Four Stars: The Bureau of Atomic Tourism

Stuck in the office while your colleagues pack those holiday suitcases? Well, with a Web browser you can take a virtual vacation! There are certainly countless fascinating destinations, but I nominate this one as stunning and educational.

Initially, I was looking for "the bureau of comic tourism." But this bureau made me into a long-term visitor. You, too, could be won over by its snappy prose, impressive pics and vivid notation.

The site promotes "tourist locations around the world" that have links to the power of the atom. This includes 11 atomic museums, four sites of explosions, catalogs and related links. Each indeed provides a virtual visit: telling (and showing) you what there is to see, how things are displayed, times of opening, costs, routes, etc.

For a touchy subject, this is fascinating. You get peeks at the World’s Only Public Underground Missile Complex, Virtual Los Alamos and the Oak Ridge Reactor ("First to Make Plutonium"); "Where it all started…". Sections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki offer city guides that make them more then historical footnotes.

No punches are pulled in terms of the subject matter. And this is just as true on its best linked site "Todd’s Atomic Homepage" (http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/neutronics/todd.html). Todd, a student of particle transfer theory, proves to be talented and friendly Web activist. His page, which disdains sponsors, offers everything from career guidelines to militant anti-nuclear bulletins. Want to compute your own radiation levels? Want to "surf the atomic superhighway"? You can even e-mail to discourage France from nuclear testing.

Both these sites have good design, unusual presentation and awareness of atomic pros and cons. Both function flexibly and invite constructive comment. Plus, Todd’s sections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are bilingual (just "choose your compatible kanji code"). In the virtual vacation stakes, they’re tops.