Net Picks

Toy Safety - The U.S. Public Interest Research Group puts out a list of recalled toys every year. The U.S. Product Safety Commission also has publishes a listing of recalled toys. KidsHealth publishes guidelines for choosing safe toys. Safe Kids USA has several downloadable toy safety guides.

Christmas and Holiday Safety - Reader's Digest's Holiday Hazard Checklist, Holiday Decoration Safety Tips from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, and  the National Fire Protection Association's Christmas Tree Fires.

NORAD Tracks Santa - As military forces deploy world wide to assist in tracking Santa, work is underway to update the "NORAD Tracks Santa Website" and will be available by mid-December.  The program began on December 24, 1955 when a Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper which told children that they could telephone Santa Claus and included a number for them to call. However, the telephone number printed was incorrect and calls instead came through to Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center. Colonel Shoup, who was on duty that night, told his staff to give all children that called in a "current location" for Santa Claus. A tradition began which continued when the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958.

Christmas Recipes - allrecipes.com, Food Network & Martha Stewart

Hanukkah Recipes - allrecipes.com, epicurious, 123Holiday.Net & Chabad

New Year's Recipes - allrecipes.com, tasteofhome, Food Network & EatingWell

GoodReads - Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. We have more than 6,400,000 members who have added more than 220,000,000 books to their shelves. A home for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads users recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, find their next favorite book, form book clubs and much more. You can also post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, are currently reading, and plan to read in the future. Don't stop there - join a discussion group, start a book club, contact an author, and even post your own writing.

Smart History - Smarthistory focuses on art history, from cave paintings to Warhol. And while the site calls itself a textbook, it's not the text - or even the illustrations - that make it special. It's the growing library of videos that feature spirited, unscripted conversations among historians about notable works. You can start in ancient times and work your way forward or browse the collection by artist, theme or medium. In 2010, the site's proprietors made their engaging creation available in portable form, with an iPhone app called Rome: A First Look.

The Great American Hall of Wonders - The Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit, the Great American Hall of Wonders, "examines the nineteenth-century American belief that the people of the United States shared a special genius for innovation." The Smithsonian has provided an online slideshow and podcast to accompany the in situ exhibit. The first image in the online slideshow is The Artist in His Museum, by Charles Willson Peale, painted in 1822, showing Peale at the age of 81, amidst shelves of specimens at the public museum he founded. Another earlier Peale is also featured in the show, Exhumation of the Mastodon, 1806-1808. Also included are Edison's light bulb, Audubon birds, and not only Andrew Joseph Russell's 1869 ambrotype, showing the joining of the east and west lines of the Trans-American railroad, but also the commemorative golden spike made at the William T. Garrett Foundry as well.

15 Career Advice Sites You Should Know About - From Wisebread. There are thousands of sites out there filled with career advice. From figuring out what you want to do and effectively networking to helping you get paid what you deserve, these sites can help you not only land a job you love, but do it better than everyone else.

Does It Really Work? - Before you call that 800 number, credit card in hand, you might want to check this site to see if the products and services advertised on TV really do slice and dice, help you lose weight or belly fat, give you clear skin in a week, relieve back pain, etc. They examine the claims, the costs, and the hype, and test the products for you. I just wish there was more information about the people who created the site and do the testing.