The Athena Project, by Brad Thor, is a sci-fi thriller.
The Athena Project of the title is a group of Delta Force female only operatives, which take on the hardest assignments.
On the book, they have to unravel the plan of an evil group, which is using nazi super technology that had been (mostly) lost in the end of WW2.
Overall, the action was fun. But I couldn't help but feel that the ending was a big anti-climatic...
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman - Review
I've just finished reading The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman - by Tim Ferriss .
It's an interesting guide that contains a lot of techniques to improve your body - such as a diet, exercises and concepts for gaining muscle, strength, speed, and improving you swimming, running or baseball performance.
I thought it was quite interesting. Do the ideas make sense? Many seem to, and confirm published studies. Other seem a little crazy.
The diet he proposes, the slow-carb diet, which has plenty of protein and vegetables, but no carbs with high glicemic content (rice, bread, etc), seems to make sense.
There a few interesting ideas I'm already trying:
You might have heard of drinking 500 ml of cold water when you wake up. I had, but since I didn't heard a good explanation I completely ignored it.
According to the book, in at least two studies this increased resting metabolic rate 24-30%.
Cold Showers: at short durations, increased adiponectin levels and glucose uptake by muscle tissue. On longer durations (30 minutes) - fatty acid release and possibly GLUT-4 increase. Improved immunity. Effective treatment for depression (?!?!?).
Brief Muscular Contraction (60-90 seconds) before major meals: increased GLUT-4 to the surface of muscle cells. That should help putting on muscle instead of fat.
There are a lot of minor things like those, as well as complete protocols and guides to adding muscle, perfecting sex or sleep, running, etc.
There are also a whole bunch of extra articles. I can't figure out how to access them, though - it requests a password (a word from the book), but only provides proper positions for the print version and the audio version - not the Kindle version. I've e-mailed their support about it.
One interesting thing to keep in mind that while there are plenty of footnotes and plenty of mentions of studies (in the form "studies say..."), actual references to those studies are rare to non-existent.
It's an interesting guide that contains a lot of techniques to improve your body - such as a diet, exercises and concepts for gaining muscle, strength, speed, and improving you swimming, running or baseball performance.
I thought it was quite interesting. Do the ideas make sense? Many seem to, and confirm published studies. Other seem a little crazy.
The diet he proposes, the slow-carb diet, which has plenty of protein and vegetables, but no carbs with high glicemic content (rice, bread, etc), seems to make sense.
There a few interesting ideas I'm already trying:
You might have heard of drinking 500 ml of cold water when you wake up. I had, but since I didn't heard a good explanation I completely ignored it.
According to the book, in at least two studies this increased resting metabolic rate 24-30%.
Cold Showers: at short durations, increased adiponectin levels and glucose uptake by muscle tissue. On longer durations (30 minutes) - fatty acid release and possibly GLUT-4 increase. Improved immunity. Effective treatment for depression (?!?!?).
Brief Muscular Contraction (60-90 seconds) before major meals: increased GLUT-4 to the surface of muscle cells. That should help putting on muscle instead of fat.
There are a lot of minor things like those, as well as complete protocols and guides to adding muscle, perfecting sex or sleep, running, etc.
There are also a whole bunch of extra articles. I can't figure out how to access them, though - it requests a password (a word from the book), but only provides proper positions for the print version and the audio version - not the Kindle version. I've e-mailed their support about it.
One interesting thing to keep in mind that while there are plenty of footnotes and plenty of mentions of studies (in the form "studies say..."), actual references to those studies are rare to non-existent.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Super Laser Racer Demo Review
Another semi-generic retro game. Cute neon wireframe graphics, somewhat annoying music.
In a variation on the classic 2D racer, you have shields and a few different weapons.
Not worth the time of trying it out, unless you specifically like this sort of game.
In a variation on the classic 2D racer, you have shields and a few different weapons.
Not worth the time of trying it out, unless you specifically like this sort of game.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Rush Demo Review
Rush is based on a classic computer puzzle game - some sort of entity (in this case, colored cubes) are released or start from a point in the puzzle, and you must use some sort of tool (here arrows, teleports and conveyors) to make them go safely to a specific spot.
As usual, you get the exact type of tools you need to complete the level (at least for the levels I played).
The graphics and sounds are nice, but I can't say that the super abstract style seemed to help. I just didn't like it.
However, I'm not a big fan of this particular puzzle type. If you are, you might want to get their demo.
As usual, you get the exact type of tools you need to complete the level (at least for the levels I played).
The graphics and sounds are nice, but I can't say that the super abstract style seemed to help. I just didn't like it.
However, I'm not a big fan of this particular puzzle type. If you are, you might want to get their demo.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
System Protocol One Demo Review
System Protocol One is another tower defense game. The game world is based on cool looking grids and components representing a server, in the glowing wireframe of the now classic retro look.
The game has a competent tutorial, ok soundtrack and an interesting theme. It seems to have all the classics of tower defense games, both on attackers and defense, and a few interesting twists.
If you are a fan of tower defense games, it's worth taking a look at this one.
The game has a competent tutorial, ok soundtrack and an interesting theme. It seems to have all the classics of tower defense games, both on attackers and defense, and a few interesting twists.
If you are a fan of tower defense games, it's worth taking a look at this one.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Bejeweled 3 Review
Bejeweled 3 was released today. While I didn't like Bejeweled Twist - and I rarely bother to review casual games - Bejeweled 3 is a big enough release that I had to mention it. It's also pretty fun.
Basic gameplay is very similar to the original (and oh so many other gem match games) - match 3 gems. As usual, there are many special gems, and the music is superb.
What I found most interesting is the variety of modes. There is the classic mode, of course.
Other modes:
If you like match-3 games, I'd really recommend checking it out. You can get it for a discount price on Steam (although the download is not available yet) or on PopCap, if you join their passport program.
Basic gameplay is very similar to the original (and oh so many other gem match games) - match 3 gems. As usual, there are many special gems, and the music is superb.
What I found most interesting is the variety of modes. There is the classic mode, of course.
Other modes:
- a lightning mode where you have a time limit. Kind of generic.
- Relic mode - which has a whole bunch of match-gems mini games - for example, on one of those you have to match on butterflies, on another you have to match on the bottom to dig for gold (?!?!?), on another you have to cover the whole gem grid.
- Zen Mode - an unlimited time mode supposed to relax you. It has a bunch of different relaxing features - nature sounds, breathing sounds and visual indicator, binaural pulses. It all sounds pretty silly, but the actual effect is very calming.
If you like match-3 games, I'd really recommend checking it out. You can get it for a discount price on Steam (although the download is not available yet) or on PopCap, if you join their passport program.
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