Tag Archives: New York

Education, Environment

Hogweed in Backyards: Beware It Can Burn And Blind you

Hogweed is popping up in more backyards, and environmental agencies are warning of the dangers of coming into contact with it. For those who do, the giant weed can reportedly give you blisters, cause third-degree burns, and even permanently blind you if you get in your eyes.

The towering weed may look unassuming. Realtor.com® describes it as looking similar to Queen Anne’s lace. However, it can grow up to 14 feet high and it can reproduce quickly and spread fast, appearing in urban, suburban, and rural areas’ yards and gardens. Don’t be fooled by its delicate white flowers either.

“It has purple blotches and coarse white hairs along the stem, very large, lobed leaves with serrated edges, and a large white umbrella-shaped flower growing on top of the plant,” Daniel Waldhorn, a hogweed information line coordinator for New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, told realtor.com®.

Hogweed is most often found in the northeast—Maine down to North Carolina. But it can also pop up elsewhere, like in Oregon or the Pacific Northwest. Craig Vacula, owner of Lawn Tech in Flemington, N.J., says that hogweed tends to grow best in areas with lots of rain and sunlight.

The sap of hogweed is the true danger to humans. The sap covers the leaves and stems of the plant. “There are toxic chemicals in it called furanocoumarins that can cause photodermatitis—making your skin unable to protect itself from the sun, so it causes severe burning and blistering when exposed to ultraviolet light,” Vacula says.

Reactions to the plant can happen within 15 minutes of coming into contact with it; blisters typically appear within 48 hours.

For those who do come into contact with hogweed, wash immediately with soap and water and then consult a doctor, Waldhorn says. Also, if you suspect hogweed in a yard, report it to environmental services in your area and leave getting rid of it to the professionals, who will wear protective suits to eradicate it. Some states, like New York where hogweed is the most common, even have “hogwood hotlines” to report sightings.

Source: Realtor.com®

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    Real Estate

    Home Bidding Wars Are Back!

    Photo credit: http://ellyndembowskirealtor.blogspot.com/
    Photo credit: http://ellyndembowskirealtor.blogspot.com/

    The bidding wars are back. Seemingly overnight, many of the nation’s major housing markets have gone from stagnant to sizzling, with for-sale listings drawing offers from a large number of house hunters.

    The competition has been most intense in California, where 9 out of 10 homes sold in San Francisco, Sacramento and cities in Southern California drew competing bids during the month. And at least two-third of listings in Boston, Washington D.C., Seattle and New York generated bidding wars.

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    Travel

    From New York to Argentina- Buenos Aires

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    Looking out the window at Lagurdia Airport after the "Blizzard" in New York.

    By Judy Pinegar

    What a trip… wake up at 9 AM in New York, outside temperature low 30’s… 6 inches of snow on the ground, taxi to the airport, wait 2 hours, flight to Houston, Texas, 4 hours, wait in Houston airport 4 hours, 10 hour flight to Argentina, arrive at 10:20 AM in Buenos Aires, 23 hours later (including a time change), outside temperature 84 degrees!  Boy am I hot.. take off that winter stuff.

    Next, in line at the customs in Buenos Aires. John as citizen could go through the short line, but he stays with me, and the rest of the “touristas.” That night we have a hard time finding an open restaurant, this is a Catholic city and it is Sunday.

    Feeling much better, the next morning we are off to get reconnected to the city. But it turns out it is a holiday…what holiday we have no idea as of yet. Seems like a lot of the subte (subway) entrances are closed, not like before? Don’t know why? Also inflation has really hit, we had to pay 180 pesos for breakfast that is 36 dollars!!

    We walked almost all the way to Plaza del Majio, then up Florida Street usually a huge shopping area but a lot of construction right now in the center of the street. walked into Pacifico the upscale shopping center We were looking for a hat for Judy, but a simple cotton one was 55 US dollars…way to upscale for us.

    So we continue walking until we got to Cordoba, then within a few blocks on Maipu off Cordoba took pictures  the apartment John used to live in with his mother (when he was born anyway, according to the birth certificate).  Several more blocks right on Cordoba and we were at the fancier apartment that John’s father lived at – again according to our handwritten in Spanish birth certificate for John (actually Juan Santiago Mazzolani – I want him to go back to his real name!)

    Walking back to the apartment we took a picture of a restaurant sporting an asada or barbecue grill typical of Argentina where they eat a lot of meat, this was an upscale one, we mostly seen them outside a restaurant. Then home to bed.

     

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    Travel

    USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York City

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    Aircraft carrier USS Intrepid

    Today I asked my son John what he  wanted to do.  He said he wanted to visit the USS Intrepid, Land, Sea and Air Museum.

    So after breakfast at the hotel, we went back to our room and I finished putting on the rest of my winter clothes for travel in New York.  That consists of thermal underwear for the legs, heavy pants, undershirt, shirt, turtle neck sweater, heavy coat, knit cap. I’ve never seen a city where everyone looks like they’re freezing and they all have red noses.  I think Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was raised here.

    So we go down to the lobby on the way to the subway and the carrier and the clerk at the desk said a blizzard was here and we would not be able to fly out tomorrow. I said my smart phone has the weather forecast and it says clear in the morning.  He said I haven’t read the paper or watched TV.  By the time, the blizzard was here and the snowflakes coming down were smaller than a pea.

    At the museum, we learned that the USS Intrepid was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the US Navy.  She is the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name. Commissioned in August 1943, Intrepid participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, most notably the Battle of Leyte Gulf

    Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier, and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier. In her second career, she served mainly in the Atlantic, but also participated in the Vietnam War. Her notable achievements include being the recovery ship for a Mercury and a Gemini space mission. Because of her prominent role in battle, she was nicknamed “the Fighting I”, while her often ill-luck and the time spent in dry dock for repairs earned her the nickname “the Dry I”.

    Decommissioned in 1974, in 1982 Intrepid became the foundation of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

    We took the 90 minute tour, focusing on stories of the men who served aboard the Intrepid, their daily lives aboard this city at sea and how similar their on-board community was in comparison with communities today. The tour also includes heroic stories about other men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces.

    At one point we were allowed on the actual flight deck with several vintage airplanes, and toured through the commander’s and captain’s working rooms and cabins.

    Meanwhile it had started to snow, and despite the fact that the snow was less than an inch high outside and mostly melting into water, we were warned the museum was closing early due to the “blizzard’ outside!!

    Indeed by the time we made it back to the hotel all of New York was in a huge panic about the blizzard… warning us that we might not get out tomorrow as the airport might be closed. We almost couldn’t stop laughing at people, and I kept saying, “but I get 4 feet of snow at my house! and they don’t close the roads”

    By the way, my smart phone, was right, it was clear the next day.

    The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (C...
    The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11) operating in the Philippine Sea in November 1944. Note F6F Hellcat fighter parked on an outrigger forward of her island. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    Travel

    New York Museum of Natural History

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    My oldest son John Jr.

    The next day we visited the American Museum of Natural History we had been here on our last trip to New York, but this museum could take easily take several FULL days of study.

    The first thing we did was to watch “Journey to the Stars” a short film narrated by Whoppi Goldberg about the life and death of stars, like our sun. The movie is shown inside a globe within the four story tall planetarium of the museum – quite a sight in and of itself!

    On the bottom floor of the planetarium the best display is the Willamette Meteorite (so named because it was found in Willamette, Oregon) weighing 15.5 tons! It is made of metalic iron. Thousands of years ago it traveled at 64,000 kilometers per hour and crashed into the earth’s surface. The top surface (see pictures) is covered with large cavities. This is because over the years the rainwater reacted with sulfur within the meteorite, creating  sulfuric acid, which then ate away at the iron of the meteorite.

    After the movie we wandered through the African Room. where there are panoramas of the various climates, and geographic areas of Africa including the birds, insects reptiles and mammals native to the area. The panorama also included the real animals, some birds and reptiles that have been preserved by taxidermy which make the displays really come to life.

    We completed our stay with lunch in the food court, very nice, but not cheep!!

     

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    Travel

    Visit to New York Tenement Museum

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    Tenement Museum

    New York again… this time February 7, 2013… COLD… We did come prepared, thermal underwear, hats, gloves, scarves, and  boots, but this is really cold, high of 30 degrees.

    Last time we had tried to go on a tour of the Tenement Museum, but couldn’t due to the crowds, although we did see a nice 30 minute movie of the times. This is a 5 story tenement that 10,000 people from 25 countries called home between 1863 and 1935 in the Lower East side of NY at 97 Orchard Street. So this time we made reservations to the tour called “Hard Times”.

    This was a tour of the three room apartments of two families of immigrants who survived the economic depressions at 97 Orchard Street between 1863 and 1935. We visited the restored apartment of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family, whose patriarch disappeared during the Panic of 1873  (they think he just ran away from his family) but the mother became a seamstress and move up in the world later in life.

    And we also visited the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family, who lived through the Great Depression and went on to move up to a better area of town. Fascinating stories complete with artifacts and pictures. In the tour, they say one in eight Americans can trace their lineage back to the immigrant tenements in New York.

    After this we wandered through Chinatown and Little Italy (right next door to each other), the changes happen rapidly between one and the other within just one block!! It is amazing… like going to a different country by walking!!

    We ate a wonderful Italian meal at El Piccolo Buffalo at 141 Mulberry Street – see picture! We recommend it!
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    Business

    The Nigerian Letter or “419” Scam


    I wrote a blog about the Nigerian scam sometime ago.  I’m repeating this warning from the FBI since I know someone who fell for this scheme.  The person would not tell me how much he lost, and he was somewhat sheepish about it.

    So anyhow, here goes, hopefully it will prevent someone from going off the deep end and losing a lot of money to these dirt bags.

    “Nigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter mailed from Nigeria offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author—a self-proclaimed government official—is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationery, bank name and account numbers, and other identifying information using a fax number provided in the letter. Some of these letters have also been received via e-mail through the Internet. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a “propensity for larceny” by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.

    Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria. In actuality, the millions of dollars do not exist, and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances. While such an invitation impresses most law-abiding citizens as a laughable hoax, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually. Some victims have been lured to Nigeria, where they have been imprisoned against their will along with losing large sums of money. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law. The schemes themselves violate section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label “419 fraud.”

    Tips for Avoiding Nigerian Letter or “419” Fraud:

    • If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service, your local FBI office, or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can also register a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Complaint Assistant. 
    • If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible.
    • Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
    • Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
    • Guard your account information carefully.

    Source The FBI

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