Starship Asterisk*

DavidLeodis wrote:Did the explanation to the APOD really need a link ("boils") to a video on how to boil water!
Were the links to information on castles and towers also necessary.

http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castleso.htm wrote:
<<Murder holes are openings in a floor through which the castle defenders could drop missles or liquids upon the attackers. Stones were the most often used missile. Boiling oil was not used, as it was a precious commodity to waste. More than likely, if any boiling liquid was used, it was water. Murder holes were most often located in the vaulting over the gate passage. The parapet was an embattled wall shielding the castle defenders on the wall-walk.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder-hole wrote:
<<A murder-hole or meurtrière is a hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway in a fortification through which the defenders can fire, throw or pour dangerous or noxious substances at attackers. As a result, the defenders would be able to rain rocks, arrows, heated sand, boiling oil, water and incendiary devices, and other substances down on the attackers' heads. Similar holes, called machicolations, were often located in the curtain walls of castles, fortified manor houses and city walls. The parapet would project over corbels so that holes would be located over the exterior face of the wall, and arrows could be shot at, rocks dropped on, or boiling water poured over, any attackers near the wall.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bodia ... _holes.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machicolation wrote:
<<A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement projects outwards from the supporting wall in order to facilitate this. A hoarding is a similar structure made of wood, usually temporarily constructed in the event of a siege. Advantages of machicolations over wooden hoardings include the greater strength of stone battlements, as well the fireproof properties. The word derives from the Old French word machicoller, derived from Old Provençal machacol, and ultimately from Latin *maccāre (to crush) + collum (the neck). A variant of machicolations set in the ceiling of a passage was also colloquially known as murder-holes.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pierrefonds5.jpg

DavidLeodis wrote:Did the explanation to the APOD really need a link ("boils") to a video on how to boil water! Were the links to information on castles and towers also necessary. The number of links in the explanation to APODs have increased a lot in recent months. I use them in case there is some astronomical relevance, but there have become too many pointless ones (in my opinion). If anyone did need that information there is at least Wikipedia. Perhaps I'm the only one that ever uses the links.

aristarchusinexile wrote:

DavidLeodis wrote:Did the explanation to the APOD really need a link ("boils") to a video on how to boil water! Were the links to information on castles and towers also necessary. The number of links in the explanation to APODs have increased a lot in recent months. I use them in case there is some astronomical relevance, but there have become too many pointless ones (in my opinion). If anyone did need that information there is at least Wikipedia. Perhaps I'm the only one that ever uses the links.

How to boil water is science .. some of the elements in the photo seem to result from a 'boiling' with globulals rising in a stream .. one of the problems with astronomical science, I think, is that astronomers impoverish their understanding, research and theoretical abilities by neglecting the other sciences. This, I believe, is due to a certain elite attitude among astronomers .. 'too high above the clouds' to bother with lesser things.

DavidLeodis wrote:It's good that we can have our own opinion. .