TIME EUROPE
July 31, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 3
Techwatch
TRIVIAL PURSUITS
Never a Dull Moment on the Web
So you're sitting at your desk at work and, like Chekhov's three sisters, you're bored, bored, bored. You'd be happy to watch grass grow, but your boss might notice if you smuggled in a sack of seeds. Fortunately, webcams provide a source of distraction. Check out the scene in Antarctica at www.antdiv.gov.au/stations/mawson/video.html; stare out the window at buzzing Yokohama, Japan at www.seaple.icc.ne.jp/~hamakko/noriko.html; or watch traffic flow across the new Øresund Bridge linking Sweden and Denmark at www.oresundskonsortiet.com/newsinfo/pictures/webcam. The Dull Men's Club (www.dullmen.com) has lots of suggestions — such as riding travelators (like escalators, only flat) — for males who find themselves bored after work. Useless information buffs might want to have a look at Dull Trivia (www.dullmen.com/dull.htm), which boasts such gems as "Bats always turn left when exiting a cave." Real dullards will find fascinating viewing at the Boring Postcards page (www.maths.soton.ac.uk/staff/Dewynne/postcards.html), with its images of buses and tower blocks. Those still hungry for a little titillation might try the Paint Drying Voyeurs' Club at members.aol.com/anoracart/paint-dry_cam.htm, where this year's featured colour (red) can be viewed on successive days as it shades from dark to violent. If you're really bored and need help, go to Boredom Anonymous (members.xoom.com/_XMCM/BoredSnoobs/main.html), though there's not much on the site apart from Zen quizzes (all the questions are blank) and links to further dead ends. The Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley, has a Geological Time Machine (www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html) that should help put your ennui in perspective by reminding you that you're living in the Phanerozoic Eon, a nifty little geological era that's been going strong for 544 million years.
SITE SEEING
Peter, Pamela and Percy, three endangered African jackass penguins rescued last month after a freighter, the Treasure, sank outside Cape Town's Table Bay Harbor and released tons of oil into the sea, are providing scientists with insight into the homing instincts of these flightless birds. The three were fitted with global positioning system (GPS) tracking devices and their 800-km trek from Port Elizabeth, where they were scrubbed and tagged, back to nesting grounds on Robben and Dassen Islands was monitored. The birds' marathon swim was followed by thousands of Web surfers who visited the University of Cape Town's penguin site (www.uct.ac.za/depts/stats/adu/oilspill/sapmap.htm). Says Cape Town University's Les Underhill: "The tagging of the penguins and the information collected will be of assistance to conservationists in the event of a similar disaster elsewhere."
WHAT'S NEXT
Web Medicine: secondopinion.com
Together with the International Union Against Cancer, Berlin's Charité Hospital this month launched the world's first online Telepathology Consultation Center (www.uicc.org/telepathology). A pathologist anywhere in the world in need of help with a diagnosis can simply send his or her question, clinical information, X-rays, scans or other images by e-mail to one of 70 participating pathologists, who then provides a diagnosis within three days.
E-commerce: EC-DC Does IT
More than 80 countries so far have established the infrastructure required for e-business thanks to the success of the Electronic Commerce for Developing Countries (EC-DC) project. EC-DC (www.itu.int/ECDC), which is less than a year old, is the result of a partnership between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Trade Center Geneva and WISeKey certification service. Participating countries benefit from secure e-business solutions and services and lower costs by using existing infrastructures and by pooling available resources.
Mergers: Bigger, Broader, Faster
U.S. broadband company Excite@Home and Netherlands-based Chello Broadband, a subsidiary of international cable operator UPC, are teaming up to create the largest high-speed cable Internet service outside North America, covering Europe, Australasia and Latin America. Excite Chello will combine Excite's content and media services with Chello's high-speed Net access to offer CD quality sound, streaming video and interactivity.
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July 31, 2000
SPECIAL REPORT
Spies Among Us
More than 20 million people have downloaded programs that secretly snoop inside their PCs. Are you one of them?
To Each His Own?
The answer's not clear when it comes to personal data. Ideas differ about how much control we need
EUROPE
The Final Reckoning
Businesses agree to compensation for wartime Germany's forced labor policies — but where's the money?
A Nasty Tax Hangover
Sweden has one of Europe's lowest levels of booze-related illness — but now it faces an Absolut dilemma
Terror Reigns
Spain is rocked by a new wave of separatist attacks
Compensation Conflict
High politics and hidden treasure
MIDDLE EAST
Inside the Talks
How do you get Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak to sit together? Time looks at the long, hard road just to reach the Camp David summit
BUSINESS
Don't Call Us
Telefónica's controversial chairman gets the cold shoulder from many of his former friends
He's Having a Mall
J.W. (Joe) Kaempfer is bringing discount culture to the staid commercial enclaves of Europe
TECHNOLOGY
Stamping Out Mines
Two machines designed in the U.K. offer hope for safe and speedy removal of war's deadly leftovers
SOCIETY
What Money Can't Buy
In a scathing book, super-shopper Mouna Ayoub claims her life married to a rich Saudi was hell
THE ARTS
Valentino's Day
As the Italian designer rethinks his business plan for the new millennium, his loyal "Val's Gals" celebrate 40 years of gowns with a timeless appeal
Unleashing a Storm
Digital effects play the major role in this would-be blockbuster — and make a splash in others too
Wickedly Good Fun
Bubble, bubble, months of trouble: Cameron Mackintosh's new show, The Witches of Eastwick, casts its spell in London
DEPARTMENTS
Techwatch
World Watch
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