Badass of the Week: Nikola Tesla

badassoftheweek.com

31 points·bluesmoon··8 comments

There is a lot of nonsense in this piece, even though it is an entertaining read. For instance (to pick out one instance) the Tunguska event is generally assumed to have been caused by a comet or a meteorite, not by Nikola Tesla.

He's now also the patron saint of crank science, unfortunately, the kooks seem to have adopted him as their example in their own image. This is really sad because Tesla did plenty (in spite of his many quirks) to further science and the kooks only detract.

Part of the problem is that along with all of his indisputable achievements, Tesla himself was a bit of a crank. He's a pretty complicated figure and facets of him appeal to geeks, conspiracy theorists, various stripes of Balkan nationalists, cranks, you name it. And I know you're not supposed to say that but I'll whisper - I thought this was so terrible and ill-fitting for HN, I flagged it.

Just to see this man mentioned in a list that includes, among other gems "The Kraken" makes me wince.

The Tunguska event does seem out of place (and makes me question some of the other content) but it was a great read. It reminded me of things I'd forgotten, e.g the feud between Tesla and Edison.

Not your normal Hacker News fare, but hey, it's Friday. I present to you - Drunk History: Nikola Tesla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gOR91oentQ

Short, well written, and funny. I especially liked how he shows the 'this guy is a brilliant'-part of tesla, but also the 'this guy was completely insane, part :)

The greatest of all modern minds.

I can only agree. A truly amazing man! Sadly not nearly mentioned enough in study books and lectures though..

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