[PROCON]

My Dad, a brilliant Electrical Engineer, cancelled his subscription to Scientific American back in the early 80's.

Scientific PC is what it's become.

[SamuraiScot]

It was a real magazine when I was a kid. My father commented that an intelligent laymen could get 2/3 of the way through any article—and you had to be a rocket scientist after that. So it served both scientists and non-scientists very well.

We did a mess of projects with my dad from that magazine. My favorite was the Vortex Generator, made from an empty coffee can. You put the plastic lid on top, but cut a 1-inch diameter circle in the metal bottom. If you tap lightly on the plastic lid, it sends a blast of air out that hole that will put out a candle across the room.

. . . Or surprise your older brother big-time when he walks in the door and a focused blast of air smacks him in the forehead.

Nowadays in SciAm, I guess that project would be considered too much like a gun. Too manly.