In honor of Thanksgiving, today's entry has links for finding documentation on the origins of the holiday from Plimoth Plantation, site of the first events. It's interesting to note that the very first Thanksgiving was quite possibly held in July, 1623, and probably did not yet involve feasting. The food historians of Plimoth do have a good essay on the early appearances of turkey, potatoes, and cranberries at this 'harvest festival' table.

For more about the early colonists' days, a primary source is available in electronic text form at the University of Virginia, including Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1622 written by Edward Winslow and probably William Bradford. Some of the embellished history of the Pilgrims can be found in the writings of the late scholar of the 17th century, James Deetz, in an excerpt of his book which is also hosted at the University of Virginia, which has long been committed to electronic integrity of full-text books.

Today's article in the Monitor discusses resilient nature: how species adapt and even thrive amid humanity's development. NASA features a website with a series of interesting earth images , including city lights of population centers as seen from space. Another organization, GLOBIO, an initiative of the UN Environmental Program, has a series of maps showing various aspects of human impact. Of particular interest is its interactive map showing an atlas of biodiversity.

The US is observing Veterans Day this Tuesday. A recommended site to review the numbers of veterans of past conflicts is the America's Wars page at the Veterans Administration site. Amazing to note that at that writing there was a surviving spouse and children of Civil War veterans. Another page at the VA site notes the number of veterans in other categories, including female veterans. It also reiterates that care for veterans and their families spans centuries, this was the subject of a recent article by MONITOR reporter and Vietnam veteran Brad Knickerbocker.

Veterans benefits are at issue this week in Congress as part of the defense spending bill, as veterans' groups criticize spending proposals, saying the benefits are not comparable to the percentage increase in the veteran population.

With the mutual fund industry the latest target of scrutiny in the financial sector, it remains to be seen how this might affect individual investors, if at all. Two things are certain: a majority of US investors have their investments in mutual fund products, and according to a Monitor article about financial habits, 2 out of 3 investors could not name a company that these funds are invested in. So a positive aspect to this most recent controversy is that people might get a little more interested in investigating their money is working. Two good sites for education and performance on mutual funds come from Brill's Mutual Fund Interactive and the Mutual Fund Education Association. Also, watch for the Monitor's quarterly mutual fund roundup in the Work and Money section in January, and next time you receive mailings from your fund, be sure to at least open those envelopes.