Web week

Up for a run? Competitors are checking into Taupo today for the big weekend Ironman NZ event. Check photos of last year's event and catch the news and results during the weekend.

Oscarmania continues: The Oscars dominated local internet traffic this week and people still can't get enough. There's plenty to read in the Herald's own Lord of the Rings and Oscar's sections. You can watch video of Oscar award winner Richard Taylor talking to students about his life and the challenge of making Hobbit feet and ears. National Geographic has uncovered that Tolkien influences stretch back into the misty past of northern Europe and enjoy the praise on New Zealand from LOTR fans at theonering.net.

Noisy protest: More than 100,000 copies of an album remixing famous albums by the Beatles and Jay-Z have been downloaded over the net in the past week in a copyright protest. Read more at Downhillbattle and Grey Tuesday. At least 300 websites have posted the entire album for downloading in open defiance of "cease and desist" orders from EMI, which holds the rights to the Beatles catalogue.

Mary in the spotlight: President Bush's campaign against same-sex marriages has prompted activists to launch a website urging the vice-president's openly lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, to take a stand against the Republican plan.

Flashing your computer: Just when you thought flash mobs were dead, geeks at the San Francisco university want to get heaps of people with PCs together to create the biggest supercomputer in the world for a day.