Archery Arrows

Archery Bows - Photo: Pixabay

Archery has helped in shaping the human civilization.  Archers have fought many wars and have helped in shaping human civilization.   Since ages people have used bows and arrows to conquer their enemy and to tame wild animals. 

There are innumerable stories about great archers in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Persia. These archers are revered even today.     

Bows and arrows are the main constituents of archery. Studies have shown that the bows were developed in either early Mesolithic age or late Paleolithic age.  Pines were used for making arrows.  

Bows and arrows are an indispensable part of archery.  It helps an archer in properly aiming at the target and shooting the arrow. If the bows are not proper then the archer will face difficulties in mounting the arrow. If the arrows are not properly mounted then the archer won’t be able to properly shoot the target.

The archery bows commonly used are longbow, shortbow, flatbow, recurve bow, crossbow and compound bow. Longbow, as the name suggests, is very long; the length of the bow is equal to the height of the user and in some cases even exceeds the height of the user.

The limb of the Flatbow is wider and the cross-section is rectangular in shape. Shortbow is shorter in length; it is lightweight and has a short range. It was basically used for hunting purpose. 

In crossbow, the limbs are mounted in a horizontal manner and not in a vertical manner. The compound bow is designed in such as manner that the archer is at his ease while mounting the bow. 

In this activity, archery arrows play a very vital role.  Shaft, arrowheads, nock, and fletching constitute an arrow.  Aluminum alloy, carbon fiber, wood, and fiberglass are used for the construction of the shaft. Each material has its own advantages and disadvantages.  For example, arrows made up of fiberglass can break soon.

While selecting any material as a shaft for archery arrows the weight of the material and their strength should be given importance.  The shaft should not be too flexible; it should be straight and easy to handle. At present arrows made of carbon, alloys are popular and are being widely used by the archers.  In fact, arrows used in popular sports events like Olympic are made of carbon alloys. 

The arrowhead of archery arrows needs to be made of some hard materials like metals.  The arrowheads heads play a pivotal role in shooting the target.  Fletching provides balance to the arrows; it is generally made of plastic or bird feathers. Fletching is at the rear end of the arrow and it helps in the projectile motion of the arrow. 

In order to properly shoot an arrow, the archer has to maintain a proper stance.  The posture of the body, the eye and the way the archer is holding the bow should be proper. 

Today archery has become a sporting activity; some even use it for recreational purposes. Proper knowledge of archery arrows will have those individuals who want to learn archery.

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Viewing Deep Sky Objects and Comets

Cygnus Wall - Photo: Wikipedia

Deep sky objects are usually located outside our solar system.  The listing includes star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and multiple stars.  There is also a list of 110 objects on Messier's list that you can try to locate.  The key to viewing all these heavenly bodies is to go outside on a really dark night and you must have a large telescope (one which an aperture that is greater than six inches).  Light pollution filters may also help improve your view.

What looks like one star in the sky actually becomes two or three when looking through your telescope.  There is a four-part star in Orion's Nebula.  There are also stars that brighten and dim as you watch them over time.  These are called Variable Stars.

Star clusters are thousands of stars grouped together.  They create a spectacular view when looking through a small telescope.  An example of this is the Pleiades.  This is a group of seven bright stars in the Taurus constellation that can be seen with the naked eye.  But once you view them through the telescope, you will find there are thousands of stars in the cluster.

Large gas and dust clouds in space are called Nebulae.  An emission nebula will produce light where a dark nebula will absorb the light.  They can be a challenge to find.

Galaxies have massive numbers of stars that are held together by gravity and are usually found in clusters.  They come in many shapes and sizes – spiral, barred, elliptical, and sometimes irregular shaped.  They appear as faint, fuzzy patches of dust.  

Comets are fascinating to watch as they travel across the sky.  They develop tails and can change brightness as they get closer to the sun.  Not all comets will look the same either.  They may brighten or darken depending on where in the sky you locate them.

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The Early History of British Airways

British Airways Boeing 747-400 leaving town - Photo: Wikimedia

In 1919, as Europe emerged from the First World War, travel moved into the forefront of people’s minds.  Buoyed up on the new technologies of the day, the forerunner of BA, Aircraft Transport and Travel (AT&T), launched the world's first daily international scheduled air service.  It offered a service from London to Paris and ushered in the modern age of air travel.

Within 5 years there were already a handful of start-up airlines offering their services in Britain. In March 1924, the four best known of these: Handley Page, Instone, AT&T, and British Air Marine Navigation merged into one larger company called Imperial Airways and offered flights around the British Empire.

As Imperial Airways grew in size, it became a forerunner of a modern airline, offering flights to countries all across the world including Canada and Australia, and competed effectively with the Airships that dominated the era.

In 1935, a rival arrived on the scene.  British Airways Ltd was formed from a number of small privately owned companies and quickly developed into a company of similar size.  By 1939, just before the Second World War broke out, the British Government nationalized the two airlines and created a new, government-owned agency known as the British Overseas Airways Corporation or BOAC for short.

The final stage in these early decades of BA came in 1949 when BOAC was separated into two separate entities: British European Airways, which carried out short-haul flights into Europe, and BOAC, which continued to serve the rest of the world.  These two siblings served the world at the beginning of the jet age in the 1950s and became iconic leaders of British innovation.

By the 1970s, fuel costs and industrial concerns over economy saw the government of the day decides that the two companies had become bloated and inefficient and by 1974, after a 4 year process, the two companies came together as one: British Airways, just in time for the birth of the supersonic age with the Concorde in 1976.

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Cigar Smoking 101

Cigar - Photo: Pixabay

What are the basics of cigar smoking?  How do you light a cigar?  How do you draw on the cigar properly?  Do you inhale?  What are the dos and don'ts of cigar smoking?  If you have ever pondered any of these questions, read on.  Here is a simple and accessible primer designed to help you gain familiarity with the sometimes confusing, always enigmatic world of cigar smoking.  

First Step:  Lighting Up 

First, all new cigar smokers should learn how to properly light a cigar.  Use a clipper designed for cigars to clip off the edge of the head (the section you put to your mouth). If possible light the foot of your cigar with a cedar match.  Avoid regular cigarette lighters.  They produce a nasty odor that can linger and ruin a good cigar.  If you must use a lighter, use butane lighter.  These will keep the odor to a minimum.  However, you should always strive to use a wooden match because lighters can easily taint the foot of your cigar.  How do you light up?  Simply strike a match and hold the edge of your cigar over the flame.  Avoid touching the cigar to the fire, simply hold the cigar over the flame and draw deeply until the cigar is lit. 

Second Step:  Burn it down to a nub?

Should you burn your cigar down to a nub?  Experts recommend you leave at least two inches to your cigar.  Even the finest cigars will tend to get bitter if you let it burn all the way down.  What about ashes?  Should you knock the ashes off of your cigar?  Rather than knocking the ashes off the edge, let the cigar rest in the ashtray when you're not smoking it.  The ashes will fall off naturally.  

Third Step:  Relax and Enjoy

A cigar should never be rushed.  By design, cigars should be savored, preferably after dinner and with a glass of good brandy.  Hold the cigar between your thumb and fingers—anything else might be considered bad taste.  Also, don't inhale deeply.  The smoke should not reach your lung.  This is very bad for your health, and it will not help you taste the cigar any better.  Of course, you should always be considerate of those around you.  If possible, smoke in the company of other cigar smokers. A good cigar can be enjoyed alone and even more so with friends.  

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Ancestry.com: The Best Website to Learn About Your Genealogy

Field laborers of Japanese ancestry - Photo: Wikimedia

Many people try and trace their ancestry for a lot of reasons. Some do it for medical reasons to find out about a mysterious disease that their family is suffering from, others do it for honoring their dead relatives, and there are people who find it as an interesting hobby and find it fun to do so. It is a fact that it's always interesting to know about facts about your family's past. You never know, maybe your great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a famous person back in the old days.

These are some of the reasons why you should learn about your genealogy. Maybe if you find out enough about your family, there might be an illegitimate child that gave birth to the great-great-great grandfather of the President of the United States which makes you and the president very distant relatives. It is always fun and also a bit surprising finding out about your past.

However, you have to consider that as time progresses, some pasts are forgotten in the mists of time. It is very important that you should consider that finding out about one's past is very difficult especially if you don’t know about your great-grandfather for some reasons. You also have to consider past historical events, such as war, the Great Depression, and migration. In the United States, you have to consider that this country is composed of different races. There are people living here who have different traces of ancestry. There are Germans, Africans, Russians, Latin, and others. Some people don’t even know that they had foreign ancestry and you also have to consider that some last names have been Americanized.

These are some of the reasons why it can be difficult to trace your genealogy or your ancestry. However, technology can make it easier for you to find out about your past. There are available websites today that specializes in genealogy. One of these websites that are considered to be reputable and can definitely help you find long-lost relatives is the Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com is a genealogy website that can help you find out about your family's past.

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There are professionals here that can help you gather documents, such as birth, immigration, death, marriage documents, medical records, and other vital documents about your family. You need to realize that these documents are very hard to find and will require you to pay a fee for the professionals working with Ancestry.com to find it for you. Today, there are more than four billion names in Ancestry.com database. If you know the complete name of your grandparents or great-great grandparents, you can start your search for your ancestors from here.

Ancestry.com offers the best services at a very reasonable cost. You have to consider that knowing about your family's past is priceless. Who knows, maybe you are the great-great-great-great-great-grandchild of a famous Native American or a famous European who migrated in the United States.

So, if you want to know about your genealogy the easy way, you should get the services of Ancestry.com. Here, you can start your very own family tree and show it to the members of your family and friends about your proud past.

Major garage transformation

Garage - Photo: Wikimedia

One of the most commonly encountered questions when thinking about converting your garage for a new use is the warmth of the floor. Whether you are choosing to convert your garage into a spacious home office or to convert it into a gym room, you have to take into consideration some improvements for your floor.

Since the garage has a concrete and uninsulated floor you should focus on making it warmer and more resilient. Furring up the floor with wood and plywood can accomplish both tasks. As a warning, you should use pressure-treated wood or protect the wood which is in contact with the concrete by placing a layer of felt paper between the wood and the concrete.

First of all measure and determine how much you want to raise the floor. All garage floors have some amount of slope from the back wall to the wall with the garage door in it to allow the water runoff. To achieve a level floor you will have to adjust the joists, for this if you are placing the joists perpendicular to the slope in the floor each of them would have to be ripped down or shimmed up and if the joists are parallel to the slope, you can rip them on a taper or use shims to level them.

Ok, you finished remodeling the floors, now it’s time to examine your walls. You might be surprised to find out that your walls are not even with the foundation they sit on. They may be set back from the foundation or maybe overhang it in other areas. Only one step will solve these problems: selecting a lumber size that is deep enough to extend the framing past the concrete. By notching each end of the furring strip and attaching one strip to the face of each wall stud will result in an even wall that completely hides the foundation. Also, it will be deep enough for the R-21 wall insulation, this type of insulation being the most common code requirement. 

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When remodeling the walls and the floor several obstructions may appear. Obstructions like pipes, ducts, wires and other impediments to smooth walls may exist. For small obstructions such as wires or small pipes, you could adjust the furring strips enough to accommodate them. The solution for larger obstructions is to box around them. If the obstruction is a water heater or something that you will need access to, you can frame it in and enclose it on three sides and then provide a removable access panel for the fourth side.

A building permit may be required for a garage makeover. Of course, all the methods presented here are purely theoretical and only for guidance. All garages are different and some adjustments to the used methods or materials may be required in order to accommodate to your garage. 

Mountain Bike Anatomy

Maintain Bike - Photo: Pixabay

A mountain bike is the one thing you need before you go mountain biking.  A mountain bike contains many parts, which will be covered below:

1.  Bottom bracket - This attaches the crankset to the body of a bike. 

2.  Brake cable - This is the cable that connects the brake lever to the brake mechanism.

3.  Brake lever - The lever on the handlebar to activate the brakes.  The left side is the front brake and the right side is the rear brake.

4.  Chain - The circular set of links that transfer power from the chainring to the cogs.

5.  Chainring - The toothed rings that attach to the crank to hold the chain.

6.  Crank - The lever that extends from the bottom bracket to the pedal, transferring the power to the chainrings.

7.  Derailleur - The mechanism for moving the chain from one cog to another.

8.  Downtube - The section of the frame that extends downward from the stem to the bottom bracket.

9.  Front shock - The shock absorber on the front fork.

10.  Handlebar - The horizontal bar attached to the stem with handgrips on the end.

11.  Headset - The mechanism in front of the frame that connects the front fork to the stem and handlebars.

12.  Hub - The center part of the wheel that the spokes are attached to.

13.  Idler pulley - The bottom pulley of the rear derailleur that provides spring tension to keep the chain tight.

14.  Nipple - A threaded receptacle that holds the end of the spoke to the rim.

15.  Pedal - The platform to pedal on; attaches to the crank.

16.  Rear shock - The shock absorber for the rear tire on dual suspension type bikes.

17.  Rim - The metal ring that holds the spokes on the inside and the tire to the outside.

18.  Saddle - The seat.

19.  Seat post - Offers support for the seat. 

20.  Skewer - The metal rod that goes through the hub, attaching the wheel to the dropouts of the frame.

21.  Spindle - The free rotating axle that the crank arms attach to; also a part of the bottom bracket.

22.  Spokes - The thick wires that join the hub to the rim.

23.  Stem - A piece that attaches the handlebar to the steering tube.

24.  Wheel hub - The center of the wheel that the spokes are attached to.

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