Let's not get crazy...we all know certain things only happen in the movies.

Awesome! Mine's 6:33 but the last time I did it, it was over 7:00. I have to learn to string the thrusters together better. Sound like a cool gym. Have you also notices the high nerd quotient in crossfit? Our gym is full of nerds. Kinda neat.

The difference is that the article IIRC had people working at 55% of their max or something. That's really nothing. I'm talking about doing 5-10 minutes at your max. E.g., look at the CrossFit workout named "Fight Gone Bad" (http://www.fgb4.org/2009/05/24/the-rules/). That takes only 17 minutes, and every time I've done it, I've gone so hard that I've puked at the end. So that's 17 minutes at 100%. There's definitely afterburn there. I'd even volunteer to go into a metabolic chamber to show it.

Paleo-Zone is even better. Cut out all those grains and eat like a caveman!

Plus, I do think that the "afterburn" is true (even though the article said otherwise). I eat 3000-4000 calories a day (depending on the intensity of the workout) and I'm still losing weight. As my workouts are only 10-15 minutes a day, I can't be burning all of that during the workout.

Paleo? Or generic low-carb? I've been doing Paleo for six months and have never felt better nor has my athletic performance ever been better.

Yup, if I was limited to recommend only ONE thing to people it would be to do Tabata style exercise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

What everyone needs to do is go to the CrossFit main site: http://www.crossfit.com/ and look through their research on exercise AND diet. I totally recommend the lifestyle they preach. I've been doing the workouts for about 4 years, but didn't change my diet until last spring. Doing both CrossFit + Strict Paleo, I'm down 25 lbs in 6 months: 6', 175 lbs. Some Benchmarks:

100 Pullups - 5 minutes
1 Mile run - 6:15
I can lift 200 lbs over my head

I could go on but people already view CrossFit cultish, so I'll quit before you think I'm TOO crazy.

What's your Fran time?

Yes and no. It's still really sloppy and not well commented since it's still a pet project. Plus I know that it's not popular around here, but because of questions like the OP's, I think there's some value in actually productizing this code, so I don't want to throw it out there to the public just yet.

UPB (Universal Powerline Bus) is the same idea at X10 and unfortunately much more expensive because of licensing issues, but the reliability of the communications is really good. It comes with a (poorly written) windows program that allows you to setup commands and stuff, but because of the ease of the UPB protocol I've just written my own C++ code to monitor the Bus and send commands to do things. I send an email to my house when I leave work, then the software reads the UPB temperature sensors inside and outside to determine when and if the heat should be turned on. When the light sensor notices that it's dark outside, the porch lights go on. When my car comes in the driveway (induction sensors) and I'm not hope the first floor lights go on. I unlock the front door with a key fob. And lots more. Blinds open and close depending on sun levels, inside, and outside temperature. Lots of really cool logic! I'm working right now on artificial intelligence to guess when I'm coming home, when I'm going to bed, all of that stuff, it's just hard because my schedule isn't very regular. Anyway, to get back on topic. I had to write all of this myself because the offerings out there are no good, if you want anything beyond the basics you won't get it. If you're a good hacker, it's worth it just to write a service that can read and write UPB commands and you can do anything you want (there's also a UPB-X10 bridge if you want to use X10 hardware).

Gah! I thought I had cleared all of that TSR hell out of my head, and there you go mentioning it again. I'm going to have nightmares tonight.

Where did you get a 56lb kettlebell? I've only seen 24Kg=53lb or the ones that are rounded up to 55lb.

Anyway, Crossfit is the only way to go. It's a great workout, and it's especially great if you can go to a Crossfit gym. Having people around you pushing you makes you go even harder and get into even better shape. I did Crossfit on my own for a while, and saw lots of improvements in my fitness compared to the normal gym rat stuff I did. Then I joined a Crossfit gym and I saw another round of gains. I can honestly say I'm in the best shape of my life right now, and I only workout for 10-20 minutes a day.

Then you just do phased-lock detection. In the IR with current cheap detectors you can modulate in the kHz without any problem. I wouldn't be surprised if they do that now. In my lab we look for changes in an IR signal that are about 10^8 times smaller than the background IR radiation. It's not a hard problem to solve.

Granted, there will be a little more inefficiency in the larger alternator needed. But also remember, that if you're not drawing any current from an alternator, the torque required to turn it is very small, and only dependent of the friction in the bearing of the alternator. So basically, the times you don't need the power from the alternator, it's easier for the engine to turn it.

The torque required to turn an alternator is the sum of some constant value related to the mechanical friction plus a variable term that proportional to the current (really power) draw on the alternator.

Also remember you have a battery in a car that can buffer quick changes in power need. That is, you have a low power alternator constantly filling the battery and when the power steering needs lots of current it takes it from the battery. With proper sizing of the alternator and battery, you could get this to work really well.

You seem to be a CrossFitter....what's your Fran time? I'm still trying to learn POSE, I just can't coordinate it. I spent WAY too many year learning to run the wrong way and retraining all of that is going very slowly.