What's Online
By CAY DICKSON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

MAKIN' BACON -- Several years ago, the challenge of selecting any actor or actress who has been in a movie and connecting them to Kevin Bacon in the smallest number of links possible, became known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," or the Kevin Bacon game. A link is valid if two stars have been in a movie together. The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia, at oracleofbacon.org, is a fun way to try your hand. But the fun is just getting started because there are variations on the Bacon version. You can enter the names of any two actors and get their connection, or you can connect the dots in baseball. There is also a version for Elvis.


DUCK & CLICK -- Even the most avid hunters will be entertained by this Flash-powered game. Duck Hunt, at web.ics.purdue.edu/~jslack/duckhunt.php, is exactly what you would assume it to be, and boy, is it fun. Enter the site and watch the dog find the ducks. Then, get your clicking finger ready because those ducks are tricky rascals in flight. There's no blood, just a dog that holds up your dropped ducks or offers a visual commentary on your shooting accuracy. If you hit some good numbers on your shots, you can add your name to the list on the site.


GOOD EATS -- Before the food pyramid, there were just rules and regulations about how much you should eat each day to maintain that healthy glow and not get pudgy. The pyramid came out and was heralded as the easiest way to understand the recommendations. Nutrition.gov, at www.nutrition.gov/home, provides access to all online federal government information on nutrition. And topics include not only government information on nutrition, but also healthy eating, physical activity, food safety and obesity. Because obesity has rapidly become a major factor in health issues in America, accurate scientific information is important in making choices to curb obesity and other food-related problems.


CAMERA TRAVELS -- It's been done with Flat Stanley, but this project really focuses on results. Take a disposable camera, package it up all pretty, give it a name, supply return postage and give it to someone. That's the concept behind Phototag, at www.phototag.org/, and the inventive group of folks who created it. Granted, the pictures aren't exactly the kind of images you'll see in your fancy coffee-table books, but they are honest, unretouched shots of the moments in a day of the people who snapped the shutter. Some of the photographers also have left comments on the shots. They are equally as candid as the photography.


SMALL FISH -- Pretend that you are at the outermost edge of the Milky Way, looking toward Earth, or at least where you think Earth should be. Then close your eyes and get ready for a ride that you will find to be wondrous. Molecular Expressions: Secret Worlds, The Universe Within, at micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scieneopticsu/powersof10, is that ride, and what a ride it is. You can adjust the speed with which you make your journey from 10 million light-years away to the subatomic universe of electrons and protons. Each frame draws closer and closer until you are deeply inside the last recognizable thing you saw. Looking at the Earth as you get closer to it really puts things into perspective in a beautiful way.