Mark Templeton Surfs the Net

SPOOKY sites galore have been popping up all over the Internet in preparation for Hallowe'en.

As well as the usual horror stuff, there are some great pages designed for kids to get them in the trick or treat mood.

The Family Web site provides a step by step guide on how to make ghoulish costumes.

There's also a creepy cuisine section with novelty recipes including Spaghetti Eyeballs and Brain Surgery Salad. Yuk!

Once you've got your costume sorted you can wander over to the award winning Jack-o-Lantern pages which have some ideas for Hallowe'en lanterns to make a refreshing change from the usual carved pumpkin toothy grins.

And no trick or treat would be complete without songs whose lyrics you can find at another web site:

Family Web: http://www.family.com/

Jack-o-Lantern site: http://www.jack-o-lantern.com

Hallowe'en Carols: http://www.night.net/halloween/halloween-carols.html-ssi

This Emergency Room is virtually for real

ANY fans of the brilliant American TV series ER or Britain's Casualty should pay a visit to the real hospital emergency rooms over the Internet.

ER Watch is a fascinating site listing real cases from America's busiest 100 casualty departments.

There's something ghoulish but quite addictive about reading about other people's misfortunes and those with weak stomachs should maybe stay away from this web site.

It's packed with dozens of features including a search facility which will list cases depending on the body part and injury you have selected. ER Watch provides a riveting behind the scenes look at day to day hospital life and there are profiles on the real George Clooneys of this world who keep the emergency rooms running. Web site:

http://www.erwatch.com/

Divorcees' link-up

ONLY in America could you get divorced over the net.

So it was only a matter of time before a support group for single parents and divorcees was set up offering comfort and friendship as only the Yanks can.

Divorce Central does offer some practical and helpful advice for the recently separated and there are special chat rooms where those who have just split from their partner can talk to others in similar circumstances. Web site:

http://divorcecentral.com/

Hawking's hide-out

STEPHEN Hawking's Universe site is a definitive guide to all the difficult-to-understand stuff in the professor's visually amazing TV guide to the universe. Lots and lots of content, which, like the TV series, looks fantastic on screen.

Web site: http://www.wnet.org/hawking

Sobering site

ALCOHOLICS who can't get help by going to an AA meeting don't even have to leave their homes for advice thanks to the net.

The aptly named Staying Cyber pages offer counselling over the world wide web and there's a Coffee Pot area where people trying to stay on the wagon can swap stories, information and guidance.

Web site:http://stayingcyber.org/

Royal visiting

THE official Royal Family Web site has had an overhaul, with a huge injection of new content, especially pictures.

Additions include an "exclusive" picture of the Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair at Buckingham Palace, and an explanation of what made Alfred the Great burn the cakes. Since the site opened earlier this year, a staggering 80 million people have visited it, prompting the webmasters to add an extra 135 pages bringing the total to 385.

As you would have expected, about half of those visitors came after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales - 35 million accesses were recorded in the two weeks after the tragedy.

Web site: http://www.royal.gov.uk

DON'T forget to let me know about anything you've found on the Internet or send me details about your own pages. Just e-mail me at: mtempleton@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk

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