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Remember back in August when The Oatmeal's Matthew Inman raised $1.3 million dollars to buy Tesla's old laboratory and build a museum? It looks like things are moving ahead for the project. The group Inman was raising money for successfully bought the Shoreham property last week. So when can we go play at the Tesla Science Center?

Two animation and science enthusiasts are trying to make every geek's dreams come true. The guys behind Wood Goblin Studios have an Indiegogo campaign to fund the pilot of a cartoon about Nikola Tesla. To make it even nerdier and more perfect, his sidekick is Mark Twain, and they travel through time battling Thomas Edison, because of course they do. My only question about this cartoon is why doesn't it already exist?

In what is obviously a sign of the power of the Internet, The Oatmeal's fundraiser to preserve the site of Nikola Tesla's last laboratory has already met its goal -- less than a week after the fundraiser went live. As of writing, there are still 39 days left to help fund the construction of a museum on the site. That first $850,000 is just for the property, after all.

Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, is at it again. In conjunction with the non-profit Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, Inman has started a fundraiser to raise $850,000 to purchase the land that includes Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe laboratory in order to eventually turn it into a museum. The area is currently up for sale and there's apparently a second offer on the table from someone that wants the land. This could mean that the lab would be torn down to make way for something else, because we don't have enough shopping centers.

Besides his feud with nerd icon (nerdicon?) Nikola Tesla and having a middle name of  "Alva," what do you really know about Thomas Edison? Probably not much, and since it's his birthday it's only appropriate that you let Jeremiah Warren teach you a little something. Go on, learning is good for you.

On July 10, 1856, Nikola Tesla was born in what is now modern day Croatia. He would go on to study electrical engineering and lay the groundwork for much of the technology that we take for granted in modern society. Alternating current, electric motors, radio, radar, and wireless energy transmission are just a few of the high water marks in his career. He was also best buddies with Mark Twain. Celebrated in his time, Tesla fell into relative obscurity after some failed grandiose projects and patent battles. He died in 1943 with little money to his name in a New York hotel room. After falling out of popular history for a time, his prestige has increased in modern times. Tesla's status as a wronged genius, with a dash of mad scientist thrown in, has grown his legacy substantially. His likeness has appeared in film, comics, and his name was adopted by the makers of the first electric roadster. So raise a glass today to Nikola Tesla, the eccentric genius of the age! (via Neatorama)

You know, no big deal. Afflicted with curiosity about their friendship? Well, you now have the tools to remedy that.

(via Marginal Revolution, thanks Andrew!)

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(image via ToughPigs.)