Network

Surf's up

There are many obvious parallels between the Internet and the oceans. You can surf on both, a lot of people are scared by both, and the deeper you go into them the more horrible are the things that you might dredge up. But all that aside, there is a lot about the seas worth celebrating, this being the International Year of the Ocean. The International Oceanographic Commission is coordinating events. The commission, in its attempts to educate people more about the seas and oceans, has set up an interesting Web site at http:// www.unesco.org/ioc/iyo/iyohome. htm. There is plenty of information about the oceans on year's main Web site at http://www.ocean98.org/ ocean98. The site includes a virtual tour of the ship UN Seahorse.
Planet waves

But Earth is not the only place where you can find seas and oceans. Other planets have them too. Scientists think that Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, could be a good candidate for supporting life because there may be running water on its surface (an idea that Arthur C Clarke used for his third sequel in the Space Odyssy series). To check the latest information on this moon, zoom to http:// bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/europa.htm.
In depth If the mysterious, hidden depths of the oceans harbour things that you go in for, then you should take a look at the pages put together by Paul Yancey at http://www.bmi.net/ yancey/. He has an impressive collection of photographs of bizarre creatures that have been dredged up from the depths of the seas and oceans.