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Happy 300th Birthday Benjamin Franklin

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the today-in-history dept.

Guinnessy writes "Benjamin Franklin was born on 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin was a man of diverse talents: publisher, inventor, ambassador, politician, wit with some human frailities says NPR. In Physics Today, Philip Krider presents Franklin's work on electricity and the development of the lightning rod, work whose fame helped Franklin obtain aid from the French against the British. In the same magazine, Joost Mertens considers Franklin's explorations of the calming effects of oil on water. Those investigations, it turns out, had a less than calming effect on Dutch scholars. Philadelphia is planning a series of events celebratng Franklin's life throughtout the year."

12 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. get your wallets out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    and kiss your $100 bills!

    -Sj53

    1. Re:get your wallets out... by Enzo+the+Baker · · Score: 2, Funny
      and kiss your $100 bills!

      I don't have all day!

      --
      I may twist orthodoxy to partly justify a tyrant. But I can easily make up a German philosophy to justify him entirely.
  2. Ben Franklin's Virtue Number 12, revised by Dystopian+Rebel · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation."


    And certainly NEVER do it in front of a Web cam.
    --
    Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
  3. It's not really his 300th birthday by nurhussein · · Score: 4, Funny

    After all I don't see the little Google doodle commemorating it, therefore it never happened.

    - A Message From The President Of Google Groupies

  4. Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe by The-Bus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thankfully, his legacy now lives on with today's youth; they are reminded of the man through music videos featuring performers waving green bank notes bearing his lithograph and referencing his name. Yes, indeed, it is all about the Benjamin.

    --

    Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

  5. Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe by rjfan · · Score: 2, Funny

    "unlawful combatants backed by a rouge state" I always thought those states were more red than rouge in the voting maps.....

  6. Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe by metternich · · Score: 2, Funny

    he must be spinning in his grave!

    Hmm, maybe we could hook up a turbine up to him and generate some electricity. That would be properly honoring Franklin's inventive spirit.

    --
    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
  7. Slashdot readers should worship the guy! by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Funny

    After all, he was a geek who got laid!

    --
    That is all.
  8. Just you remember by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Funny

    If it wasn't for the French, you guys would be speaking British!

  9. Re:Give Franklin his coin back! by east+coast · · Score: 2, Funny

    The man deserves to be on the half dollar far more than a dead Kennedy

    Jello Biafra is on a coin now? Wow, things are getting pretty liberal.

    --
    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
  10. He is one of the three men I admire most by jocknerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Along with Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Julius Caesar.

  11. Re:Franklin on Older Women by timothy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aw, he was just sayin' that because he was such a gentleman.

    And cleverly said, too -- "Why Elizabeth, you are every bit as attractive as a much younger woman, just as soon as I put this giant basket over the top half of your body and extinguish all the lights ..."

    timothy

    --
    jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5