Happy birthday, Nikola Tesla!

Friday marks the 153rd birthday of one of the greatest geeks and most amazing minds of all time: Nikola Tesla. This genius is almost certainly why you have electricity in your house. What's more, most of the gear you own is powered by parts that use his ideas. We owe this man the modern age.

So what better way to celebrate his birthday--and thank the man--than to share a video of two Tesla coils playing the Super Mario Bros. theme song?

We couldn't think of one either. It's not the newest or most impressive Tesla coil demonstration on YouTube, but it's probably the most fun.

[trj1234]

What a pathetic way to honor Tesla. A link that leads to an electric car named after him? A Tesla coil that plays the mario bros theme song? Come on! Maybe you could use your investigative skills, find and list some of the inventions that really shape a society for over 100 years.

[Jadefalchion]

Do your own research if you care so much. I'll even tell you how to look, google and wikipedia. Troll.

[fleurya]

To be honest, I thought it was a pretty shabby tribute myself. The man basically single-handedly shaped the modern world we lived in with just a few inventions. I think mention of those inventions, or at least a link to a Youtube video with some kind of biography of Tesla would be more appropriate.

It's kind of sad how little people know about him. I imagine most people wouldn't even recognize his name, even though he's made much greater contributions than Edison or Einstein. Sadly, he probably had even bigger, more useful inventions up his sleeve that were put down by industry tycoons like J.P. Morgan and the government when the FBI seized all of his papers after his death. Considering how drastically the inventions he did succeed at changed the world, one can only imagine what the world would be like if all of his other ideas were finally realized.

[ptrdyk]

Without financing from "industry tycoons like J.P. Morgan," much of what you use on a daily basis wouldn't be accessible to you.

Thank you, Matt Hickey, for this happy birthday message to Nikola Tesla. Even small posts like this promote his story.

[fleurya]

You're right. We should kiss these financier's feet when they use brilliant scientists like Tesla to amass gigantic fortunes for themselves and not care when they leave those same scientists twisting in the wind when they develop ideas for cheap, abundant energy for everyone that may infringe on someone's insanely large wealth. After all, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" We should also be ok with the idea that the government can simply swoop in and steal a man's work with no regard for his rights or the rights of his family.

[maginleym]

http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

I guess SuperMario is mainstream enough to perhaps interest the general public. Don't take it so hard though , he was barely recognized in his own lifetime. Frankly Edison's DC couldn't hold a candle next to Tesla's AC. He had wireless power down, and essentially demonstrated how unrestricted power could come from the earth at will and be transmitted via wireless. Everybody would have tried to stop that just as the industrial age was kicking in. Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla

[Rarkz]

Run down to the library and check out this book. Prodigal Genius : The life of Nikola Tesla

[Parsecironclad]

We at Arcattack honored Nikola Tesla the best way we know how-by delivering 5 educational sets, culminating in "Happy Birthday" through our singing Tesla Coils. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYHfbuZHjPg Thus far, we are 46 performances completed out of the over 300 we are scheduled for where we are delivering educational sets to the children in Abu Dhabi for the Summer in Abu Dhabi festival. We are doing what we can to spread his name and reinforce his importance to our world. It may not seem like much, but we are doing what we can.

[thetarget]

Believe it or not, there are still people who don't know who Nikola Tesla is.

[myles taylor]

It's so sad how few people know about Tesla and what he did for the modern world. We'd be set back quite a ways without him and his pioneering work in A/C power, wireless technology, and more ways than I can count. Truly the unsung hero of the century.