THE year 2000...or the end of the world as we know it? Only time will tell.

But it seems a significant number of people - mostly Americans, it has to be said - are already convinced that flipping the calendar over to the new year will mean the total breakdown of society as we know it.

The web is full of pages set up by people worried about what will happen when 2000 arrives and tips on how you can survive the coming apocalypse.

And companies have not missed out on the unique marketing opportunity the threat of the world ending offers.

Simple outdoor equipment is no longer described as such. Now, according to various firms advertising on the web, it could be your key to survival when the world ends.

Take Arktana, an Arkansas-based outfit (http://www.adpub.com/arktana/index.html) which at first glance appears to be selling cooking stoves and water filters - useful, you might think, if you fancied a camping trip in the great American wilderness.

But read the line under the innocuous looking water filter.

It warns: "In any civil disaster, the first thing in short supply is clean, safe drinking water." Gulp.

Y2K Survive (http://www.

y2ksurvive.com/) is a comprehensive guide to ensuring you and your family are safe when millennium meltdown occurs.

The site's author, Cody Varian, is a man with serious worries about the year 2000.

He says: "Y2K is deadly. You must take steps now to protect yourself and those you love from it." Cody's advice for avoiding disaster come 2000 includes buying plenty of rice in advance, digging a well in an unobtrusive spot in your back yard when your neighbours aren't watching and converting all your savings into cash.

You should also buy extra clothing for your children - but forget about fashion.

He says: "No-one will have the slightest interest in fashion in 2000; we'll all be too concerned about getting enough food and keeping warm."

You have been warned.

Another US site, the Y2K Newswire (http://www.y2knewswire.com/W-MainY2Ksurvival.htm) promises to bring you "the truth on Y2K survival" - from online news sources and insiders who work for organisations including the US government, hospitals, the army and banks.

The service is free but you have to subscribe by entering your e-mail address.

Internet helps to unite refugees

WE have already seen how the internet has been put to use in the ongoing Balkans conflict to spread news from Kosovo through online radio stations and e-mail.

Now the International Committee of the Red Cross is using technology to try to reunite families separated by the war.

The International Committee has established a website (http://www.familylinks.icrc.org) to help displaced families get in touch.

Refugees can use the site in a number of ways. If they have an address for relatives they can fill in an electronic version of the traditional Red Cross message which will be transmitted to the Red Cross or Red Crescent society in the relevant country and delivered to the addressee. If they do not have an address they may be able to find one by consulting a list of people registered with the site.

And if they cannot find the name of the person they are looking for on the list, they may register themselves in the hope relatives will contact them.

Sandra Singer, head of tracing at the British Red Cross, said: "We are applying today's technology to a traditional Red Cross service.

"Our aim is to try to help families from Kosovo now displaced into many countries to get in touch and exchange family news."

The charity has installed computers for use by people looking for relatives at its offices in Albania, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and other countries.

New Star Wars movie takes step back in time

STAR Wars site of the week...an "Asciimation" of the first Star Wars movie (http://www.

fortunecity.com/tatooine/

lucas/339/page1.html)

Ascii is an old-fashioned computing term which describes making pictures out of the standard characters on your keyboard.

So you've got a version of Star Wars with the characters made from @ signs and asterisks.

The film isn't finished yet but it is being added to all the time.

THE Amazon river basin is put under the World Wildlife Fund's microscope in Saving the Amazon (http://worldwildlife.org/amazon).

The site looks at the flora and fauna of the world's richest rainforest, which boasts the greatest biological diversity on Earth.

You can listen to some of the sounds of the rainforest at the site too.

GET the latest showbiz news updated three times daily at http://www.thisislanc

ashire.co.uk

SEEN something interesting on the web? Let me know. Send an e-mail to vcowan@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.