WEB DESTINATIONS Ever wonder what a salted weapon does? Or what WARMAPS might be? O.K., probably not. But if you do business with the Pentagon or merely have an interest in defense issues, it can be awfully easy to get lost in the military's sea of odd terms and acronyms. Help is available, in the form of the Defense Dept.'s comprehensive online dictionary of military terms. A salted weapon, by the way, is a nuke that triggers especially dirty fallout, while WARMAPS stands for wartime manpower planning system. (www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict) During the Depression, the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) put unemployed authors to work on a magnificent series of guidebooks covering the entire nation. These volumes are now hard to find, but the wonderful guide to California's Death Valley National Monument is now available on the Web, courtesy of the online magazine Dotted Dog. (www.dotteddog.com/dv/dvalley/dvalley.html) After a slow start that left many wondering what the fuss was about, El Nino is living up to its reputation as an awe-inspiring weather-maker. Check out this National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration site for everything you want to know about the phenomenon, including the latest data on sea temperatures and up-to-date forecasts of storms. (www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino/) BY STEPHEN H. WILDSTROM

Updated Feb. 12, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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