Looking for information about world governments? Many information seekers may know of the CIA World Fact Book, and use it as a quick access information tool. It is a great resource, but there are others.

One is gazettes. Gazettes are publications by the government meant to convey information to officials or the general public. Here is an example of an Irish gazette, and here is an translated into English with Google. The type of information provided in a gazette varies. There is an online gazette databank at the University of Michigan that keeps track of online gazettes published by governments world wide. It doesn’t just provide links, but also has descriptive information such as what languages it is in and what kind of information is available in the gazette:

This website attempts to list all online government gazettes and their characteristics to aid researchers. A description of the contents and coverage are included for each gazette. Anyone wishing to do further research on foreign law will find useful resources in the bibliography.

Quite a nice resource to have handy

EmbassyWorld will help you find Embassies and Consulates from around the world.
Foreign Affairs Online is another great information tool:

[it] has been specifically designed to assist students and other individuals interested in International Relations, International Law, and U.S. Foreign Policy.

Government Publications and Maps points to accessible government documents printed by governments around the world.

The United Nations Site Index, the World Bank Countries & Regions page, and University of Arizona’s Region Specific Index are also great places for international government information.

Here’s a CNN slide show explaining how China censors the web for its millions of internet users.

Every Chinese person who signs up for Internet service must register with his or her local police department within 30 days.

Integral to China’s capability to perform these activities, according to this CNN slide show, is Cisco’s hardware. Sound great! I’m sure if the US ever turned totalitarian, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, and MSN will jump right up, without any moral compunction, and provide all the necessary equipment to enslave us. I thank god for ALA’s code of ethics everyday. We fight the good fight.

The FDA has a website celebrating it’s 100th birthday (1906-2006). There you can find information about the FDA’s past including milestones in history, the early years (containing an interesting account of the ‘Poison Squad‘) and more. The site even pays tribute to Upton Sinclair, the author of the Jungle, who’s descriptions of the terrible conditions in the meat-packing industry lead to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. There’s additional information on the site, including a schedule of events for the year and other enlightenment.

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Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body, is an online museum (with a real world presence) administered by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The online museum is a beautifully designed collection of exhibitions, galleries, and educational tools and resources related to forensic science and history. The entire site is illustrated with fascinating drawings and photographs. The site’s theme touches on how human anatomy is used to solve crimes. There are historical accounts of forensic science in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the gallery has a presentation of artifacts from this history.

The site is geared at the K-12 student group, but anyone might learn something.

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has collaborated with the National Records Archive to digitize their video. Google Video has for viewing. The account of Orson Wells reading of H.G. Well’s was fascinating. The Apollo 11 moon landing mission is a good watch as well.

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The New York Times has a story on how the federal government has been secretly removing access to information that had been publicly available at the National Archive for some time now. The National Archive is not permitted to say what agencies are involved or what information has been removed, although some of that information resides in the collection of private historians and is still available. Here’s an image of a ‘withdrawal notice’ on the National Security Archive website, sent to private individuals who have such documents.

The Free Government Information Blog has more information on this.

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