U. S. Government

This is a book my mom had at her house. It started out interesting--discussing how the British had a postal service in what is now the U. S. and how the U. S. separated from it even prior to the War for Independence. The part about the Pony Express is also interesting.

Other parts were not so interesting to me--mostly when they got into the politics behind the postal service or the post master generals and what changes they made.

Most sewing/crafting books of the sixties are full of out of date styles and information, but this sewing book from 1969 is a no-nonsense practical guide. I started reading it and I learned things right away: in fact, I could probably sit down and read it cover to cover. It's loaded with useful advice and instructions, and fifty years later isn't out of date.

This 414 page tome is a must-read for anyone living in Turkey, as it will tell you everything possible to know about the country up to the mid-1990s. It was written by several researchers at the Library of Congress and is thus like a greatly expanded encyclopedia entry. Everything about the history, geography, climate, agriculture, economy, military, and politics of Turkey. Since most of it ends in the mid-90s, it misses the rise of the AK Party, the lessening of the military's role in show more politics, and the struggles with potential EU integration.

I learned a great many facts about Turkey, including its ancient history. The 1980s history was probably the most interesting, part of Turkey's great battle with inward-looking central planning vs. an outward-focused giant of economic potential. There is a lot of information about Turkey's historical minorities, religions, regional differences, etc.

This book is boring unless you love reading the encyclopedia. But you'll be well-rewarded by knowing more than your friends about Turkey. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. show less

This is spin-off of USA.gov. It is aimed toward grades K-5 and contains government resources for kids in every category under the sun. Each category (such as Art, Music, Money, Health and many more) contains links to other sites that are useful, not all of them are government sites. For example, the music and reading categories lead to several Library of Congress pages, but the money category has links to different financial institution's kids pages, others lead to PBS or other appropriate show more places. Contains games and videos for each category, and more depending on the links.
I think this is a neat way to showcase some of the children's resources some of the government branches have developed. One category is Jobs. Clicking on this gives you an A to Z list of jobs, as well as quick links to government jobs and science jobs. Looking under A, I choose Archeologist. One link is a age-appropriate video and text description of the career, and yet another brings you to the National Park Service Archeology for Kids page. A look at the Teacher job link brings you to the Department of Labor summary description page for kindergarten and elementary school teachers. Some really neat stuff on here, I could see a kid using this for online research and getting lost playing in all the different categories and sites. Kids.gov also has sites for Teens and Grown-ups.
http://kids.usa.gov/grown-ups/index.shtml show less