

The Oatmeal has raised over $1.1M for a Nikola Tesla museum - timmyd
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/26/oatmeal-tesla-tower/

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pacomerh
This is the kind of act that speaks well of a country IMO. This place needs
culture & history in the form of infrastructure. Though Tesla wasn't American,
his greatest achievements happened here, and less people than you think know
about him. Remind them that this place is not just about burgers.

~~~
ensignavenger
Tesla was a citizen of the United States of America- in my book, that makes
him as much American as myself, or anyone else.

~~~
pacomerh
Yes you are right, although he wasn't born in the U.S he was Serbian-American

~~~
count
He was Serbian. Then he became American. That's it, just American.

~~~
deniszgonjanin
Tesla was always a proud Serbian. While he took pride in his American
citizenship, he always remained very proud of his heritage. To say he was just
American is plain wrong. He was a strong ambassador of Serbian culture in
America, even himself translating many 19-th century Serbian works to English.

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tedunangst
Is this enough money to turn back on the wireless energy tower that will
provide everyone in New York City with free electricity?

~~~
alanfalcon
It's enough money to put a bid in on the $1.6M property where Tesla had a lab,
not even enough to build a proper museum on the property. So: keep giving!

~~~
ChuckMcM
Actually they have a matching grant of .85M from New York so really its 1.95M
raised, so 1.6 for the property and 350K left over to renovate the laboratory
as a museum.

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eevilspock
My favorite intro to Tesla:
[http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ef668caf14/drunk-history-
vo...](http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ef668caf14/drunk-history-vol-6-w-john-
c-reilly-crispin-glover)

------
jodrellblank
That's about 1,100 dead babies worth of funds.
<http://www.raikoth.net/deadchild.html>

~~~
sukuriant
You can never do enough to save everyone or serve everything. This is
something you're going to have to understand. In fact, when people argue that,
it seems like the source often isn't "you could have given that money to the
poor/destitute" so much as it is "I don't like that you're doing [x] instead
of [y]"; or, "I don't like that this money can be saved up for cause [x] and
not for cause [y]". It's as selfish or more selfish than the use of funds for
ones self.

What kind of car does a person that argues this drive? Is it new? Used? Does
it have more horsepower than necessary for that person to live? Well, if it
does, then perhaps you could have given the excess money you paid to save
another child. How about your house? Too much space? Are you renting out that
excess space to someone that can't afford it? Are you giving all of your
income with the exception of the little you need to save for retirement and
the little you need to survive to help starving kids in this country or the
next? Well, you're wasting money and that money could have been spent to save
another person or bring another person you've never met through college. You
selfish. arrogant. bastard.

Give as much as you wish to help those in need. Save money to help your family
in their time of need; but above all, don't tell other people what to do with
the money they've rightfully earned or rightfully given to causes they, at
that moment, felt were more important. If a person chooses to support
something another person doesn't care for, that's that person's perrogative.
if they choose to pamper themselves and buy nice cars or nice houses or
furniture, or choose expensive hobbies that's entirely their choice.

[/rant. bring on the downvotes]

edit: that wasn't entirely directed at my parent post. I've heard these sorts
of arguments before about "that money could have gone to new-big-important-
cause or old-important-cause" and I'm quite annoyed at them. Should people
give money to those in need? Sure. Do they have to give everything? Not my
call, not my money. Do I have a right to say where money that isn't mine
should go? Not even a little. When I don't give money to those in need, am I
killing them? Most likely not. There are other things that have fallen
together in the world that have made their life terrible. Do I feel sorry for
them? Yes.

Oh, and another thing. You know how else to help others? By consuming and by
giving them jobs, even on frivolous things. Yeah, I know it sounds weird; but,
when you order food from a restaurant, your meal is helping to pay the cook's
wages and the waitress's wages and the table cleaner's wages and the dish
washer's wages and the greeter's wages. This museum? It'll have employees that
might otherwise not have jobs. Now they can acquire income and will no longer
need money from others, then they can help the impoverished as well.

~~~
mbateman
Well, I upvoted you. People who criticize the obviously beneficial actions of
others on the grounds that they can't be classified as their favored form of
(purportedly) good deed are... well, I'll stop there to keep things civil. You
see this kind of nonsense all the time, even on HN.

