cool service...

I don't usually point y'all to products or services here, but I just got reminded again of how very nifty is KnowledgeNews. I've been a member for about a year, have been receiving their email rather longer than that, and I love it. It's the kind of thing I wish I could send to my littles; today's is a brief overview of Iran, from the days when it was Persia. They've also done Iraq, and tend to time the articles with what's in the news a lot right then, so it's usually interesting and timely as well.

A snippet of today's:

1935 - The year Iran asked the West to stop labeling the place "Persia" and to start using the name natives use: "Iran." The language is still called Persian, though, or Farsi--from the modern province Fars (ancient Parsa, called Persis by the Greeks). Today, Persian is written in Arabic script, a holdover from medieval times, when Persian rulers fell to Islamic caliphs in Damascus and Baghdad.

1979 – The year an Islamic revolution forced Iran's western-supported shah ("king") into exile and Iranians voted overwhelmingly to establish an Islamic republic. In the republic, all citizens older than 14 can vote, but clerics can veto laws and candidates deemed un-Islamic.