TIME.com

PRIMER THE SCOOP ON HAMAS

President Bush last week described Hamas as one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world. But by delivering both suicide bombings and desperately needed welfare services in the West Bank and Gaza, the radical group is eclipsing Yasser Arafat in Palestinian hearts and minds. TIME correspondents investigate.

PERSON OF THE YEAR WHO'S YOUR PICK?

Tell us whom you would choose as TIME magazine's Person of the Year and explain in 50 words why your choice is the person who "most affected our lives, for good or ill this year"--the POY definition of TIME founder Henry Luce. The winning entry will be published in this space in the year-end special issue, on newsstands Dec. 24, 2001.

You can submit your entry at our extensive Person of the Year preview site. While you're there, you can read every POY cover since the first one--Charles Lindbergh in 1927--and see photo galleries of the winners and near winners. Register to receive an e-mail alert when the Person of the Year is announced. At time.com/poy2001

WEB LORE MEASURING THE SITEGEIST

The Lycos Top 50, a popular gauge of searches performed on the Lycos service, has named its 20 most frequently searched-for men of 2001. Rappers rule the charts, with four placing in the Top 10: No. 10 Lil' Bow Wow, No. 6 Nelly, No. 3 Tupac Shakur and No. 2 Eminem. The Web's most wanted? Osama bin Laden. For more analysis on Web-search trends, check out the Yahoo! Buzz Index, which takes a daily snapshot of what's hot in various categories, and the Google Zeitgeist, which tracks entries head to head, such as PlayStation2 vs. Xbox.

WEEKLY WEB GUIDE SOAKING UP SPONGEBOB

Every week on TIME.com we focus on a few stories from the magazine and give you the essential websites to round out each. This week we tell you where to find tour dates for Creed and one of its tribute bands, Saturday-morning cartoon classics that predated SpongeBob SquarePants, treatment information for seasonal affective disorder, and the history behind the upcoming movie Black Hawk Down. At time.com/webguide

ONLINE CHATS

Every week TIME writers and editors chat on AOL about the news. This week we look back at Sept. 11, forward to some innovative thinkers and askance at the nuclear-materials pipeline out of Russia. Go to AOL, Keyword: Live.

--ROBERT SULLIVAN has been one of the busiest men around the halls of the Time & Life Building the past few weeks. As editor of the new LIFE magazine, Sullivan shepherded the LIFE book about Sept. 11, One Nation, which this Sunday will be No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction list. He's also a fine writer (and frequent TIME.com columnist), who penned last week's cover story on George Harrison. Talk with him about both on Monday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m. E.T.

--Assistant managing editor PHILIP ELMER-DEWITT edited this week's installment of TIME's Innovators package. In it TIME profiles the new thinkers with innovative perspectives on globalism, modernism and even the nature of time. Chat with him about all the people profiled in this week's issue on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 8 p.m. E.T.

--ANITA HAMILTON likes to torture-test new technology--from the latest PCs to high-tech toasters--in her role as a columnist for TIME. This week she checks out holiday wish lists that people can e-mail to friends and family from various e-commerce sites. Chat with her on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m. E.T.

--Senior writer JEFFREY KLUGER usually covers the space program. This week he writes about a more earthbound subject: smuggling atomic contraband out of Russia and into the hands of terrorists. "There are a lot of terrorist groups besides al-Qaeda that want to get their hands on nuclear material," says Kluger. "It's the job of the U.S. and other countries to start turning off the spigot." Chat with him Thursday, Dec. 13, at 8 p.m. E.T.