Harvester Project
  Fighting back against the scum of the internet — spammers.
  
• The Herb Birds
  An excellent female acoustic duo I came across purely by chance in Leicester. See them in and around the Nottingham area.
• Hot Keyboard
  Very useful software that allows you to set up endless shortcuts on your keyboard.
• International Space Station Tracker
  Find out where the ISS is right now.

• Jakki Degg
  Official site for the delectable Miss Degg. Shame the photos are so small that they don't do her justice.

• James Randi Educational Foundation
  Promoting science above superstititous claptrap, and stopping society's descent into another dark age by offering fraudsters who claim to have paranormal and supernatural abilities, a million dollar reward if they can prove it.

• Logo Free TV
  Campaigning against those irritating on-screen logos.

• Lotus Cars
  Lots of excellent photos of the Lotus Elise
  Described by Vicki Butler-Henderson as "The most fun you can have with your bra on"
  
• NASA News Releases
  Get NASA news releases by email. Britain's boring media may have lost interest in mankind's instinctive desire to explore, but that doesn't mean you have to.
• NASA TV
  Live coverage of space events via the web.
  Fed up of blathering TV commentators? Take the video feed direct from NASA — unlike TV companies, when they've nothing to say they say nothing.
• No2ID
  George Orwell was right about the concepts in '1984', only he got the year 20 years early.
• NoteTab
  A superb bit of software you shouldn't be without — like Notepad — but 100 times better. The free version is probably the best free software you can get.
  This website was created with it. None of this WYSI(allegedly)WYG carp here.
• Latest Orbital weather photo from the Met Office
• Ordnance Survey — Get A Map
  On-line maps of the UK by the people that make the best maps in the world.
• Opera
  A better browser by far.
• Radio Caroline
  From the days when playing the music people wanted to listen to was deemed illegal by our wonderful government.
  
  
  
• Odyssey 5 Must Survive
  It is a sad comment on the arrogance and power of corporations in society when a TV series is cancelled not because it is unpopular or unprofitable, but simply because the TV company's executives feel like a change of direction in their programming.
   
  
• SpeedFerries
  You may not have heard of Curt Stavis yet, but he is doing for ferry passengers what Richard Branson did for aircraft passengers.
   
  
  
• Stargate SG1
  The best TV sci-fi series since Star Trek.
• Streetmap
  Maps of everywhere in the UK
• Voters Revolt
  How I despise bureaucracy
• Wikipedia
  Anything and everything — by anybody (unfortunately). Used to be superb, though contentious issues are now often hijacked with people with an agenda who have nothing better to do, and Wikipedia's owners don't seem to care less, which is surprising given that this is slowly but surely destroying Wikipedia's credibility.

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My Pet Hates!     Amuses