http://www.demon.co.uk/london-calling
Ignore the patronising echoes of an outdated Home Service, this is an
excellent, easy to use site that serves more than those in the capital.
There is lifestyle, leisure-oriented editorial with the emphasis on film
and media news; articles on Sheffield's intelligent techno label, Warp,
and low budget urban loft living. You can also walk round Portobello Market
without bumping into Trustafarians.
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http://www.ftech.net/~yush/
What is it? Promisingly provocative slang-filled laid back black culture
'zine in a bonafide ruff neck style. YÄsh Ponline mashes up British,
Afro-American and Jamaican opinion and polemic with a more relaxed sideways
review of black arts and culture. Alongside an article on Bono claiming
Bob Marley for the Irish, a piece about masturbation in the bible or the
secularisation of Rastafari, there's an equally fine review of the latest
Loaded lifestyle craze, lap dancing; a profile of Lisa I'Anson, an item
on Bob Marley getting the Marvel comic treatment, a dis of ackee and saltfish
and a preview of Gaytime TV. Is that varied enough? And it gets better,
seen!
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http://www.urban75.demon.co.uk/
Mike Slocombe's Brixton-based ezine covers the underground music and
politics scene in a lively and informative fashion. Slocombe is involved
in a number of political campaigns from Reclaim The Streets to Football
Supporters against the Criminal Justice Bill and here you can read his latest
exploits as well as keeping an eye on forthcoming events. Full of energy
and well designed this could well become one of the essential UK ezines.
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http://www.microweb.com/traffic/
These days it seems like every other person online is a wannabee Coupland,
the new Marshal McLuhan or just some new-media-mad meglamaniac with their
own personal axe to grind. Traffic is yet another of these observational
diatribes on consumerism, mass culture and the digitised debris collecting
on the Web...but it's good!
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http://www.SALON1999.com/
Salon is an interactive magazine dedicated to ideas, books and the arts
in general, and its bristling manifesto pledges primary allegiance to the
written word. Developing the theme of a late 18th century debating society,
it provides a place for people to congregate and engage in intellectual
discussion, kind of like a highbrow happening on anything from Jane Austen
or crack culture to the exodus of smart young things going East, as in Asia
(not New York)! The list of staff behind this effort reads like a who's
who of American journalism: ex-San Francisco Examiner staff, Village Voice,
Vanity Fair writers, a one-time contributing editor of Hotwired and so on.
But if you think you'll have trouble tagging along with the top thinkers,
don't worry Ü it's not that hard to keep up.
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http://www.retroactive.com/
Picking your way through the pages of Retro is like rifling through
the first two thirds of the 20th century, coming across a Goblin teasmaid
and breaking into a mile-wide grin because it works. Its affectionate catalogue
of familiar household objects, old commercials, 30s shoes, Pengin paperbacks,
Italian scooters and sexily-styled American cars is an expertly edited read
about 20th century lifestyles, design and entertainment Ü like a junk
warehouse with words. The San Francisco-based magazine's old-style love
affair with jazz, blues and Hawaiian eight-note harmonies is a real find
for the early popular music fan and from the casual browser of kitsch to
the serious 'practically antique' collector, Retro looks back at the modern
stuff we took for granted and writes about anything that ever had any style.
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http://www.tir.com/~rtw/rtw.htm
An eclectic popular culture ezine from the US which features diverting
dissertations on topics such as the enduring appeal of safety films, how
the Honda 50 won the hearts of Americans and Bing Crosby's landmark contribution
to recording technology. Some of the pieces are over-long but the graphics
are clean and sharp Ü a knowing site.
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http://pathfinder.com/people/
A length of fuse burning from each side of the screen changes on the
click of a mouse to a filing cabinet, finally opening to reveal a 'whatever
happened to?' feature about the stars of cult TV series Mission Impossible.
This is the weekly American People magazine online, featuring stars of film
and TV or the rich and glamorous and, like this particular issue's Demi
Moore cover story, it spares no details of their alcohol, drug, family and
trouble-getting-on-with-normal-people problems. The cover is an image map,
so you can go straight to anything or anyone that takes your fancy. It's
gossip, but extremely well written at that and with cool artwork.
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http://www.internic.net/newsletter
A free newsletter about the evolution of the Internet available in hard
copy and electronic formats. NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
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http://www.nrv8.com/
Less self-consciously cool than some of the other 'wired generation'
ezines but not quite as interesting. Much of the mag is caught up in campus
concerns - PC or anti-PC pieces composed in a condescending sixth form style.
It's nicely designed but somewhat self-contained and lacking in hotlinks.
Still, don't write 'em off too soon Ü these things take time.
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http://www.wco.com/~coconutg/
Mister Lucky is a suave, sophisticated lounge lizard's manual of laid
back cocktail jazz and its accompanying debonair drinks. It seems to come
straight out of an era that owes nothing to technology and everthing to
Jay Gatsby. A decadent mix of music and alcohol, that blends your favourite
Vodka Martini with bossa nova beats. Swing by.
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http://www.melvin.com/
When journalistic parody is this finely honed, it ends up becoming what
it apes. Perhaps Melvin will find its way into the Murdoch stable. NO LONGER
AVAILABLE
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http://www.magnetmag.com/
There's nothing particularly remarkable about Magnet but it is very
aptly named because, against expection, it somehow draws you in. Proficiently
put together and moderately well-designed, it covers all points on the compass
from entertainment and lifestyle stuff to design and technology. If one
were being uncharitable, one might say Magnet's approach is nothing out
of the ordinary, except some of the film stuff is about up and coming directors
and screenwriters who aren't often mentioned elsewhere and a recent article
on marine parks, 'From Flipper To Free Willy', was more enjoyable than might
be imagined.
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http://dougal.derby.ac.uk/lpoets
Having stumbed across this journal of new poetry, it is quite impossible
to come away without having been touched or moved in some respect Ü
especially by the very fact it is there. A perfect page for those quiet
and reflective moments.
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http://www.publicshelter.com
Mind-bogglingly well linked online version of author and film-maker
Jayne Loader's witty mag, combining passions of media, anti-censorship and
anti-nuclear issues to give an irreverent journey onlineî. Stemming
from her involvement with the 1982 highly-prized document The Atomic Cafe,
about propaganda culled from material produced by the US government,î
Loader's creative juices flow freely, as in her 'co-authored' I Was a Hollywood
Sex Slave by Carrie Jo Starkweather. The tale in question is one of exploitation
and racial hatred, weaving surprising links to the White Aryan Resistance
Hate Page dedicated to white racismî and a page of vibrators for sale.
Short on graphics, long on (hyper)text and Ü most appealing of all
Ü it plumbs the depths of sanity and good taste.
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http://www.inquisitor.com/
Eschewing the ultra hip in return for a more relaxed, less self-conscious
sideways glance at technology and culture, Danny Drennan's Inquistitor is
full of quirky articles and smart , ascerbic, observational stuff. High-tech
Low Tech looks at technological advances down at Toys R Us, whilst Iconography
charts the cultural icons that changed our lives. Check it out.
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http://www.fused.com
At first I thought this was just another ezine about UK clubs, music
and related culture. Thankfully Fused is a lively and informative read which
looks as though a helluva lot of work has gone into it. You can go in on
music categories such as Chill-out, Drum 'n' Bass, Dub, House, Hard House
or Techno or review what's new on the site. Each section has reviews of
new releases and charts from record shops and labels. A real labour of love.
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http://www.clock.co.uk
The revamped and relaunched Camden Lock Web site from Delphi Creative
is certainly impressive. The design is very slick although it can be a bit
confusing. Content is varied and includes everything from UK film industry
gossip to Speedo competitions. I could have done without the anti-IRA rant
from Wavy Davy Winder though. Still, a well thought-out and involving site
that could well set itself up as the online magazine for the capital.
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http://www.aber.ac.uk/~ednwww/Click/click.html
For millions of media studies students the Internet does some things
really well. It allows them to tap into an academic network of texts and
papers on Baudrillard, Barthes, Foucault and the like, but it also provides
examples of the ways in which people use popular texts to make sense and
meaning from the world and to derive pleasure from it. Is this making any
sense? Where Click, a media and culture Webzine from the University of Wales,
falls down is that it's somewhere between the two Ü a fairly unelucidating
opinion on a widely circulated cultural product like Die Hard With a Vengeance
or Calvin & Hobbes does not make you Toby Young or Julie Burchill. Bring
back the Modern Review!
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http://www.exclamation.com/blow/
As soon as you get to grips with one Webzine it spawns another publication
which fires off some sarcastic riposte. The gay young blades at Blow, as
opposed to Suck (the adopted half-sister of Hot Wired) did the Suck parody
last November but continue to warrant attention having now carved out their
very own niche. Anti-authoritarian in approach and railing against the tired
and lazy attitudes of the now established Netocracy, Blow is short (usually
just one well written column at a time), sharp, erudite and spiteful but
totally clued up on everything wired. Compulsive.
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http://www.echonyc.com/~BOMB/
Funky intellectual community blah blah from an elite collective of explosive
East Coast talent. Bomb is an established New York quarterly devoted to
new writers, poets, filmmakers, artists, actors and musicians. Put it on
your hip list and call up the Bomb squad.
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http://www.cupcake.com
Sugar pink shouty dream 'zine with all the attitude of Ü grrr Ü
riot grrrl and the PR push of Barbie. Foxy shots of cool clothes and shoes,
my so-called-life opinion stuff and music that's smokin'. Superb small screen
functionality (top frames action) and loadsa Shockwave tactics. Best-made
mixture of X-girl ingredients. Straight out of San Francisco.
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http://www.demon.co.uk/andys/index.html
Andy's is a rather odd Internet combo, as it operates both as a South
London access provider and a dedicated music and entertainment server. Content
is of the weird and wonderful variety Ü bands like The Forest Hill
Billies, The Lost T-shirts of Atlantis, Radio Tip Top's booking agency and
listings for a couple of South London dives. Southside artists exhibit work
and there are links to the delights of Deptford and Lewisham, as well as
an off-the-wall ezine which is shot through with an admirable, if slightly
amateurish, enthusiasm. All in all a bit of a mess, not in a bad way, it's
just a little overwhelming, but Andy's site gets one thing right Ü
a real feeling of Sarf London.
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http://www.tripod.com
Tripod comes off like a wacky little community with a conscience, engaging
with all sorts of issues in a fairly savvy kind of way. It's quite difficult
to get a grip on its agenda, though as a guide it's based at the University
of Tennessee. Some of the writing is quite condescending in a 'it's-for-your-own-benefit'
sort of way. Currently it's preoccupied with the American primaries and
there's some discussion about Northern Ireland and the IRA but, overall,
content is broad-based, quite newsy and continually updated. Other areas
cover work and money, lifestyle and travel, so on balance it probably works
for students Ü sort of worthy but informed. Tripod should also be applauded
for its design and the strength of its supporting links. A good example
for student journos to follow.
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http://www.culturezone.com
The kaleidoscopic patterns and colours that jump off the page at CultureZone
are like Alice in Wonderland gone mad at the pic'n' mix. A jumble of art
spaces, fashion pieces and film doodlings are thrown together in a sort
of virtual trifle. Unfortunately, the whole riotous experience is completely
destroyed by the amount of hanging around one is forced to do just waiting
to download the hideously huge graphics that grace just about every page.
One is tempted not to bother.
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http://www.suck.com
Suck comes off like Hotwired's little sister - sussed, Net-savvy and
stamping its spoilt little foot. Its daily dissection of Internet culture
is unfailingly accurate, brattishly smart and in front of all the rest.
The thing is, however, it knows it's part of an online elite and consequently
its sleek sophisticated pages come off a teensy weensy bit snide and smug.
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http://www.cerbernet.co.uk/fly/
Have you ever made that tough decision in the newsagents Ü whether
to make for Mojo or Smash Hits? At last a music monthly that has no need
of niche marketing and ads. This means Fly's music coverage is imaginative,
expansive and inclusive of all genres and decades, although the emphasis
is on black music, jungle, hip hop and jazz. The writing is respectful but
unpretentious and, as DJ Gilles Peterson would say, It's all about joining
the dots.î
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http://www.xmission.com/~gam/Riot/
Now that I've read Soccer Riot, I'll tell ya what I'm gonna do. I'm
gonna fix me a hamburger with ketchup and onions. I'm gonna pour me a tall
RC Cola with crushed ice from my freezer. And I'm just gonna take it easy.
Same thing I done yesterday. Same thing I done the day before that.î
The kind of mail this sweet little 'zine inspires says much more than Internet
can. Rather inexplicably, it's got nothing whatsoever to do with football.
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http://fatgirl.factory.net
Shouty celebration of all that's fine about being a fat dyke. Big-assed
chicks say what they like about being big. Readers are exhorted to participate
in dyke direct action on the diet industry. Queen-sized mamas offer advice
on large-ing it about town and good-time girls relate their Roseanne-type
tales. Enormous fun.
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http://www.io.org/~bme/
Body Modification Ezine is the official organ of rec.arts.bodyart (fnarrgh
fnarragh). It's a highly sophisticated source of information on piercing
and tattooing and offers a real exploration of the everyday concerns of
this no-longer-obscure fetish culture. According to the aficionados, no,
it doesn't hurt.
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http://www.react.com/
Probably of most interest to the pre-teen, this site is bright, fun
and extra-shiny clean. You can bet your so-called life that your parents
would approve - there's stuff on the environment, high school hang-ups and
something called the fun zone. It's a difficult age!
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http://www.emedia.net/feed/index.html
Feed is not as accessible as it sounds, although it is definitely worth
a read. Far from being a weird, whacked out mag full of slacker angst, as
its name suggests, its text-heavy essays, researched in richly obsessive
detail, offer superbly written, stylish analyses of American politics and
culture. The graphics are great too. Phew!
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http://www.anorak.co.uk
Anorak, the UK's first daily ezine, is aimed specifically at people
with a spare five or ten minutes who use the Internet at work. It caters
to those using Netscape, Mosaic, Chameleon and Windows 95. Mildly diverting,
it includes a round up of the day's tabloid top stories. The daily competition
is quite bloke-ish in its appeal.
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http://www.mordor.com/sfw/
What is it with sci-fi fans? They walk round with a big brainful of
knowledge about some of the weirdest stuff on earth (and beyond), but when
they try and tell you about it, it just sounds dull? This isn't. Each week
the magazine has sections on film, fiction, screen and sci-fi news and in
the future (ho ho) it should become one of the best resources for all SF
fans.
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http://www.word.com/
Style may occasionally triumph over content in this totally cool looking
mag, but many happy hours can be spent mulling over odd little iconographic
musings on popular culture and the post-hippie, wigged out, Gen X American
Way, regardless. The most fun, though, is to be had from the top little
technical tricks, like animated icons operating via Server Push and a chance
to try out Real Audio on almost every page.
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http://www.virtual-publishing.com/cyberfi/
There's no getting round the fact that most hi-fi magazines are always
a bit sniffy...goes with the territory. This weekly, highly professional
electronic journal is definitely worth a look for its top 100 hi-fi products
alone.
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http://www.geopages.com/RodeoDrive/1044/
Surfing pets, alien porn Web pages - these are just some of the satirical
stories from the Web's answer to The National Enquirer.
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http://iiif.dgp.utoronto.ca:80/caketimes
Don't take Internet's word for it, go see this ultra-cool American ezine
outfit for yourself. Example: supermodels/serial killers a comparison Ü
supermodels are known by their first name (Elle, Cindy, Claudia); serial
killers are known by their last name (Gacy, Dahmer and Bundy). Delicious.
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http://www.demon.co.uk/state51/phat/index.html
Boys cried when Phat folded in the real world. It was like a mag for
lads before Loaded came along. Most of the material here came out a couple
of years ago but, if you missed it first time round, check the tribute to
John Craven, Reasons Not to Be a Ragga and its regular Freeze Frame feature.
Take one babe, one blockbuster movie and hit the pause button on the best
bits.
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http://www.liii.com/~mcpart/cyanide.htm
Cool name, content needs a bit of work. Spoof copy about cyberculture
and a load of made-up names... It's all probably some really big 'in' joke
but who's to know? Still, there's a couple of good links into the unknown.
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http://www.nsl.co.uk/nsl/escot/
Up-to-date information on Scottish networking. It's all in the attitude
and good writing as they promise to stay fast and keep the graphics content
low.
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http://www.gold.net/flames/
A site devoted to expressions of discontent Ü or just having a
good old rant. There is some interesting invective up here, plus reports
from recent conferences and shows, and the material changes fairly regularly.
Peter Kruger offers the full text of articles to other publications for
a fee.
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http://www.delphi.co.uk
London's crusty capital, Camden Lock, is a bit like this home page Ü
a mess. Pieces on piercing, pervy French lessons, excerpts from Douglas
Coupland's Microserfs and scraps of local news are, at worst, boring and
indulgent but, at best, excellent and good fun. Calling yourself Europe's
most innovative Web siteî might seem a bit stupid. It is! But this
frequently changing site with a sense of humour is worth checking every
now and again. Best bit: interactive ferret racing - coming soon to a pair
of trousers near you.
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http://www.virtual.co.uk/sense/
This London lifestyle and arts-based magazine has the usual news, reviews
and listings on galleries and clubs. A few articles on the new technology
and cutsie logos make it look quite nice but best to wait and see how it
develops.
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http://www-bioc.rice.edu/~clarage/netsam.html
Netsam is an innovative four dimensional journal of hyperreal tales
embedded with links off into bizarre multimedia forays. There are jewels
of every media type hidden amongst its bowers.
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http://www.mcs.net/~rune/home.html
This 'intellectual' erotic journal carries photographs, letters, humour,
fictional and true stories, reviews and shorts. If that sounds offensive
don't look at it.
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http://www.etext.org/Zines/Intrrr.Nrrrd/intrrr.html
The exciting thing about ezines is the variety of multimedia content
that can be carried, such as text, music, animation and even software applications,
all within a magazine format. As yet it's rather amateur, but few have the
resources to attract quality contributions, and even when they do you only
see a snippet of the paper version. This one has a little, but not quite
enough, of everything. Its focus is on form rather than bulk, but there
are still at least a few visual nuggets worth inspecting.
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http://www.easynet.co.uk/fix/fix.htm
Terrestrial titles like I-D and the Face haven't as yet had any serious
online competition from e-mag formats like FiX. An oft-followed formula
of youth, music and fashion, it's still worth a look for the logo alone.
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http://desires.com/ud/1.1/urban_toc.html
Billing itself as an interactive magazine of metropolitan pleasures,
this glossy modern e-zine really delivers. It has well written modern city
stories on technology, eating, sex, music, art, performance, style, politics
and more. There's even a lengthy gruesome comic strip which, despite its
graphic detail, loads quite quickly due to a clever three-part download.
If you're thinking of publishing comics or graphics on the Internet, don't
miss this site.
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http://hcrl.open.ac.uk/psyche/psyche
An electronic interdisciplinary journal of consciousness research with
articles, commentaries and book reviews on such subjects as vagueness, semantics,
the language of thought, delineating conscious processes and contrastive
analysis. When you've figured that lot out, you can try the links to other
philosophical Gophers and resources.
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http://www.ora.com:8080/johnl/e-zine-list/
Probably the longest list of electronic magazine links available on
the Web. Unfortunately there are no attached descriptions so unless the
title is self-explanatory it's a hit or miss affair.
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http://etext.archive.umich.edu/
An archive of electronic magazines which you can Gopher search by name
or title.
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http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
Subscribe and receive a weekly free list of reviewed Web sites written
in either HTML or plain text. Current and back issues are also available
online. It's better to subscribe to the HTML version as Netscape can take
advantage of its links. This service is funded by the Netsurfer Marketplace,
the online shopping mall, which can also be reached from this address.
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http://freeside.com/phrack.html
First published in 1985, Phrack magazine has printed controversial and
often anarchic articles for the hacker community. You can download or browse
back issues and subscribe free to the quarterly.
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http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi/f5e/f5e.html
Home to weird e-zines such as Addicted To War, Tarot News and Psychotronic
Video.
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http://www.york.ac.uk/~jjrk1/
As well as links to pages of basic information about the Internet -
like the Big Dummy's Guide - this site includes scholarly, illustrated discussions
of hacker culture and the politics of cyberpunk, pornography and the sexual
aesthetic of the Internet.
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