Concerned About Toy Safety? U.S. PIRG Can Help

If you've got grandkids of a certain age chances are pretty good you'll be buying them toys this holiday season and that means you'll probably have a lot of questions about toy safety. But where can you find answers? How do you go about determining which toys are safe and which are not? On the Web, one of your best bets is to check out ToySafety.net.

A service of U.S. PIRG, the federation of state public interest research groups, ToySafety.net includes the following resources:

• The latest toy safety news

• A link to the CPSC (consumer product safety commission) toy recall list

• A printable toy safety tips brochure

This holiday season make sure you check out this helpful site before you go shopping in toy land!

Create A Digital Scrapbook Online

Interested in trying your hand at digital scrapbooking without having to download any software onto your hard drive? Now you can by visiting a site like Scrapblog.com. Unlike digital scrapbooking sites that require you to install software onto your computer-sometimes at a hefty price-Scrapblog.com's digital scrapbooking software works directly within your browser to allow you to create some pretty impressive looking digital scrapbooks.

Scrapblog.com is also notable for allowing you to add audio and even video to your online digital scrapbooks-and when you're done you can easily share the fruits of your labor with the rest of the world or just family and friends.

You supply the pictures. They supply the easy-to-use software. Nothing to install on your hard drive-oh, and it's free! Getting started in Digital Scrapbooking doesn't get much easier than this.

Give Them A Unique Gift This Holiday Season

Want to give 'em something different for Christmas this year-something unique that they'll treasure always? How about giving them a gift of a family photograph that's been turned into a a watercolor or oil painting? If you don't fancy yourself a Rembrandt or DaVinci, don't worry-you don't have to be an artist and no need to hire one either-all you have to do is point your Web browser to Photofiddle.com, a site that will let you turn any digital photograph into a work of art!

Once you're at Photofiddle.com, you'll upload a photo from your computer to their Web site with just a few mouse clicks. Then, you'll choose the type of artwork you want to turn the photo into and the desired size, among other specifications. The process couldn't be simpler and to make it easier they even provide a helpful video tutorial you can refer to.

Prices start as low as $14.95 for artwork that's unframed, so there's really something for every budget. Just make sure you act soon if you want to get gifts delivered in time for Christmas!

Discover Rarely Seen Archival Material From 12 Presidential Libraries

Web surfers who happen to be nostalgia lovers or history buffs, you have yet another reason to celebrate: Recently, the C-SPAN network introduced Presidential Libraries: History Uncovered, a Web site packed with "never- or rarely-seen film, video, private home movies, sound recordings, photographs, documents and artifacts collected from inside the libraries' vaults." The archival material is from 12 presidential libraries-Herbert Hoover's to Bill Clinton's.

Some of the highlights include:

• Silent black & white footage from Herbert Hoover's 1931 visit to his fishing camp in the Shenandoah Mountains

• A 1933 biographical film about Franklin Roosevelt

• A 1963 home movie featuring President Kennedy and his wife at their retreat in Middleburg, Virginia

A must-see, unique resource that you'll want to visit again and again!

Pension Help Is Just A Few Clicks Away

Questions or concerns about your pension keeping you up at night? If you need help with just about anything that's pension related you should know about The Pension Rights Center. Touted as, " the country’s only consumer organization dedicated solely to protecting and promoting the retirement security of American workers, retirees, and their families," this is one of the more helpful resources on this subject you'll find on the Web.

Topics covered include:

• Pension Help - Features links to counseling projects and government agencies that can assist you with your pension problems.

• Pension Policy - Details the different activities the Center is involved in to help legislate pension reforms.

• Pension Publications - Having difficulty understanding your pension plan? Fact sheets and other helpful links are provided here that can help make things a little clearer.

Whatever your pension issue, you'll likely find an answer here, or at the very least be pointed in the right direction!

Newsreel Footage Of The Attack On Pearl Harbor

If you're interested in seeing some original newsreel footage of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, one of the best places to check is Archive.org. Several short films on the site incorporate original stock footage of the attack and its aftermath, most notably News Parade: Bombing of Pearl Harbor from Castle Films.

Additionally, If you're looking to the Web to learn more about Pearl Harbor refer to Remembering Pearl Harbor Online, a post that originally appeared right here on The Senior Surfer last year at this time-you'll find links to authoritative resources there.

Online Shopping With A Twist

Are you high on the idea of online shopping because of the convenience but not so keen on the shipping charges that might apply? Or maybe you just don't like the idea of having lots of packages arrive at your house-especially when you're not sure if you're going to be home. Don't you wish there was a compromise?

There is. You might be interested in a program that more and more retailers are adopting these days-the option to shop for products online but pick them up at the store.

Here's a list of retailers that offer this option on their Web sites:

• Best Buy
• JCPenney
• Sears
• Walmart

These so called "buy online, pick up in-store" policies might allow you to take advantage of some of the best things online shopping has to offer while helping you avoid a few that are not.

A Virtual Museum Of Early Televsion Sets

Sure, today you take owning a television set for granted-you probably own more than one in fact, and maybe even made the leap and purchased a flat-screen model already. But, do you ever reminisce about the first set you owned? Do you recall the make and model and whether it was a color TV set or black and white? Would a picture help jog your memory?

If you ever get nostalgic about those vintage TVs of yesteryear, head on over to the Early Television Foundation and Museum Web site, where you'll find tons of photographs of vintage TVs-everything from the mechanical sets of the 1920s and 30s to the early color sets of the 50s and beyond.

And while you're there, be sure to check out these highlights as well:

• On site articles and external links about the history of early television

• Examples of original print advertisements used to promote early television sets

• Photographs of the different types of picture tubes used in the early sets

And more! Who knows? With all those photos of vintage TV sets on the site, you might even see the very first one you owned!

Notable Hanukkah Resources

Celebrating Hanukkah and wondering if there's anything online about this traditional Jewish Holiday? You'll be happy to learn that there's a wealth of information on the Web concerning the "Festival of Lights."

Here are a few worth checking out:

• Chanukah 2007 - Hanukkah facts, multimedia features and more from Chabad.org.

• Hanukkah - Explore the history and traditions of Hanukkah here at the companion Web site of The History Channel.

• Chanukah on the Net - A blog, videos and even a virtual menorah are some of the highlights of this Hanukkah resource from Holidays.net.

Happy Hanukkah!

How To Use A Search Engine Like A Calculator

Next time you're surfing the Web and find yourself in need of a calculator head to a search engine-not to help you find one online, but because the search engine itself can be used like a calculator! Fact: Many if not all of the most popular search engines include an easy to use calculator feature.

If you use a leading search site like Google, Yahoo! Search, Live Search or Ask, for example, you can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division right in the search entry box. After typing in what you want to calculate, simply hit enter on your keyboard or the search button on the screen to receive your answer at the top of the search results.

Just remember to use an asterisk (*) for multiplication, and a forward slash (/) for division. The Addition and subtraction symbols are the same as those found on the kind of standard calculator lying around your house.

Thanks to the versatility of search engines a handy calculator is never more than a click or two away!