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A Whale of a Tale – Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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In one of my past lives I was a marine biologist.  Yep, Jacques Cousteau was my idol. I loved the beach not so much for the sand but for the psammon (pronounced like the fish, but really the microscopic flora and fauna of the interstitial spaces between sand grains of sea-shore and lake-shore areas).  Okay, too technical, I get it.

In any case, I did a lot of scrounging on the rocky shores of New England, snorkeling in the pristine clear waters of Bermuda, and scuba diving in the murky muck of the Jersey coast (long story).  I even worked at the National Marine Fisheries Laboratories on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  I studied jellyfish in the first and fish behavior in the second. The only problem with marine biology as a career was that there was basically one high-paying job in the business – and Jacques had it.  So, alas, despite my all too brief discussion with Jean-Michel Cousteau about growing algae in Iowa (another long story), my marine biology days are behind me.  At least professionally (yet another long story).

I did recently make my way back to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where I strolled past the Fishmonger Cafe and The Captain Kidd, passed along the moored boats, and said hello to a new old friend – the whale in front of the NMFS aquarium (more on aquariums later).  So here are a couple of photos reminiscent of days long gone but never forgotten.

A Whale of a Tale

Something about the reflection in this photo brings back fond memories.

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Nikola Tesla is Born, Danilo Tesla is Killed – Who is Nikola Tesla?

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As my book on Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity slowly took shape, the question was begged – Who is Nikola Tesla? Of course, you’ll have to buy the book to find out all the interesting history of the man, but here’s a teaser to get you started. Nikola begins his life, and his brother loses his life.

Born in the small village of Smiljan in what was then the Austrian Empire but now is part of present day Croatia, Tesla was born “precisely at midnight” as July 9th rolled into July 10th in 1856. This led to some uncertainty as to what date his birthday should be celebrated, but in practice his birthdays rarely were celebrated much at all, at least until his later years when he was world famous.  Then his birthdays became celebrated affairs complete with press coverage. But that was much later.  For now the young Nikola lived the rather mundane life of the son of a Serbian Orthodox priest.

The fourth of five children, Nikola became the only male heir after the rather mysterious death of his older brother, Danilo. As Tesla later tells it, Danilo met his end at the hands, or rather the hoofs, of the family horse. The horse itself had actually been a favorite of the Tesla family as it had supposedly “saved my father’s life under remarkable circumstances.” A “magnificent” Arabian breed, Telsa relates the story:

“My father had been called one winter night to perform an urgent duty and while crossing the mountains, infested by wolves, the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing him violently to the ground. It arrived home bleeding and exhausted, but after the alarm was sounded immediately dashed off again, returning to the spot, and before the searching party were far on the way they were met by my father, who had recovered consciousness and remounted, not realizing he had been lying in the snow for several hours.”

And so his father was saved by the horse. Brother Danilo was not so lucky. Again according to Tesla, “this horse was responsible for my brother’s injuries from which he died.” Worse yet, young Nikola “witnessed the tragic scene” and the “visual impression of it has lost none of its force” over the 50+ years that had elapsed.

Others suggest that Nikola may not have been such an innocent bystander.

[More about Nikola Tesla]

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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The Painted Buddy Bears of Stuttgart

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With all the stress going on in the world right now it seems like a good time for a change of pace.  How about we look at some painted bears? United Buddy Bears, to be exact.  A great number of these bears came together a few years ago in Stuttgart, Germany, and I was lucky enough to come across them.  I gave you a glimpse of one of them a few days ago in “There’s a story to every picture.”

The “United Buddy Bears” are focused on the idea of “The Art of Tolerance.”  For a limited time only the city of Stuttgart put on display bears from around the world.  Each participating country was given a blank bear to paint any way they wanted.  Then about 150 of them were placed around the fountain near the old palace (in the Schlossplatz).  Each country tried to capture the essence – or sometimes the mystery – of their nation in how they painted the bears.

Let’s start off with an easy one.

Buddy Bears Stuttgart

Okay, the “Statue of Liberty bear” from the United States was pretty easy to guess.  But how about this one:

Too easy?  How about another easy one:

Okay, waaaay too easy, right?  Let’s try one that might take a little more thinking.  Look closely at the markings and the bit of a metaphor thrown in as a subtle point.

Now, how about a little scuba diving? This one may not be so easy to figure out, especially for North Americans.

One more because I found this one totally fascinating:

That’s enough for now.  Feel free to guess which country each one represents in the comments.** (See below for answers. No cheating.)

David J. Kent is an avid traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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**Answers
1. United States
2. Cuba
3. China
4. Croatia
5. Panama
6. El Salvador

 

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Nikola Tesla book update – Meeting with the Editor

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If you haven’t already, check out the story behind the book I’m writing on Nikola Tesla.  Today I had my first meeting – a call actually – with the editor of the book.  Chris Barsanti is a senior editor at Fall River Press, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble.  Today we discussed the vision for the book, timeline for completion, and quite a bit of book publishing technical logistics for which I will gladly spare you the pain of reading.

In a wonderful alignment of the stars (or planets or what have you), the vision of Sterling Publishing is exactly the vision that I had for the book.  As I had planned, the book will be written for the general reader in mind, so we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that it isn’t going to be some dry, technicalese, treatise that only a techie junkie could love (though I hope that they will love it too).  The goal is to bring the character of Nikola Tesla to the people in a way that everyone can appreciate.

And he was quite a character.  Besides the usual eccentricities of genius, Tesla had quite a few, um, let’s say, personality elements that made him interesting. I’ll get into details as time passes, but be sure that I’ll cover both his inventive side and his “interesting” side.  Chris and I envision a book that is highly readable with many photos and drawings, sidebars to bring out interesting morsels to wet your tastes, and quotable quotes.

And we’ve already discussed the cover photo.  Trust me, if we can pull it off it will definitely earn the working title of “Nikola Tesla: Scientific Rock Star.” (Shh, secrets to be revealed later).

The next step is for me to provide Chris and the publisher with a Chapter Outline within the next two weeks. I have a working framework already and now that the editor and I have discussed the book, I’ll be able to flesh it out shortly.

Keep coming back for periodic updates!

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Dublin, Ireland…Molly Malone…and a Man in a Donkey Head

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Top o’ the mornin’ to ya. By now everyone should have recovered from St. Paddy’s day.  Even President Obama downed a Guinness with his ancestral Irish cousin in Washington DC.  The “effects” of celebrating old St. Patrick should have worn off by now (right?) and we’re all gearing up for going back to work in the morning.

Which gets me to the man in the donkey head.  In Dublin.  As in Ireland.

Whilst in Dublin I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone as she wheeled her wheel-barrow, through streets broad and narrow, crying “cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh.”* At first she seemed sweet, saccharine even, as she stood there nicely bronzed in the sun selling shellfish by the seashore.  We exchanged glances, smiles, and embarrassments before I moved on to check out the city.  My hotel was nearby so the next day I couldn’t resist her allure and was drawn to check out her massive cockles.  Only to find that she was being guarded by a man acting like an ass.

Or perhaps it was a donkey.  Needless to say it was a rather unexpected event to see a man wearing a donkey head sitting by my dear Molly.  Reading the Leopardstown Post racing news.  Seriously, who would have expected to see that?  Everyone knows that donkeys don’t like horse racing.

But here he was for all to see.  The man with the donkey head didn’t speak (I suppose donkeys rarely do), nor did he perform anything other than simply sit there for the entire time we stood by to watch and to snap photos.  Many others took photos as well and for a donkey-headed man he seemed quite patient to allow all of us to get our fill.

From here we moved on to explore Dublin.  But I’ll always remember Molly Malone.  And the man in the donkey head.

* From the song that inspired the legend that inspired the statue on Grafton Street, Dublin.

[Note that the Molly Malone statue has been moved from its original location on Grafton Street to a spot in front of St. Andrew’s Church.]

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His next book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, is scheduled for release in summer 2017.

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Tesla Book is Good to Go!

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The book on Nikola Tesla is a go!

I agreed this week to write the book on Nikola Tesla.  We’re finalizing the contract and the due dates, so start thinking about those Christmas present opportunities.

More details on my updated Nikola Tesla page.

My thanks to my literary agent, Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency LLC, for bringing me this amazing opportunity.  I also want to thank my senior editor, Chris Barsanti of Fall River Press, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

More updates periodically as the project progresses.

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Nikola Tesla book Update – Opportunity of Inventions

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I mentioned a while back that I was talking to an agent and a publisher about writing a book about Nikola Telsa, the great man of invention. Not the electric cars (though somehow it seems possible that he was behind the Tesla S model), but radio, alternating current (AC), the “Tesla coil,” guided missiles, wireless transmissions, polyphase power systems, a “death ray,” or two.  You know, the usual science geek stuff.  Add in his friendships with famous poets, business titans like George Westinghouse, and writers like Mark Twain…not to mention a few weird quirks about multiples of three and pigeons (long story)…and you have an eccentric genius of science.

Perfect topic for me to write about.

Today I received the initial offer from the publisher and agent to write the book about Tesla.  More details to come once they are finalized, but suffice to say that things have progressed quite nicely, thank you very much.  I’ll be getting back to the agent shortly and defining the book, the timing, and the all-important advance over the next few days or week.  Then it’s all about researching and writing.  Oh, and more researching and writing.

 

Did I mention writing.  🙂

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One Year After the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami – My Japan Travel

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One year ago Japan experienced a horrendous earthquake that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.  Beyond the immediate structural damage from the quake and the reduction of tourist travel to Japan, parts of the country were devastated by a massive tsunami.  In addition to the heart-wrenching videos of the massive waves destroying towns, the tsunami took out cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, thus setting in motion three nuclear reactor meltdowns that forced the continued evacuation of a 12-mile area around the plant.  Today Japan remembers the earthquake, the tsunami, and the 19,000 people who lost their lives.

At the same time, Japan is encouraging people to come back to visit.  Most of the country is more or less back to normal.  I visited Japan recently and found it to have the same quaint charm for which it is known, and vibrant in both its old traditions and new modernity.

Today I’ll highlight the tradition. As I toured the temples and the old gardens I was struck by the contrasts.  While there were many young women wearing very short skirts and stockings, there were also quite a few women of the same age wearing traditional kimonos.  Near the Kiyomizudera Temple in old Kyoto I encountered the following couple.

At first I thought they were simply actors dressed up to encourage tourists at the temple.  Then I realized that there were many dressed traditionally who were tourists themselves.

That’s not to say that there weren’t people in traditional garb placed conveniently for tourist photos.  After all, Japan wants travel dollars (and rubles, rupees and renminbis), and geishas are one of the things that tourists come to see. So wandering the narrow lane of Chawan-saka we encountered these two geishas.

And in homage to our hosts, a fellow traveler shows her appreciation.

There is much more to Japan of course and I’ll explore more aspects of my visit in future posts.  So while Japan continues its recovery from the earthquake and tsunami of a year ago I bid you a temporary Sayonara.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Follow me by subscribing by email on the home page. Share with your friends using the buttons below.