New at Hackley Public Library
News and goings on at Hackley Public Library in Muskegon MI. See what new books have come in, which new sites have been added to the web page, and what is going on at the Library.
It's almost summer. The talented green thumbs among us will plant and eventually harvest the fruits of their labors. Not so much for me. Oh, I have tried my hand at gardening several times. I planted tomatoes one year and I must admit they did well in my backyard. My tomato plants were loaded with lovely green orbs on their way to ripening. They whispered a promise of fresh tomatoes for salads, sauces, and the delectable BLT with its crispy bacony goodness. Then I noticed that my lovely green tomato orbs began disappearing.
It remained a mystery until one day while sitting on the deck chatting with a friend I noticed a green object up in one of our oaks. I turned to my friend and said, "You will think I am nuts, but is that an apple in my live oak tree?" After she stopped laughing, she volunteered that she thought it was a tennis ball. We were both wrong, it was one of my unripe tomatoes. Shortly after that, we observed a sneaky squirrel approaching my tomato plants. AHA!
I eventually solved the squirrel problem. The following summer I tried again and actually started getting lovely ripe tomatoes. However, I was confounded by another problem. I kept finding half eaten tomatoes hanging from the plants. I had netting to keep the squirrels and birds off of them, so what was eating my tomatoes? One evening, I approached my plants and saw an undulating brown mass on one of my tomatoes. I couldn't make out what it was and went to get a flashlight. Upon inspection, I discovered the tomato covered with very large palmetto bugs. The discovery that my lovely tomatoes were being ravaged by mutant cockroaches gave me the "willies." I admitted defeat and gave up on the idea of glorious fresh tomatoes until my friend took me to the downtown farmers market.
Wow, it was great! All of the goodness of all kinds of fresh produce and more! If you too seek the joys of fresh produce, but have less than stellar results growing them yourself, try looking around for local farmers markets. Here are some resources to get you on your way to wonderful fresh produce.
In two days I will be leaving to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for vacation. I'm hoping I have nice weather so I can spend my days lounging in a beach chair with a good book soaking up the sun.
But because I'm ghastly pale and would rather not come off the beach charred and looking like a lobster, I plan to lather on the SPF. In my younger and perhaps dumber days, I would slather on some SPF4 once in the morning, bask in the sun all day (never re-applying of course because I was trying to get that sun-kissed tanned look) and as a result, spend many an uncomfortable night trying to ease the burn with globs of aloe.
Well, not this year. I'm making a pact with myself to not burn.
To prepare, I read the CDC's guidelines on buying, applying and re-applying sunscreen. I'll be chucking all my expired sunscreens and buying new ones with higher SPFs. My plan of attack is slather on a lotion in the morning with SPF 30 or higher and then tossing one of the sprays in my beach bag for during the day.
Because sunburn isn't the only safety issue I'm concerned about with a beach vacation, I read up on some other beach safety tips.
Do you have any beach safety tips to share with me before I hit the road?
So, you know the government is trying to help the economy with a stimulus plan. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act lays out a plan to address the crisis through unemployment and welfare expansions, tax cuts, and investments in infrastructure, health care, education and energy.
But what does all that mean for you, your family, and your business?
Enter Recovery.gov:the website dedicated to explaining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act step by step so you can easily find out how to use its benefits and programs to your advantage.
And now, Recovery.gov wants to know how else it can be of assistance to you. This week, Recovery.gov is hosting a nationwide live discussion to get your input on the site. To get things started, Recovery.gov is asking, "What ideas, tools, and approaches can make Recovery.gov a place where all citizens can transparently monitor the expenditure and use of recovery funds?"
Now is the time to add your two cents. Check out this video for additional information.
Just when I thought that cold and flu season was over, here it is, swine flu. I'm sure that by now you've heard news reports of the outbreak of swine flu, first in Mexico, now there are reported cases in the United States and in other countries as well.
Wash your hands! I sound more and more like my mother, but she's right, keeping your hands clean is an important step to reducing the spread of disease. Follow regular disease prevention steps like covering your coughs and sneezes, staying home when you're sick, and practicing good health habits.
If you live in an area with an outbreak and you get sick with fever and respiratory symptoms, such as cough and runny nose, and possibly other symptoms, such as body aches, nausea, or vomiting or diarrhea, the CDC recommends you contact your health care provider.
Have you ever opened your e-mail inbox to find a message from a wealthy foreigner who offers you a huge payment to help him move money out of his country? All you need to do is provide your U.S. bank account number.
Or maybe you've been nominated for the "Oprah Millionaire Contest Show" and all you need to do to is send money for your airfare and tickets to the show.
Sometimes these types of scam emails come from e-mail addresses you should be able to trust: fbi.gov, irs.gov, even usa.gov.
Does all this sound too good to be true? It is!
The sad truth is that many, many unsuspecting people fall for these scams every day, and they pay dearly for their mistakes. They lose thousands of dollars, have their identity stolen and worse. But because these scams really work, people will continue to prey on the unsuspecting.
What can you do? Be alert and use your head : if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
If you're not sure if an email is legitimate or not, do some checking. A quick internet search can usually give you a pretty good idea. The Federal Citizen Information Center also lists fraud schemes and scams. If you don't see it on the list, find yourself an alternate, trusted way to reach the alleged source of the email and find out if the offer is for real. You can report e-mail scams to the Federal Trade Commission. Your complaints help them detect patterns of wrong-doing, and lead to investigations and prosecutions.
My mom admits to being paranoid about ATMs, online banking, and shopping on the internet, so she won't use them. She says she feels safer doing things the old-fashioned way. Mom may be paranoid about these "new technologies," but when it comes to dealing with people she is very open and trusting. That is why I worry that someone will take advantage of her. I don't want to scare her, but there is a whole bunch of other stuff out there to be paranoid about!
Lately, there are more stories in the news about the elderly being scammed out of part, or all, of their savings. According to the FBI, the elderly are often seen as good targets because they often have a savings or a "nest egg", they usually own their homes, and often have good credit. All of these things are appealing to a con-man looking for a mark. Many elderly grew up in an era where being polite and trusting were the norms. Con-men look to exploit these characteristics in people. Con-men also may target the elderly because they feel they can physically bully and intimidate them more easily.
The FBI also reports that some elderly victims are less likely to report a fraud because they are too ashamed at having been scammed. Some may not realize that they have been scammed. In some instances elderly victims may not report the incident because they do not want to be seen as unable to take care of their financial affairs. Often when the elderly do report crime, they have trouble remembering the details of what happened. Con-men count on the fact that elderly victims may not be able to provide detailed information to investigators.
We all have loved ones that are elderly and we will all be elderly one day, so it is important to educate our loved ones and ourselves about scams being perpetrated on the elderly. Perhaps something you read in the resources below will prevent you or your loved ones from being scammed.
GovFresh.com was launched today and it is a live feed of official news from U.S. Government RSS and social media accounts (including Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Facebook, Flickr and more) all in one convenient place.
So far, live feeds are from the White House, Supreme Court, House, Senate, DNC, RNC, and the following Departments and Agencies: Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Labor, State, CDC, CIA, EPA, FBI, FDA, and NASA. You can also suggest a feed.
Today the White House is taking steps to expand how the Administration is communicating with the public, ... In addition to WhiteHouse.gov, you can now find us in a number of other spots on the web...
· Facebook.com/WhiteHouse
· MySpace.com/WhiteHouse
· Twitter.com/WhiteHouse
It will be interesting to see if this really works! The first comment I saw was just an unhelpful rant. It might be nice if they took a lesson from sites like slashdot which have figured out how to make comments helpful without censoring anyone.
According to The UK Telegraph, "The three feeds focus on investor education, general news, and job opportunities" and "SEC_Investor_Ed is little more than a rolling feed from its own newssite which details the enforcement actions."
There seems to be a lot of overlap between "Investor Ed" and "News" in the few items I have scanned. Perhaps time will make it more apparent the differences between the feeds.
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It's almost summer. The talented green thumbs among us will plant and eventually harvest the fruits of their labors. Not so much for me. Oh, I have tried my hand at gardening several times. I planted tomatoes one year and I must admit they did well in my backyard. My tomato plants were loaded with lovely green orbs on their way to ripening. They whispered a promise of fresh tomatoes for salads, sauces, and the delectable BLT with its crispy bacony goodness. Then I noticed that my lovely green tomato orbs began disappearing.
So, you know the government is trying to help the economy with a stimulus plan. The 
My mom admits to being paranoid about ATMs, online banking, and shopping on the internet, so she won't use them. She says she feels safer doing things the old-fashioned way. Mom may be paranoid about these "new technologies," but when it comes to dealing with people she is very open and trusting. That is why I worry that someone will take advantage of her. I don't want to scare her, but there is a whole bunch of other stuff out there to be paranoid about!
