When Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931, President Herbert Hoover asked Americans to turn off their Edison lightbulbs at 10 pm on the evening of his funeral. "Thomas Edison - Genius Inventor - Dies at 84" screamed the front-page headlines. When Nikola Tesla died in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel on January 7, 1943, the lights went out for him alone. Tesla was surrounded, not by a family, but by his pet pigeons. The obituary in The New York Times did not call Tesla a genius, but implied he was a crackpot: Tesla had conceived of a "death beam" powerful enough to annihilate an army of 1,000,000 soldiers; and he was certain of intergalactic messaging that would allow communication with Mars. Edison and Tesla (Edison's one-time employee) were arch-enemies with competing visions as to how to electrically empower America. Their hostility played out in the infamous War of the Currents, which culminated in the electrocution of Topsy the circus elephant in 1903, orchestrated and filmed by Edison, but intentionally using Tesla's controversial AC current. Radio, television, robots, electric cars, self-driving cars, solar heating, the internet, and the cellphone were on the mind of one or the other of these geniuses. Which one ultimately proved to have the more accurate and enduring vision for the world? Who is in the news today and why? Come and find out the answers. Provided by the CAST Senior Center, our Virtual Programs provide an endless variety of interesting subjects. Our Virtual Programs take us across the country, experiencing and learning about places and people which we wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Scheduled every Tuesday afternoon at 1pm at the CAST Senior Center, our Virtual Programs are free and open to the public. There are no membership dues, and everyone is welcome to attend. Programming is provided by CuriousityU.com and other online providers. Check out our virtual program schedule every month and join us! We look forward to seeing you!