Tesla Special on PBS

Halvy writes "Nicola Tesla was one of those men involved with experiments with electricity and radio waves that the goverment 'feared' so much that they still keep much of his work and ideas from the public. PBS is to broadcast a show on him this April. Goto pbs.org/tesla/ for local times and listing. It should be interesting to see what kind of tid-bits PBS came up with, considering that there is so little available about him, which just adds to his cult-like admiration in the scientific and tech fields."

Comments

bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

The government is not keeping anything invented by Tesla secret.

I suppose next you are going to tell me that some guy in the midwest invented a 100 mpg drip-feed carburetor and was kidnapped by oil companies, and that Texas A&M bought Nazi technology for making synthetic gasoline from grass after WWII and has it locked up somewhere gaurded by the Corp.

These kinds of stupid psuedo-science mythologies are bad because they allow people to sit around and blame others instead of getting to work solving problems. They also obscur and distract from the real techno-conspiracies out there, such as chips in ink carts, region encoding, the Clipper Chip, a variety of schemes involving RFIDs, etc.

Re:bullshit

[aminorex]

Your title describes your comment well. I suppose next you are going to tell me that sneering and hyperbole prove your point.

Re:bullshit

[rot26]

The government is not keeping anything invented by Tesla secret.

How do you know? How COULD you know anything about that? I'm not saying that they are, only that it's absurd of you to make such a ridiculous unprovable statement.

Bullshit

[Chasuk]

Can you substantiate even a portion of this ridiculous statement?

Nicola Tesla was... involved with experiments...that the goverment 'feared' so much that they still keep much of his work and ideas from the public.

I didn't think so.

Jesus, does even Slashdot need to cater to conspiracy nuts?

"...which just adds

[Endive4Ever]

..to his cult-like admiration in the scientifiction fan and angry underachiving technician fields."

Face it. The first place I encountered books about Tesla was on the remainder tables at the bookstore. With the new-age drivel and public-domain editions of Shakespeare and Poe. (actually, not even the remainder tables, they were over on the next table with other junk-books self-published by Barnes and Noble)

Tesla is more likely to be revered by the most loose crackpots at a Science Fiction convention than he is at any mainstream Science gathering.

This comment will serve as a magnet for proof in evidence. There will be a handful of comments tacked to it about 'the conspiracy' and people flaming and ranting because Tesla was a visioniary, not somebody who slipped off the table of reason and degenerated into Science's Alestair Crowley.

PBS is just the place for this kind of program. Or the Discovery Channel, sandwiched in between shows on UFOs.

Re:"...which just adds

[rot26]

Face it. The first place I encountered books about Tesla was on the remainder tables at the bookstore

Aha!!! Absolute proof that the man was a quack!! You're a genius, man.

You obviously don't know a thing about the history of electrical distribution in the US.

Re:Watched most of it last night....

[Hee Hee Hee]

I saw a quote of Tesla's regarding Edison. I'm paraphrasing here - "He could have saved himself a whole bunch of time with a few calculations."

Edison said "Invention is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Yeah, maybe if you ignore basic science.

Edison got a lot of credit for ideas that he bulldozed into practicality. He had the ultimate work-ethic. Sweat your ass off - don't take too much time to think.

Re:Tesla is a magnet for kooks

[dr7greenthumb]

You would think the inventor of radio would get a little more respect.