Val Cowan surfs the Net WORRIED GCSE students preparing for their exams can get help online.

The BBC's new GCSE Bitesize revision guides (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/revision) cover 11 of the most popular GCSE subjects - English, maths, geography, history, science, French, German, Spanish, design and technology, business studies and RE.

There are pages of revision tips, hints on what examiners are looking for and advice on how to tackle common questions.

Students can even e-mail exam queries to an online panel of teachers who will give a response within 72 hours.

There are also tips from students who have already survived the exams on how to cope.

Last year the site attracted more than one and a half million visits from its launch in April until the end of the year.

Of course, students will have to ensure they stick to the revision site, and don't find themselves surfing off elsewhere. Dinosaur named Sue

YOU might have heard the song about the boy named Sue...

Well, if it was an unlikely name for a boy, I'm not sure it's any more appropriate for a dinosaur.

But that's the name given to the biggest tyrannosaurus rex ever found.

She turned up in South Dakota in 1990, with 85 to 90 per cent of her bones beautifully preserved.

The Field Museum in Chicago is Sue's new keeper, and they are getting her bones ready to go on display in 2000.

There is an excellent website devoted to Sue (http://www.fmnh.org/sue) with information on the project to piece her back together.

There's a "just for kids" section with dinosaur themed games and puzzles to download.

And there's a "Sue-cam", via which you can watch experts work on the fossilised bones. Animal advice

THE World Society for the Protection of Animals has launched its own website.

The organisation, one of the world's leading animal protection agencies, has come up with more than 200 pages of information for the site (http://www.wspa.org.uk).

There are details of campaigns currently being carried out and information on how you can get involved.

There is also the opportunity to join WSPA, make a donation or even adopt a bear cub or orangutan online.

WSPA wanted the site to be information-led and fast and easy to use so it has steered clear of fancy graphics.

The result is an easy-to-follow site which will be of interest to anyone concerned about animal welfare. Baby death inquiry attracts 60,000

NET users from around the world have been logging onto the official website of the Bristol Royal Infirmary inquiry.

The inquiry is examining why babies died after undergoing heart surgery at the hospital.

In the last four weeks the site (http://www.bristol-inquiry.org.uk) has been visited some 60,000 times - that's about 2,500 hits a day. Visitors have come from more than 30 countries.

The site includes daily transcripts of inquiry proceedings and a guide to who's who.

There are plans to add witness statements and a direct link to the Bristol inquiry offices for website visitors to send comments to inquiry staff. Empire builders' nerves of steel

THE Empire State Building is such an integral part of the Manhattan skyline it is difficult to imagine what it must have been like before it was built.

But a collection of photographs on the New York Public Library's website gives you some idea.

The photographs were taken during the construction of the building in the early 1930s and show workmen precariously perched on the edge of what was to become one of the highest buildings in the world.

The length of the site address almost rivals the height of the finished building - http://www.nypl/org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/hinex/empire/empire.html Star Wars fever

FANS of Star Wars have started queuing outside Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, a full month before the new film gets shown. Hardcore fans have even set up a web site from the front of the line at www.starwars.countingdown.com

Think I might wait until it comes out on video...

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