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Nascar Cars

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

There was a time when NASCAR cars were just plain cars. Stock car racing began as the name would lead you to believe. The cars used by drivers were bought at dealerships, then driven to the tracks for the races. In 1947 NASCAR created the first standard rule set and a championship points system for determining the winner across a whole season of races.

In the early days tracks were crude dirt roads upon which conditions quickly deteriorated during a race. Conditions quickly destroyed plain stock cars, so NASCAR cars were quickly allowed to be modified for greater ability to handle the poor conditions.

The changes became more extreme as the years went by, both so drivers would be safer and so that races would be more exciting. The NASCAR rule book is very clear to spell out each and every modification allowed for competition.

No longer are NASCAR cars true stock cars, they’re very different from street cars. Rather than produced on an assembly line, NASCAR cars are carefully constructed by hand. Tubes make up their frames, the engines start as bare blocks, and the body is nothing but pressed sheet metal.

The tubes for the frame vary in thickness, and are shaped as both square and round. In order to keep together and protect the driver when crashes occur, the roll cage is constructed of even heavier tubing.

Thinner front and rear tube frame sections, called the clips, are designed to steal energy from a crash by crushing if they contact another car or the wall. In addition, with the force of impact, the front clip forces the engine through the floor instead of through the car to impact the driver.

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Northwest Indians

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

The Northwest Indians live along the Pacific coast from Washington State to Alaska. Within the region there are seven main tribes: Coast Salish, Nootka, Kwakiutl, Bella-Coola, Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingit.

These tribes are also known under the name of the people of the totem pole after the largest of the famous wood carvings made by these tribes. The land inhabited by the Northwest Indians is a world of snow covered mountains, blue ocean waters, rushing rivers, and green forests.

It is a long, narrow slice of coast about a thousand miles from north to south and not much more than a hundred miles east to west. The mountains and the ocean combine to offer a moderate climate which is cool during the summer and is rather mild during the winter months. These temperature factors are good for the growth of the great redwood, cedar and fir trees.

As there can be observed from the nickname of the tribes, the totem pole is one of the things that distinguishes the Northwest Indians from other Indian tribes living in the United States. The poles became a symbol for these tribes only after the white traders brought them iron tools for carving.

Then, the totem pole in front of a house would show the ancestry and the social rank of the family within the tribe. It can be said that the totem pole was for the Northwest Indians what the coat of arms was for the European aristocratic families.

The Northwest Indians believed in the unseen forces of nature. They had rituals for food and weather, they would bring thanks for everything they had or they were given. For them, everything contained spiritual force, be it man, rock, tree, or animal.

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Cleveland Indians

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team having their residence in Cleveland, Ohio. They are part of the Baseball Major League and are affiliated with the American League and the Central Division.

Their team is often referred to as The Tribe by fans and has a franchise record of 8075 wins and 7711 losses. They were founded in 1901 and were originally called the Blues, then the Broncos, and from 1903 to 1911 were known under the name of Naps, in honor of the player/manager Napoleon Lajoie.

The official name of the team from 1912 to 1914 was the Molly McGuires, but they were still popularly called the Naps. In 1915, as a consequence of Lajoie?s trading, the owner of the team asked the newspaper journalists to come up with a new name for the team. They suggested the name of the Cleveland Indians, a nickname used in the 1890s when the Amerindian Louis Chief Sockalexis played for the old National League Cleveland Spiders.

The Cleveland Indians established themselves as middle runners until 1946. They had to go through a series of unfortunate events, such as losing the player Ray Chapman due to a ball which fractured his skull and eventually killed him, in order to become a powerful team made of mainly young players. The Cleveland Indians were among the few which broke the color barrier and the first team to win the one-game playoff in American League history and thus enter the World Series.

Another interesting fact which made the team famous is the Curse of Rocky Colavito: in 1960 the above mentioned player was sold and things began to go bad for the team; it became infamous as one of the worst trade-offs in baseball history.

They were unable to present a positive win on the field and the owners of the team kept changing the players.

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Galveston Texas

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Galveston Texas is a resort island in southern Texas. Boasting 32 miles of white, sandy beaches, the island is a popular tourist resort with top rated hotels, restaurants and boutiques. Either the start point or end point of many cruises, Galveston Texas is easy to access by sea, although there are also flights that come into the Galveston area. If you wish to bring your car, there are also ferries available to take you to the resort island.

When you stay at Galveston Texas, there are several attractions that many people attempt to see before they leave the island.

This includes the Moody Mansion, a gorgeous brick and limestone mansion with 32 beautifully furnished rooms. While it was flooded and suffered some damage during Hurricane Ike, the 1895 structure survived the storm and has reopened for visitors.

For those who are interested in wildlife and nature, Galveston Texas offers the Moody Gardens, which sports a ten story rain forest pyramid.

This pyramid is home to hundreds upon hundreds of rare and unusual animals. In addition to this, the Moody Gardens also has a massive aquarium and bat exhibit. There is also a IMAX on location, which can provide entertainment of those of all ages.

As Galveston Texas is a target for Hurricanes, the city works hard to ensure the safety of all visitors and residents. When you are planning your trip to the Galveston Texas area, you will be given resources on when hurricanes are most likely to hit the area, so you can plan your vacation around times where hurricane activity is at its lowest.

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Easter Poems

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

There are many Easter poems with springtime motifs for the popular holiday Easter. These can be found on greeting cards, as well as online. Here are just a few of them.

Here is a popular Easter poem by Winfred Sackville Stoner Junior:

As Easter breathes hope for a joyous tomorrow, Even out of the depths of despair, So may this day banish from you every sorrow, And make you feel free as the air.

This Easter poem continues ? while hearing grand anthems that swell to the sky, and reading sweet Lilie’s perfume, may you feel assured that your soul will not die, as life does not end in the tomb.

This entry into Easter poems presents the rebirth symbolized by the spring season in which the Easter holiday takes place.

Another of the Easter poems is called Easter Carol by Ellen Robina Field.

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