The show that inspired them is actually quite cool
on
Lego Trebuchet
·
· Score: 1
>It all started with a documentary we were watching on TV about some history professors and >traditional builders heading into the English
countryside to build a couple of trebuchets. >Their aim was to see which design would have been more practical for use in the 14th century.
The show in question was an episode of the PBS series "Secret of Lost Empires":
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuch et
The whole series is very interesting -- they try to recreate an item from history for which some or all of the underlying technology is totally lost, except perhaps for fragmentary text descriptions. The two teams use different counterweight theories, with interesting results.
I just wish they hadn't flouted historical accuracy by using as a projectile one of those big blue things from "Star Wars Episode 1"...
how accurate could it BE, when he can't even spell the Roman numeral IV right???
For many of us, it's NOT purely a numbers game...
on
Hacker's Diet
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· Score: 1
The most basic assumption of the book seems to be that calories are interchangeable and that only the total matters.
Wrong! For those of us who are insulin-resistant, it's not the *amount* of calories that matters so much as the *form*: it's *carbohydrate* that drives the fat-deposition mechanism, and by reducing carbohydrate consumption (drastically, at first, anyway), you effectively shut down the mechanism and shift your metabolism to burn fat.
This is the basic idea behind low-carb "diets" such as Atkins, Protein Power, etc.
For those of you who have sincerely tried the FDA-recommended low-fat methodologies without success: at least READ about the studies behind lowcarbing and talk about it with your doctor (assuming s/he is open minded, or at least well-read!)
Slashdot Mirror
>It all started with a documentary we were watching on TV about some history professors and
h et
>traditional builders heading into the English
countryside to build a couple of trebuchets.
>Their aim was to see which design would have been more practical for use in the 14th century.
The show in question was an episode of the PBS
series "Secret of Lost Empires":
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuc
The whole series is very interesting -- they try
to recreate an item from history for which some
or all of the underlying technology is totally
lost, except perhaps for fragmentary text
descriptions. The two teams use different
counterweight theories, with interesting results.
I just wish they hadn't flouted historical
accuracy by using as a projectile one of those
big blue things from "Star Wars Episode 1"...
(refer to photo)
how accurate could it BE, when he can't
even spell the Roman numeral IV right???
The most basic assumption of the book seems
to be that calories are interchangeable and
that only the total matters.
Wrong! For those of us who are insulin-resistant,
it's not the *amount* of calories that matters
so much as the *form*: it's *carbohydrate* that
drives the fat-deposition mechanism, and by
reducing carbohydrate consumption (drastically,
at first, anyway), you effectively shut down the
mechanism and shift your metabolism to burn fat.
This is the basic idea behind low-carb "diets"
such as Atkins, Protein Power, etc.
For those of you who have sincerely tried the
FDA-recommended low-fat methodologies without
success: at least READ about the studies
behind lowcarbing and talk about it with your
doctor (assuming s/he is open minded, or at least
well-read!)
Suggested sites:
http://www.grossweb.com/asdlc/faq.htm
http://www.atkinscenter.com/faq.html
http://www.atkinsdiet.com/
http://www.rdrop.com/users/caf/adipos.html
(I started lowcarbing in February and have
lost 52 lbs since then... all with no change
in exercise or total caloric consumption)