Category: history

Orion and Daedalus

Project Orion might be my favorite thing ever. It’s the kind of big crazy science you can never quite believe happened. One of those moments in history that would’ve changed everything. And I mean everything. Imagine it is fact that there’s a fleet of starships ranging in size from the Empire State Building to Chicago […] 

Truth is stranger than fiction

Over the years I’ve seen a few comments about our “odd” decision to align Thomas Edison with the supernatural*. His “spirit phone” or “necrophone” has been mentioned. He had the ghost of Rasputin attack Tesla’s home. And then we turned him into an apparition. To those people, I say “Neener, neener.” *Of course, technically it’s […] 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tesla!

Nikola Tesla was born July 10, 1856. He was the architect of everything that makes the modern world tick. Tesla, you were a class act.  

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with.
It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices.
It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true.
But our preferences do not determine what's true."
- Carl Sagan