Websites

Plastic Web publishing and the bulletin board merge in this "self-organising" culture-and-politics site. An exercise in creative recycling, Plastic invites editors from various online sources (Spin, Wired, Nerve and others) to contribute initial web pickings, which are then mulled over in real time by the overall community. Moderators rate the comments so that subsequent readers can set their own "noise levels". Modelled on the news-for-nerds forum Slashdot, active since 1997, and part of a network also including the recently redesigned Feed.

Plastic Web publishing and the bulletin board merge in this "self-organising" culture-and-politics site. An exercise in creative recycling, Plastic invites editors from various online sources (Spin, Wired, Nerve and others) to contribute initial web pickings, which are then mulled over in real time by the overall community. Moderators rate the comments so that subsequent readers can set their own "noise levels". Modelled on the news-for-nerds forum Slashdot, active since 1997, and part of a network also including the recently redesigned Feed.

The Vines Network Working on a similar principle, this modestly claims to be "the Encyclopedia of Everything, Built by Everyone". The aim here is to build a reference tool from the ground up: the quality varies, though the best work is again meant to rise to the top on a read-and-rate basis. All material - more than 12,000 articles with a seeming specialism in Ancient History - is generated by members, not reliant on external links, and the site sets other dangerous precedents, such as actually paying contributors based on the ad revenue generated by their piece. Top article last week was "The Many Faces of Celtic Satire".

Pseudo Dictionary Newly minted slang, webspeak and colloquialisms are indexed, with no questions asked, beyond a far-reaching ban on explicit sex, drugs and bodily functions. Despite this, over 1,300 entries have made it so far, from "automagically" to "zark" (a Douglas Adams classic). Some embody essential truths - "pentropy: the tendency of ballpoint pens to take flight from your desk", while others are more suspect - can "agamemnon eats toast" really be an all-purpose expletive? Much more fun than the OED. As a last resort contributors may be pursued by e-mail.

drVet Network The funked-up Looney Tunes soundtrack may have you reaching for the "music off" button, but this relentlessly cheerful site, based on a children's TV show, covers all areas of pet care. Perhaps most useful is the Lost Pet Finder - for £12 equip your pooch with a drVet tag to distinguish it from the 400,000 other pets going awol each year. The site also offers health and nutrition advice, a chance to play Pet Solitaire and a section called, inevitably, Paws for Thought.

Edward Ardizzone - Diary of a War Artist One man's war, as depicted in the illustrated diaries of Edward Ardizzone, at this Imperial War Museum online exhibit. The Second World War artist's day-by-day account of the 1943 invasion of Italy presents cumulative, small-scale perceptions of a vast conflict, accompanied by sketches: heat, bugs and hardship interspersed with bibulous evenings under the trees. A calendar format leads to the original diary pages and a printed text, with a separate historical overview. "A maddening war, only the dead and dying stay still for you to draw".

Do This droll creation from a Dutch design group celebrates a brand name - with no actual merchandise attached. Do, the brand in question, is whispered throughout like a mantra - an all-purpose label for whatever you want it to be. "No products or services, just a dream", they say, inviting suitable items to come along and introduce themselves. Other conceptual product includes a vase customisable by breaking it, and the chance to "reincarnate" overfamiliar objects by hanging them from the ceiling.

AdFlip.com More direct forms of commercialism at this huge archive of print advertising from the 1940s to present day. Six decades of "classic" ads can be selected by time period and subject area, and perused as thumbnails. Denture adhesive from 1950, pages of Bakelite TV sets, Instamatic cameras from the 1970s, even a 1990s laptop. Ah, nostalgia.

Alex's Paperairplanes Commit aerial origami at this site, with diagrams of gliders, darts and other creative uses for a page of A4. Latest creations include the Dragon Plane and the Edmonton Flyer: more avant-garde creations are the Trapezium, Paper Helicopter and Paper Frisbee. Launching tips - throw gently, overarm - and links to the online paper plane community.

websites@dircon.co.uk