The Word on The Web

Dragtimes.com is an automotive drag racing resource that maintains a database consisting of over 9,300 1/4 mile drag racing timeslips for fast cars and fast motorcycles. A horsepower calculator is offered to provide horsepower estimates that are calculated from the car’s trap speed, 1/4 mile ET and weight in pounds. Many records also contain dyno graphs that show horsepower and torque numbers for many of the fast cars as well as all performance related modifications to the vehicle.

Every month one of the drag racing submissions is featured on the main page of DragTimes.com as an outcome of users voting for their preferred fast cars. There are pictures, quarter mile times and drag racing videos for many of the submissions that can be searched through by car make and model. Since all records are reviewed to uphold the website’s integrity, DragTimes.com serves as a superb resource to research what other fast cars are running around corner or across the world.

The following is a hydroponics and grow lights introduction covering the basics of the systems and methods commonly used for growing plants using hydroponics based systems. Our hope is to give you enough information to get you started with evaluating the different systems and with choosing the right one for you.



Hydroponics systems include: Nutrient Film Technique (NFT); Drip (or Top) Watering; Aeroponic; Cloning; and Ebb & Flow (flood & drain) methods. Fundamentally, all systems feature a reservoir and some type of container for the plant(s) to grow in, such as pots, trays, etc. What separates them is how the nutrient mixture is delivered to the roots.



Media-based systems use some form of growing media or plant nutrients, which provide support for the roots. There is a greater selection of media-based systems to choose from to accommodate diverse plants and plant sizes. Water culture systems can be used either with or without growing media. These systems, however, require regular attention since growth rates are high. Abundant and high-quality fresh water and electricity must be readily available. Also, rapidly growing plants need to be maintained. Vines call for trellising and fruit and flowers must be harvested in a timely manner. Some common water culture systems are raft nutrient film practice and aeroponics.



There are three primary grow lights choices; Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium (HPS), and fluorescent. Fluorescent grow lights gives off little heat, lower light output and are primarily used to start seedlings and cuttings. New T8 and T5 higher output systems are now offered that produce enough lumens to grow various plants to maturity. Metal Halide grow lights are green/blue/violet-oriented in the spectrum depending upon the Kelvin temperature, and is the superlative light when natural light is not available and particularly during the vegetative growth stages. High Pressure Sodium grow lights are red/orange-oriented in the spectrum and the superlative lamp for secondary or supplemental lighting and promotes budding, flowering and fruiting.

Starting and improving an online business is not easy without some basic knowledge of how the internet works. Trying to understand what it is that makes one site rank higher than another in the search engine results, and how you can do as well as your competitors, are the constant challenges for a webmaster.


At what is SEO?, the blog at the bigtangle.com free directory, you will find answers to many of the questions that a newcomer to the business faces, in clear and easy to follow language.


From link development to starting your own blog, and from search engine rankings to free directories submissions, there is all the information you need to get up and running as quickly and successfully as possible on the internet.


There are also links to many of the more useful tools that you can use to assess your competitors; lists of free directories; and other indispensable tools that can literally make the difference between success and failure for your online business.

Personally I'm a warm beach and sunshine type of girl, the thought of snow and all that winter has to offer just motivates me to throw another log on the fire and snuggle up to a good book and a cup of tea but I wavered a little tonight when I saw the beautiful pictures of Breckenridge Colorado.

I was introduced to the Keystone Real Estate site as a sample of a really nicely done web site but once I was there, I couldn't help wandering around and looking at the sights.

Reading about the mountains and the views, I was almost ready to give up my bikini for skis and slopes, but then I remembered that I can't ski. But I'm sure they have fire places and tea in Breckenridge.

It's a nicely done website. I'm always partial to black backgrounds - very dramatic and makes the photographs on the site pop with the contrast so If you're looking for a good nice example of a site with a touch of drama and elegance, check out http://www.luckymountainhome.com/

Submitting your site to Directories

One common SEO step is to submit your site to directories.

There are a multitude of directories on the web. Many directories are free, more often than not, a free listing requires a reciprocal link back to the directory. Some directories charge a one time fee for a permanent listing, others charge a monthly fee or a slightly higher fee for a featured listing.

What I see emerging is a presence of niche directories. These directories either have a theme, such as web designer directories or adult link directory. Some have an extra purpose such as one that I found, the Biz-Giant Link Exchange Directory, which offers their subscribers a link exchange service with a subscription.

I'm seeing a lot of directories show the page rank of the listed site beside the listing or a thumbnail view of the site along with the listing or even both. I like the thumbnail feature, it gives you a bit of a preview of what you're going to see if and when you click on the link. However, in most cases, the picture is a little small to be of any great value.

A couple of directories that I've found, and like are;

The Sleek Directory http://www.sleekdirectory.com/: A listing in this directory gives you more than your standard amount of information. Featured links and top hits give you the thumbnail image, regular listings show the page rank of the site but more than that, you can "read more" on any listing and find the number of hits the site has received as well as the alexa rank of the site.

Biz King Directory http://www.biz-king.com/: This directory is clean and simple and has the same features as the above Sleek Directory.

No matter what directories you choose to submit to, you want to pick ones like these that are either focused on your niche or give high exposure to your site.