Nikola Tesla

Although not a modern example of an unusual person, Nikola Tesla was a physicist, inventor and engineer. He is considered the modern father of alternate power electric current, and he also demonstrated a version of the wireless radio in 1893. While illustrating glimpses of genius Tesla was not well versed in finance and died in poverty at the age of 86.

What makes Tesla so unusual however was his eccentric personality. Tesla engaged in reading many works, memorizing complete book and claimed to have photographic memory. He also experienced hallucinations as well as frequent flashbacks. Tesla also worked with inventor Thomas Edison expecting $50,000 in payment, while working night and day until he learned that it was a part of a practical joke.  Later while conducting electrical experiments in Colorado Springs, he observed strange signals he thought may have been from Mars or Venus. Tesla also suffered from OCD in his later life becoming obsessed with the number three, often walking around objects three times. He was heavily critical of Albert Einstein and also thought he could develop a sort of death ray device.

Also among his theoretical inventions were a wall of light, that could enable one to warp time, thus enabling time travel and teleportation. He also claimed that it was possible to develop a device that could extract any image ever viewed on the human retina, scan it, and create a photo.

Interestingly enough upon his death the FBI confiscated many of his papers and the president declared his file top secret, presumably based upon the nature of his inventions and proposals including a death ray to the US government. This has led many conspiracy theorists to speculate upon the nature of the document.

View Tesla’s extensive Wikipedia entry here

Blind teen sees with sound

Californian teen Ben Underwood has been without vision since the age of two when retinal cancer deprived him of his vision. His mother recalls been awakening from surgery calling out “mom I can’t see you.” She reassured him he still had his other senses, and around the age of 5 Ben discovered echolocation which enables him to navigate using noises surrounding him. Interestingly enough Ben has discovered a system where he uses dolphin like clicks to help him see. He uses the ability to play sports, run, and play video games as well as other everyday activities.

Although Ben is not the first human who purported to using Echolocation, (google James Holman, or Daniel Kish) he does appear to be the only human to develop the clicking system.

Read about Ben here.