Monthly Archives: March 2008

No joy for the tomato guys

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Poor Jason Buzi. You try to do a nice thing, and what happens? Two hundred addicts and thugs descend upon you, beat you down, and steal all the prizes you were going to give away.

In celebration of Leap Year, cashtomato.com (a YouTube wannabe) decided to give away boxes of tomatoes – each containing $29 – in a publicity stunt scheduled for Leap Day, 29 February.

Instead of greeting an appreciative crowd of amused and grateful citizens, the three guys in the tomato costumes got this.

Buzi, VP for cashtomato.com, later said that “maybe next time, I would plan this better.”

Giving away cash in Union Square in Manhattan? Yeah, I’d think a better plan would be in order.

Brilliant man, sad story.

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tesla.jpg

Yesterday, I noticed one of my students carrying around a book on Nikola Tesla. I’d read about him many times in the past, and got to thinking how few of us know how amazing he really was.

Wireless communication? Tesla thought of it – in 1914. AC electric current? You guessed it (Edison gets the credit, even though he was wrong). Radio? Not Marconi, friends: Tesla.

And the list goes on, to include:

  • the turbine engine
  • radio-controlled devices
  • x-ray photography
  • the basis for what is now known as quantum physics (the relationship between energy and matter)

And yet, for all this genius…Tesla died forgotten, broke, and alone.

It’s Saturday. A good day for a good read. Get a coffee, relax, and let me know what you thought.

Fink out.