Now, you may be asking yourself, "If Nikola Tesla is so awesome and smart why haven't I heard of him/only heard of him as the character that David Bowie plays in The Prestige?" Why Will, that is an excellent hypothetical question. Let me answer you're question with another question, did you know that Thomas Edison was a giant glory hogging douche? The reason that you've never heard of Tesla is because Edison used his great wealth and status to screw over Tesla's legacy. Now rather than actually explain the Edison-Tesla feud I'm going to refer you to this drunk history (once you get to the part where Edison starts electrocuting animals its no longer even remotely correct). So Edison has unfairly buried Tesla in history, even though Tesla was the man. Not only did invent alternating current (the current we still use today), but he also invented the radio (not Marconi) and had a thousand other cool idea. Tesla was able to use the earth as a conductor and once lit 200 lightbulbs from 26 miles away without using wires, the nerds at MIT were just freaking out because they were able to do 7 feet. Not only that but Tesla was able to artificially create lightning and he invented a death ray. Let me repeat that, the man invented a DEATH RAY THAT COULD KILL ANYONE WITHIN 200 MILES OF IT. J. Edgar Hoover was so freaked out by this information that her confiscated all of Tesla's papers and property when he died and they have been concealed as top secret ever since (I'm not saying that the government has a death ray, I'm just saying North Korea better not come within 200 miles of us). Tesla did some really insane stuff. His Wardenclyffe Tower may or may not have caused the Tunguska Event. And one time, while he was working on magnetic resonance, he discovered the resonant frequency of the Earth and caused an earthquake so powerful that it almost obliterated the 5th Avenue New York building that housed his Frankenstein Castle of a laboratory. Stuff was flying off the walls, the drywall was breaking apart, the cops were coming after him, and Tesla had to smash his device with a sledge hammer to keep it from demolishing an entire city block. Unluckily, we haven't been able to recreate most of Tesla's inventions and experiments because he hardly wrote anything down, I mean the man could memorize entire books and did advanced calculus in his head, he didn't have to worry about writing stuff down. So basically science wise, he was the best.
His insanity is equally well documented. He was prone to nervous breakdowns, claimed to receive weird visions in the middle of the night, spoke to pigeons, and occasionally thought he was receiving electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrials on Mars. He was also obsessive-compulsive and hated round objects, human hair, jewelry, and anything that wasn't divisible by three. Additionally, Tesla was disgusted by the thought of sexual intercourse and remained celibate his entire life. So now when someone says Nikola Tesla you can say, "total baller."
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Recently, I've been listening to quite a bit of Wu-Tang Clan. In particular, the unrivaled Ghostface Killah. My new found Ghostface love has gotten me into an argument with my good friend Jeremy. While we both agree that GZA is the best rapper in the Clan and that RZA is the most important member, we got into a disagreement as to who was better-Ghostface or Method Man. Jeremy points to Meth's superior flow and rhyming ability in claiming, while I point out Ghost's greater lyricism and body of work. To me, Meth has more natural ability, but that doesn't make him better. Vince Carter is more naturally talented than Kobe, but does that make him a better basketball player? No. Ghost has a far superior catalog of music than Meth. Meth's best album is his first Tical. Ghost has three albums that are better than Tical- Ironman, Supreme Clientele, and Fishscale. In addition, Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is essentially a Ghostface album, he appears on every song. Ghost is not only the better lyricist than Meth, he is the best lyricist of a generation. He rhymes about everything from the drug trade, to the hard fought lives of his elderly neighbors. When Ghost raps, he's not just making free association boasts, he's telling a story. And the man's obviously read his fair share of Joyce, Ghost's trademark is his stream of consciousness rhymes. Most telling is the evaluation of other members of Wu. When RZA was asked to name his starting five, he placed Ghostface at number two behind only GZA, Meth was not on the list. If you need any more proof of Ghostface Killah's mastery of the rap genre simply listen to the third verse of this song (2:40 mark). Yeah, he's pretty much the best.
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So just to continue me dropping music knowledge on all your heads, heres my favorite song from one of my favorite groups right now, Dirty Projectors
The guitar playing, homeless looking, llama herder? He went to Yale
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So as you (who am I kidding no one is still reading this) probably know Ben and I are juniors at Strath Haven. Spring semester is really important, and AP testing season is fast among us. Which is really not good, I need to relearn how to speak Spanish and 1000 years worth of European history by Friday. The Spring is definitely an incredibly packed time for juniors, and although some would say that is equally true for seniors, I call BS. I point out that they are already in to college and thus basically have little to nothing to worry about. Saying that the end of senior year is a stressful time is a total cop out, give a real reason, don't just dick around about it.
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Even more music for you. Blitzen Trapper performing a stripped down version of Black River Killer
In 12 years he'll be 11 and a half,
Will
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