Nurture Your Inner Geek With The “American Heritage of Invention & Technology” Magazine
Written: Aug 30 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wide variety of subjects, focuses on [duh] inventions and technology, educational.
Cons: $4.99 an issue at the newsstand, only published quarterly.
The Bottom Line: Have a hi-tech junkie in your midst? Spoil them with a subscription to this mag!
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| Freak369's Full Review: American Heritage of Invention and Technology Mag... |
When issues of this started arriving in my mailbox I was a little puzzled; I didn’t remember subscribing to it nor is it something that I would ever take interest in reading if I saw it at a newsstand. My oldest forgot to mention that he subscribed to it and had it sent in my name; when I mentioned this magazine oddity to him he asked me if I kept them or threw them out. Of course I kept them, I wasn’t about to pitch out something that I was clueless about. What if someone sent it to me as a gift subscription; I’d feel pretty foolish if they asked me if I liked it and I replied that I lined the pet cages with it or threw them out. There were three issues at the house, one arrived when we lived in San Diego and the other two while we were here, they seemed to arrive at odd times though, it wasn’t until I actually sat down and read them that I understood why they seemed ‘random’. Like I said, this wasn’t something that I would take a second look at if I saw it at a bookstore or on a newsstand but I do have to admit, it does have some pretty interesting articles in it.
American Heritage of Invention & Technology
In some ways this reminds me of the old Omni magazine that was put out years and years ago; obscure topics blended with cutting edge subjects. My initial judgment of the magazine was that it was stuffy and something that required a degree in order to read but it’s not like that at all. There is some technical jargon in it but for the most part it is easy to read and understand. This is only published quarterly, that’s why I had such a hard time grasping the delivery dates, if it were monthly then I might have caught on to it but there was too much of a stretch between issues for me to keep track of them. Since my oldest is a complete geek [they all are for that matter] he wanted to get a subscription to this so he didn’t have to worry about trying to hunt it down when he is at school. After we unraveled the mystery of where the subscription came from all the boys grabbed for them to read them before my oldest came home for break.
A bulk of the magazine focuses on inventions and how they have impacted our daily lives and this goes hand in hand with the technology behind it. One of the best articles I read was about the inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame [I never even knew there was such a thing]; it chronicled how things that were invented years ago influenced things today. A good example of this was Alec Jeffreys who pioneered genetic fingerprinting and how that discovery saved countless people from being executed for violent crimes they didn’t commit. It was this small passage in the article that really got me thinking; DNA is something that everyone has but if Jeffreys hadn’t had his breakthrough, the person that accepted the award on his behalf, Kirk Bloodsworth, wouldn’t have been alive. He was convicted of a rape and murder in 1985 that he didn’t commit and after serving a life sentence without parole, Jeffreys genetic work cleared him of all charges. After I read that article I really had a whole new outlook for the magazine and started to get into the ongoing theme of inventions, technology and how these two things effect our daily lives. There, my geek moment is now over.
Now, you might think that this isn’t something that would be of interest to people unless they are a computer geek or someone that thirsts for trivial information to impress people with at parties. And honestly, that is probably what I would have said about it if I hadn’t read it but once I gave it an honest chance I did like what was being presented. Digging through the other issues there were articles about the methods that are used to test blood for viruses and disease, the invention of the toaster, weapons of war, the CCTV [closed circuit television] debate and of course space. The magazine is full of stunning photography, both past and present, but the one thing I didn’t pick up on immediately was the amount of advertising or rather the lack of it. There are hardly any adverts in it and the ones that are in it are all things that would appeal to people who read or subscribe to it. Things like the Nanotech Report and gas guzzling SUV’s - in the most recent issue there were only four advertisements and two of them were for American Heritage of Invention & Technology related items.
Pricing
This magazine will set you back $4.99 at the newsstand or at a bookstore [$6.99 in Canada] which seems a little steep to me but I am not the one that ordered it or paid for it. The high price may be because there is almost no advertising it in. You can save some money if you order the subscription for $15.00 a year and there are tons of subscription cards inside it with offers. The one that came in the most recent issue was the “$20.00 Deal”. Start or extended your subscription for a year and you can have a subscription sent to someone else for ‘free’. It’s not really free, it’s an extra five dollars but that’s how they get you to suck someone else into it. Look at it this way, if it costs $15.00 a year and they dangle this offer in front of you then when it comes time for the other person to renew and they see the deal, then end up sending a ‘free’ subscription to someone else .. and so forth and so on. Since my son was the one that ordered it I can’t say whether or not this is worth it - to him it is - but unless there is something of interest on the cover to bait me into buying it, chances are I would have never picked this up on my own.
The Bottom Line
While it might come off as a geek or high tech type of magazine, the articles are written so those outside the loop can comprehend what is being discussed. Read over the letters section at the front of any issue and you will be able to tell that a wide variety of people read this magazine. My initial thoughts of it have changed a little since I gave it an honest chance and read through a couple of the issues but if you ask the boys they will tell you that it is one of the best out there. There is hardly any advertising in it so the cover price is a little on the high side but since it’s only published quarterly it’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg if you don’t want to subscribe to it. It’s hard to say who this would be best for but I’d say anyone that’s into [duh] inventions and technology - part, present and future, would like the contents of this.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
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Yes
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