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Adventures from the Technology Underground Audiobook by William Gurstelle
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Title: Adventures from the Technology Underground
Author: William Gurstelle
Narrator: Marc Cashman
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-09-06
Publisher: Random House Audio
Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 38 votes
Genres: Science & Technology, Technology
Publisher's Summary:
Adventures from the Technology Underground is Gurstelle's lively and weirdly compelling report of his travels. In these pages we meet Frank Kosdon and others who draw the scrutiny of the FAA, ATF, and other federal agencies in their pursuit of high-power amateur rocketry, which they demonstrate to impressive, and sometimes explosive, effect at the annual LDRS gathering held in various remote and unpopulated areas (a necessary consideration since that acronym stands for Large Dangerous Rocket Ships). Here also are the underground technologists who turn up at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada high desert, including Lucy Hosking, "the engineer from Hell" and the creator of Satan's Calliope, a.k.a. the World's Loudest Thing, a pipe organ made from jet engines. Also at Burning Man is Austin "Dr. MegaVolt" Richard, who braves the arcing, sputtering, six-digit voltages of a giant Tesla coil in his protective metal suit. Add in a trip to see medieval-style catapults, air cannons, and super-sized slingshots in action at the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition in Sussex County, Delaware, and forays to the post apocalyptic enclaves of the flamethrower builders and the future-noir pits of the fighting robots, and you have proof positive that the age of invention is still going strong.
Critic Reviews:
"Adventure, excitement, and really wild stuff. [Listeners] won't be disappointed." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
Somewhat interesting but not that great
First, this book is not something you can let your kids read unsupervised--> There is a section on some seriously questionable behavior at the burning man ("Camp Pump" and vacuum enhancement). I guess that is why I am giving it a couple of stars less than max. Although the book can function as light reading for an adult, I was hoping to give it to my kids. Also "Camp Pump" didn't really add anything to the book for me, and could have been omitted. I am not a prude, its just that I don't consider those 5 pages to be that relevant to the technology underground. I would have rather seen a section on land speed records, or computer piloted land vehicles.
The reason that I wanted to give it to my kids is because the book is written at the 'primer' level in regards to the topics is covers. The diagrams are great for the middle school level, and the writing is also 5th-9th grade or so. Most of the material in the book can be found on the web (in more depth), but the book is a nice way to bring a bunch of the topics together and relate them as components in the technology underground. Not to mention that, on the web, the more 'fringy' the website, the more likely it will be that there are links leading to places you don't want your kid going. On the other hand, I want my kids to be excited about science and technology, to feel like there is some fun stuff there, instead of just endless number crunching. This book would certainly generate the interest and 'how do I' questions that lead to true learning. I feel as if school in the US is getting increasingly watered down and topics that have some of the most interest to kids ( topics that are the "coolest") are strangled due to the focus on political correctness.
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Title: Adventures from the Technology Underground
Author: William Gurstelle
Narrator: Marc Cashman
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-09-06
Publisher: Random House Audio
Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 38 votes
Genres: Science & Technology, Technology
Publisher's Summary:
Adventures from the Technology Underground is Gurstelle's lively and weirdly compelling report of his travels. In these pages we meet Frank Kosdon and others who draw the scrutiny of the FAA, ATF, and other federal agencies in their pursuit of high-power amateur rocketry, which they demonstrate to impressive, and sometimes explosive, effect at the annual LDRS gathering held in various remote and unpopulated areas (a necessary consideration since that acronym stands for Large Dangerous Rocket Ships). Here also are the underground technologists who turn up at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada high desert, including Lucy Hosking, "the engineer from Hell" and the creator of Satan's Calliope, a.k.a. the World's Loudest Thing, a pipe organ made from jet engines. Also at Burning Man is Austin "Dr. MegaVolt" Richard, who braves the arcing, sputtering, six-digit voltages of a giant Tesla coil in his protective metal suit. Add in a trip to see medieval-style catapults, air cannons, and super-sized slingshots in action at the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition in Sussex County, Delaware, and forays to the post apocalyptic enclaves of the flamethrower builders and the future-noir pits of the fighting robots, and you have proof positive that the age of invention is still going strong.
Critic Reviews:
"Adventure, excitement, and really wild stuff. [Listeners] won't be disappointed." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
Somewhat interesting but not that great
First, this book is not something you can let your kids read unsupervised--> There is a section on some seriously questionable behavior at the burning man ("Camp Pump" and vacuum enhancement). I guess that is why I am giving it a couple of stars less than max. Although the book can function as light reading for an adult, I was hoping to give it to my kids. Also "Camp Pump" didn't really add anything to the book for me, and could have been omitted. I am not a prude, its just that I don't consider those 5 pages to be that relevant to the technology underground. I would have rather seen a section on land speed records, or computer piloted land vehicles.
The reason that I wanted to give it to my kids is because the book is written at the 'primer' level in regards to the topics is covers. The diagrams are great for the middle school level, and the writing is also 5th-9th grade or so. Most of the material in the book can be found on the web (in more depth), but the book is a nice way to bring a bunch of the topics together and relate them as components in the technology underground. Not to mention that, on the web, the more 'fringy' the website, the more likely it will be that there are links leading to places you don't want your kid going. On the other hand, I want my kids to be excited about science and technology, to feel like there is some fun stuff there, instead of just endless number crunching. This book would certainly generate the interest and 'how do I' questions that lead to true learning. I feel as if school in the US is getting increasingly watered down and topics that have some of the most interest to kids ( topics that are the "coolest") are strangled due to the focus on political correctness.