November 17, 2005

Croatia to mark Tesla's 150th birthday Nikola Tesla was a truly odd, eccentric genius. Befriended almost exclusively by pigeons and Mark Twain, he invented radio, AC power, the foundations of radar, X-ray machines, and wireless electrical transmission. If you are intrigued in the least, a reading of some biographies would certainly be enligtening. previously mentioned here and here.

And don't think we've forgotten you conspiraciasistss' either . . . very shortly after his death almost all of his papers were confiscated by the U.S. Government! Hah?! Yeeeahhh baby, this one's got it all. And the first wanker to link to that stupid band takes it in the nuts

posted by petebest 18 years ago
  • Thomas Edison's battle with Tesla over DC vs AC power distribution is interesting, and showed what a petty, conniving asshole Edison was. He even went so far as to purposely electrocute animals just to prove his point.
  • The Rude Mechanicals produced "Requiem for Tesla"... if they revive it again and anyone has the opportunity to see it--go! They had a tesla coil the size of a baby hippo onstage.
  • excellent point rocket. I kinda liked ol' Tom before reading about that. Now I think he was more P.T. Barnum (or perhaps David Sarnoff, overbearing head of RCA who stole television from Philo Farnsworth) Tesla ruled in part because he was more into the science than the business.
  • Edison was a crazy, gifted bastard. That's why I love Warren Ellis' little comics. Tesla was another crazy guy. And yes, I can imagine some of his papers on free, global-wide energy distribution to be gathering dust in some large army warehouse.
  • Tesla and Edison, through their genius and desire to improve society, made links like this possible.
  • *kicks bernockle in the nuts*
  • Tesla was a genius, Edison was just smart and determined.
  • Meh. The proper way to celebrate his birthday is do what he did, blackout Colorado Springs. Or maybe just split the Earth in two.
  • That's a hell of a vibrator, that. And let us not forget the scalar weapons. Hats, gentlemen, hats!
  • Tesla: completely crazy. Ken Lay: a friend of presidents, sane as a schoolteacher, our friend in Washington.
  • Tesla was a genius Tesla, the band, was not.
  • *kicks Darshon in the nuts*
  • very shortly after his death almost all of his papers were confiscated by the U.S. Government! furthermore, when trying to view the papers, "long-haired freaky people" were told, via sign, that they "need not apply!"
  • *kicks Darshon in the nuts* Ha! I am nutless and, therefore, scoff at your nut-kicking! *tries to think up a more quidnuncian comment......poopyheadedsomethingerother.......then realizes that the task is far too -- any synonym for 'impossible'.
  • Anybody seen The Prestige? I though they captured Tesla's personality, or what I imagined Tesla's personality to be, quite well, even if the device central to the plot was pretty far outside his scope.
  • After the success of his combination charity-support/harassment-takedown campaign, The Oatmeal Guy must really be feeling his oats... Sorry. Still, his new quiz-based web thingy, "How Addicted to Sriracha Are You" is one of his less adept projects. Even if you express the minimum interest in Sriracha in response to every question, it'll still rate you at least "30% addicted". I guess it assumes that if you're taking the quiz at all...