Tell me who's hot....

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well now web denizens everywhere have an opportunity to get the opinion of thousands of people.

amihotornot.com, a madly addictive new site, isn't particularly complicated, but it's addictive. The premise is simple: pictures of men and women flash on the screen, and the viewer rates them on a scale of 1 to 10. The site then tabulates the results and posts the person's rating next to their picture. Anyone can post their pic to the site free of charge after responding to a short survey.

A cursory review of the site reveals that web surfers have some traditional tastes, along with some that are far from usual. While virtually any young lady (or old lady-there's a wide variance in the "hotness" of people on the site) who shows a little skin can push her rating past the decidedly hot rating of "9," it seems a pretty face will often get you nowhere-unless you're a guy, of course.

While amihotornot.com seems likely to further erode the self-esteem of unattractive people everywhere, it's not a half bad way to kill an hour or two. But please-if you see anyone you know, be gentle.