Contributors
Jake MacKenzie (MAKE engineering intern) started taking stuff apart as soon as he discovered it was possible, and can get most of it back together. He enjoys bike riding, table tennis, video games, and foreign or classic films (boo Hollywood). An engineering student, he likes working on vintage amps, DIY radio gear, synths, and bikes. His current project is restoring a Tektronix oscilloscope from the 50s (“They don’t make ’em like they used to — this thing is truly a boat anchor”). He will always eat udon, phô, pizza, or waffles.
Donald Simanek (Reinventing the Square Wheel) is a retired professor of physics with much experience dealing with things that don’t work as they should. He has long been concerned with how students learn (and fail to learn) basic concepts of physics, and with the continuing failures of institutionalized education. The culmination of these concerns is his website (www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/home.htm), which includes the occasionally acclaimed “Museum of Unworkable Devices.” His other interests include the history of science, the science/pseudoscience boundary, photography, and classical music. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Connie, a mathematician, a field where everything works, by definition.
Robyn Twomey (Workshop photographer) is “nonstop, curious, obsessive, resourceful with material things, and indulgent with expensive food.” Her shoot with Kevin Binkert was a great success: “At first he was too humble to ham it up for the camera, but I couldn’t get him to stop posing by the end of it.” She is currently working on a photo essay about people with Tupac tattoos, but for fun she likes to “drink pinot noir, drive down the coast, read ‘The Ethicist,’ and go dumb.” She lives in the Mission District of San Francisco, loves the idea that “30 is the new 20,” and will always eat Delfina’s flatiron steak and her mom’s homegrown artichokes.
John Iovine (Digital Kirlian Photography), a tinker and science experimenter, is the author of many books, including Kirlian Photography and Holography for Photographers. He lives in Staten Island with his children, Anna Rose and James, his wife, (the “one and only”) Ellen, dog Chansey, and “a number of neighborhood strays.” What interesting projects is he working on now? “That could fill a book.” He likes to read and write science fiction (“writing is hard, fiction is harder”), and explore the areas of science that “mainstream science doesn’t want to look at.” His favorite food is steak, barbecued.
Michael John Gorman (Kircher’s Clock limited edition booklet) is the author of several books and various articles about the history of science and technology in journals including Nature, Science, and Leonardo. He is a founder of SEED (seedartscience.blogspot.com), a Dublin-based group dedicated to the dialogue between art and science. Michael John lived for some years in Rome, where he was cofounder and director of the Athanasius Kircher Correspondence Project, before returning (via Stanford) to his native Dublin, where he lives with his wife, Caroline Bouguereau, and their 2-year-old daughter Maia. He is currently director of the Science Gallery at Trinity College.
Sam Murphy (MAKE photo editor) lives in the Mission District of San Francisco with her cinematographer boyfriend, Mike, and their two kitties, Presley and Priscilla (who they did not name). Together, Mike and Sam make nonfiction films for nonprofits (cyclepathproductions.com), and annoy people with their photo/film-geek talk. Sam is a slightly angry, smart-ass, vegetarian bicyclist and bluegrass lover. When she is not watching a documentary film, she can be found playing soccer or drinking a soy chai. Her photographs can be seen in this issue opening each major project, and Mike is the star rocking out with the cracker box amp (and cracking the bullwhip).
Empower Your iPod.
ISBN 0-596-52978-3 256 pages $19.99 US /$25.99 CAN
With the new iPods, Apple has given us the world’s smallest entertainment center. Sleek, powerful and somewhat addictive, these little gems can do far more than play music. To make the most of your iPod’s capabilities, pick up a copy of the new iPod: The Missing Manual. This new edition thoroughly covers the redesigned iPod Nanos, the video iPod, the tiny Shuffle and the overhauled iTunes 7. Each page sports easy-to-follow color graphics, crystal-clear explanations, and guidance on the most powerful and useful things your iPod can do.
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