In Brief

SURVIVOR III Apparently eager to cash in on two trends--reality TV and the Web--at once, the Army has launched a website called Basic Training www.goarmy.com/basic) that will follow the real-life, real-time adventures of six young recruits as they make their way through the trials and tribulations of the first nine weeks of Army life, from their first haircut to their last push-up. The recruits--four men and two women--will go through training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. The show, which promises "uncut, unfiltered glimpses of life in the Army," premieres Feb. 16. Any moles will be summarily court-martialed.

IF THE SHOE FITS Memo to corporate America: If you want to be interactive, better be ready to interact with a lot of smart alecks. At the website nikeid.nike.com, sneaker titan Nike invites visitors to order shoes bearing a word or phrase of their choice. One customer, M.I.T. grad student Jonah Peretti, requested sneakers with SWEATSHOP on them--a sly reference to Nike's much criticized labor practices. Nike refused.

GLASSES FOR THE MASSES Joshua Silver, a socially conscious Oxford University physics professor, has invented a pair of corrective glasses that can be adjusted on the spot to fit 90% of prescriptions. The glasses have hollow, fluid-filled lenses whose curvature can be altered pneumatically with the turn of a knob. Silver has dubbed his invention Adaptive Spectacles, and he hopes they can be distributed in parts of the world where optometrists and prescription lenses are hard to come by. One bug: the frames are so thick they make Harry Potter's specs look like contact lenses.