Google, you disappoint me. Your whimsical doodle today is in honor of the 164th birthday of one Thomas Alva Edison. Industrial Prometheus, titan of invention, bringer of lux et veritas et cetera. Too bad he was a total jackwagon.
Don’t let anyone fool you. For the love of money and power, Edison played a strong hand in the destruction of the most brilliant human being to ever walk the earth. Nikola Tesla‘s face should be on money. It should have been renamed the Tesla Prize. Think Leonardo Da Vinci with alternating current, electromagnetic breakthroughs, contributions to ballistics, robotics, nuclear physics. Think the wireless transmission of energy to electric devices by 1893. Think of where we’d be with that now. Think remote controlled submarines in 1898. Think of using the Earth itself as a conductor of free energy. Think of every cool steam-punk thing you ever saw or read. Imagine having landed on the moon in 1920 instead of 1969.
Thomas Edison. Happy Birthday, jerk.
Chris Cocca 
No no no
Tesla girls Tesla girls
Testing out theories
Electric chairs and dynamos
Dressed to kill they’re killing me
But heaven knows their recipe
-Tesla Girls by OMD
I listen to this song on my “1st Wave” satellite radio station! Now I can make the proper connection…thanks
Signs signs, everywhere the signs
blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind…
I couldn’t quite place where I’d seen Edison’s smug old-fashioned pomposity, and then realized it was from the opening credits of Cheers. Same era even.
this made me actually laugh out loud.
Why?
Because I love Cheers. And I don’t love Edison. And that guy is all smuggy.
OK…just had to share this about Edison (you probably already know this story)
In 1903 the was a circus elephant named Topsey who had killed several trainers and it was decided that the elephant should be “put down”. Edison heard about the upcoming execution of the animal and asked if he could electrocute it to prove that (rival George Westinghouse’s) alternating current was dangerous. After strapping on copper sandals, the elephant was electrocuted in front of 1500 spectators with 6600 volts. Edison got it on film and would show the movie to those who were proponents of AC.
So how sick is Tommy Boy?
he was the total worst. we’d be colonizing Ceres by now if not for him.