hero

Elon Musk

Over the last four weeks, we have focused on heroes from the past. This week, we are going to focus on someone who is making great strides in our current times. Though he may be a bit controversial, he is doing some amazing things. 

Here is his top ten facts. 

1. He is the founder of PayPal, Space X, Solar City, and Tesla Motors. 

2. He became a multimillionaire in his late 20's. 

3. In 2012, his company Space X launched the first commercial flight into space. 

4. He bought his first computer at the age of 10 and taught himself to program. At 12, he created and sold a game called Blaster. 

5. His company, Tesla Motors, is dedicated to creating affordable fully electric cars.  In 2008, they revealed a sports car called the Roadster. It can accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds and travel almost 250 miles before it has to be recharged. 

6. Musk has released a concept for a new form of transportation in 2013 called the "Hyperloop." It would propel people at speeds of more than 700 mph and claims it will be safer than riding in a train or a plane. 

Here is a video of the Hyperloop. 

7.  He is an avid environmentalist. His company, Solar City provides solar panels to people to lease with a free installation. Saving them money and the planet. 

8. At the Paris talks this week, he has said that, "Only a carbon tax, not innovation, conservation, or renewable energy, will accelerate the transition from carbon-producing fossil fuels to sustainable energy. 

9. Inspiration for Tony Stark's character in Iron Man was largely due to Musk. Parts of Iron Man 2 were actually filmed outside of Space X and you can even see him briefly in the film. 

10. He named one of his sons, Xavier, after Professor X of the X-men. 

You can learn more about this inspiring man in the videos and the links provided below. 

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a brilliant engineer and inventor whose findings alternating current electricity are used to this day.

There is just so much that can be said about this man. Therefore, we have decided to change it up for you guys a little. This week, we are going to highlight 10 of his more interesting and unusual facts.  

1. Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in what is now known as Croatia. There was a severe lightning storm raging at the time, and his midwife was said to have thought this was a bad omen.  She believed he was going to be a "child of darkness." However, his mother believed the opposite and replied, "He will be a child of the light."

2. He once tried to fly by jumping off a barn while holding an umbrella. 

3. He developed Smartphone technology in 1901. He believed that he could create a new means of communication that would gather stock quotes and telegram messages. He would then encode the information and assign it new frequencies where it would then be broadcast to a handheld device. He basically envisioned the smart phone and internet decades before modern day scientists.

4. He was a germophobe and used up to 17 towels a day. 

5. He also had an aversion to pearls. His assistant wore a pearl necklace to work one day and was sent home immediately. 

6. Thomas Edison and Tesla worked together for a time until Tesla decided to pursue his own project. They had both created ways to harness energy which put them in direct competition with one another. 

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7. The Tesla Coil laid the ground work for wireless telecommunications and are still found in radios today. He had hoped to create an electrical system that was completely wireless instead of the power lines we live with today. Make your own Tesla Coil. 

8.  Having been mesmerized by Niagara Falls as a child, he designed the first hydroelectric plant that harnessed the power of the falls to create clean energy. 

9. Teslas are units used to measure the strength of magnetic fields and are named after the inventor.

10. He died in a hotel in New York of heart failure on January 7, 1943 penniless and alone. 

 

Source Articles:

http://www.biography.com/people/nikola-tesla-9504443

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-nikola-tesla/

http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/nikola-tesla

http://energy.gov/articles/top-11-things-you-didnt-know-about-nikola-tesla

Helen Keller

Helen Keller is a woman of great achievement as well as great triumph over adversity. At 18 months old, she became ill with what many people believe was scarlet fever or meningitis. After her fever broke she had lost her senses of sight and hearing. Her parents relentlessly tried to find her help and after speaking with a specialist, they were referred to Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. He suggested they take her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston and that is where Keller met Anne Sullivan. 

Now Keller was not a great student at first. She was prone to tantrums and had a hard time connecting between objects and the finger spelling that Sullivan was attempting to teach her. It was not until Sullivan took her to the water pump did Keller connect. After that first moment, she went from object to object learning their names. By the end of that day she had learned 30 words. 

After that moment, there was no stopping Keller.  She mastered several methods of communication including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing, and finger spelling. She even graduated college with honors from Radcliffe in 1904 at the age of 24. 

Image of Braille

Image of Braille

Keller became a well known champion for people with disabilities. She wrote several novels and gave lectures about her experiences.  She helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and co-founded Helen Keller International. She was also an active member of both the American Federation for the Blind and American Braille Press. She also wrote a series of essays on socialism called, "Out of the Dark." 

Keller was appointed counselor of international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind in 1946, and between then and 1957, she traveled to 35 countries on five continents. At the age of 75, she went on a  40,000-mile, five-month trek across Asia. All the while, she brought inspiration through her speeches and appearances. 

Her autobiography, "The Story of My Life," was made into a movie called the "Miracle Worker," and was turned into a Broadway play.

Keller died at the ripe old age of 88 in 1968 and during her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments. This included the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and election to the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965. She also received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University and Harvard University and from the universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Berlin, Germany; Delhi, India; and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland.

Helen Keller is the hero of the week because, let's face it, she accomplished so much even after she was given a major handicap.