Make: Talk 006 - William Gurstelle, Backyard Ballistics

Here's the 6th episode of MAKE's podcast, Make: Talk! In each episode, I'll interview one of the makers featured in the magazine.

Our maker this week is William Gurstelle. He's a contributing editor to MAKE and his books include Backyard Ballistics, Adventures from the Technology Underground, and Absinthe and Flamethrowers. In addition, Bill writes frequently on culture and technology for national magazines and blogs including The Atlantic, Wired, and Popular Science.

Here's are some projects William has written for MAKE:

Two-Can Stirling Engine

Bullwhip

Double Pendulum

Super Tritone Shop Whistle

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

semiotix

I know it’s not the point, but I love the cover layout on all those projects. It’s so classy yet authoritative, like the old Penguin Classics jackets, or that one brand of technical manuals that makes X86 Machine Language Conversion Protocols sound like King Lear.
DevinC

I would be interested in practicing backyard ballistics but, since my yard is adjacent to a school playground, overshoot errors would be particularly distressing.
- Susan Carley Oliver
  
  School playgrounds after hours and on weekends can actually be the perfect places for shooting off rockets, since they’re large empty spaces that are often deserted.
RedShirt77

I don’t think I need Clarinet lessons, but if there are lessons on siege warfare, let me know.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

Somehow I don’t think the TSA is going to let you take that hand cranked USB charger described in the intro onto the airplane.