If the dumbing down' of news, entertainment and cultural interaction in general is worrying you, or if you just want to know how smart you are, these sites can offer some enlightening activities and information. Using the online intelligence' of a variety of search engines turned up some interesting variations. Choose carefully and enjoy.

Discover your IQ

Ask Jeeves (www.ask.co.uk) turned up www.iqtest.com - promising a quick and easy result to finding out your Intelligence Quotient just 38 questions. You can get instant results however, they must be emailed to you. Other services can be purchased. You may not wish to give this organisation your email address for privacy reasons. Many sites with this type of information are commercial.

Make your own quiz

If you don't want to spend a lot of time searching for some entertaining quiz sites, visit www.allthetests.com for a comprehensive list of quizzes. It also has a make your own quiz' section, which may be helpful if you are in charge of the weekly pub quiz.

Are you in the top two

And of course, the society for bright people', Mensa, is an English institution. From their site at www.mensa.org you can be put in touch with a local tester and see if you are in the upper two per cent of the general population. Why not try it? Your CV could be greatly enhanced.

Test your intelligence

Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) turned up www.allthetests.com and www.queendom.com. Also, the new business of testing emotional intelligence and more can be investigated at www.career-test-advisor.com.

Zodiac match-making

Altavista.com offered http://web.tickle.com as its top choice. They offer everything from classic IQ tests to zodiac match-making and everything in between. It is designed for the I have lots of time to surf' browsers.

Searching the web

For an interesting search experience, go to www.dogpile.co.uk - soon to be renamed WebFetch.com. It does the search of the search engines for you, digging through ten search engines to generate your results. It offers you general, image, news, audio, and multi-media search categories. When I clicked Go Fetch' for Intelligence Tests results, it gives you the option to view the results by relevance' or search engine'.

Back to school

The latest rage in school support online is www.skoool.co.uk, an e-learning initiative. It joins a host of online sites aiming at helping students and teachers. A quick look at university web sites for the region proved disappointing under construction, bad design, out of date information. High-tech in higher education needs a lift.

Words to the wise

Botox, shedful, poontang and klippers'. The Collins English Dictionary (Desktop Edition) is full of new words invading our daily language. Visit www.harpercollins.co.uk to find out more and purchasing information. Klippers' stands for kids in parents' pockets eroding retirement savings' referring to the large number of adult' children living with their parents.

D mail takes on E mail

The race is now on to create a secure, large capacity, fast electronic mail system for users, as users demand something that is virus and spam-free. Enter dmail digital mail. British company dmail is offering an alternative to traditional email services. Visit http://www.mydmail.com to find out more.

Sporting Sites

If your are female, a sports enthusiast and concerned about comfort while you train, visit Ambleside's Jane new sports bra web site at www.boobydoo.co.uk. Aside from the products, a links page takes you to: Breast Cancer Campaign at http://www.breastcancercampaign.org/; Sports Injury Clinic site with a virtual therapist at http://www.sports-injury-clinic.co.uk/; and Fix the Fells restoration and fund-raising site http://www.fixthefells.co.uk/.