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Education The Almighty Buck Science Technology

Oatmeal Fundraiser a Success; Non-Profit Buys Land For Tesla Museum 67

Ars Technica reports that The Oatmeal's successful fund-raiser has borne fruit; on Friday the non-profit to which Oatmeal founder Matthew Inman's Indiegogo campaign's money was directed completed part of its goal to purchase and turn into a museum Nikola Tesla's former estate Wardenclyffe. There's plenty of work before the land can be a proper museum, but now it is in the hands of the non-profit organization Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
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Oatmeal Fundraiser a Success; Non-Profit Buys Land For Tesla Museum

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  • Oatmeally goodness (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dlingman ( 1757250 ) on Sunday October 07, 2012 @07:38AM (#41576057)
    Awesome. I look forward to being able to visit this shrine when it is completed. Tesla Rocks.
  • by Pecisk ( 688001 ) on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:11AM (#41576165)

    First, this is first such geek driven museum I know. While museums are all about preserving knowledge, not everyone in geekdom is fan of history, especially history of science. Hopefully it will drive more new geeks to know and study about history - again, especially history of great discoveries. History and understanding people within it could make geeks not only gurus in technologies, but also humans too. Trust me, not all social sciences are worthless :)

    Second, this is Tesla. No matter his personal demons (we all have them), he is underlooked in history of technology and science and needs popularity boost, especially after that "ubercapitalist" Edison pushed Tesla from spotlight - just because he got more money.

    And we really need to celebrate more such people as Tesla, and less Jobs or Gates.

    • First, this is first such geek driven museum I know. While museums are all about preserving knowledge, not everyone in geekdom is fan of history, especially history of science. Hopefully it will drive more new geeks to know and study about history - again, especially history of great discoveries. History and understanding people within it could make geeks not only gurus in technologies, but also humans too. Trust me, not all social sciences are worthless :)

      Second, this is Tesla. No matter his personal demons (we all have them), he is underlooked in history of technology and science and needs popularity boost, especially after that "ubercapitalist" Edison pushed Tesla from spotlight - just because he got more money.

      And we really need to celebrate more such people as Tesla, and less Jobs or Gates.

      Well said, Nickolai Tesla deserves a much greater part in history.

    • by Teancum ( 67324 )

      I can name a few museums or "centers" that are very geek driven. One of the best of them is the Exploratorium [exploratorium.edu], which is a must visit location for any geek. The Museum of Science and Industry [msichicago.org] in Chicago is another major geek-out site that is well worth the trip. Visiting any number of planetariums are also places that you will generally not regret ever visiting.

      That said, I think this museum is likely to become a rival to these other major geek museums and education centers.

    • First, this is first such geek driven museum I know.

      You're USAn, aren't you. [wikipedia.org]

    • by xaxa ( 988988 )

      First, this is first such geek driven museum I know.

      Here you are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Science_museums [wikipedia.org] . You can find my workplace, in a sub-sub category, and I work with staff from many other institutions, and most are very "geek" driven.

      Picking one out, Bletchley Park [bletchleypark.org.uk] has been mentioned on /. before, and has some support from Google among others.

    • First, this is first such geek driven museum I know.

      You must have never been to the UK. The place is full of geek-driven musea. From coal mines to aircraft factories to Bletchley Park, all can be visited and all are created and run by geeks of various flavours. The same goes for the rest of Europe, though to a lesser extent IMO.

    • http://themade.org/ [themade.org]
      Still in nascent phases, but a geek museum nonetheless.

  • Punctuation Please (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:33AM (#41576247)

    Reading that run on sentence in the middle of the night made me have to read that run on sentence 3 times just to understand it.
    (mine was on purpose)

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:45AM (#41576293)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I eagerly await the second fundraiser to rebuild the tower (twice!) and stick something like this [lod.org] on top.

  • by badford ( 874035 ) on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:56AM (#41576323)

    The Oatmeal is now my hero. This is friggin sweet!

    Remember, this is not his first act of Geek heroism. http://theoatmeal.com/sopa [theoatmeal.com]

    Oatmeal,

    I suspect you are a slashdotter and are reading this now. you have a special gift my friend, and I do not mean mitichlorians. You have the power to affect real nerd-wizard change in the world of muggles.

    Peace out, bro

  • Tesla .... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:59AM (#41576333)

    Tesla this, Tesla that.

    When will we have some recognition for the world's greatest inventor, Thomas Edison?

    • Tesla this, Tesla that.

      When will we have some recognition for the world's greatest inventor, Thomas Edison?

      As I recall, from US school grades 4-8. Didn't hear about Tesla until much, much later.

  • I contributed to the charity, and remember quite well that it was expected that the land purchase could go through at a lower amount, because the charity could pay all the money up-front. So that would have left a big chunk of money available for the museum construction, and the tower re-building.

    The Arts Technica says nothing about the specifics, only the stuff everybody knows already.

  • by Clueless Moron ( 548336 ) on Sunday October 07, 2012 @09:42AM (#41576531)

    If you meet a Croat, tell him Tesla was Serbian. If you meet a Serb, tell him Tesla was Croatian. Watch the sparks fly.

    (Tesla was born in what is now Croatia, but was ethnically Serbian).

  • by fygment ( 444210 ) on Sunday October 07, 2012 @11:07AM (#41576955)

    Could they/have they set up crowd sourcing of the planning and construction that must come next. I, for one, would happily give a week or two of my time to work on the site. I can bring carpentry, electrical, data management, and project management skills. Any others up for somethinng similar?

  • What exactly are they going to have at this museum? Seems the property is the only thing they really have, with Tesla's work resting soundly at his other museum abroad. Even then the photo development company covered over most of the original building.

    • For starters, Tesla came up with the three-phase AC power distribution system that has been in use everywhere in the world for the last hundred years. There's enough material there to fill a few rooms. I imagine we'll see some Tesla coils as well. Plus all the really exotic stuff, such as the proposed wireless power transmission scheme and the marvelous conspiracy theories about its suppression.
  • Are you crazy?

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