Happy 300th Birthday Benjamin Franklin

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."

Comments

get your wallets out...

[Anonymous Coward]

and kiss your $100 bills!

-Sj53

Re:get your wallets out...

[danwesnor]

FYI - Benjamin Franklin is responsible for hundreds of inventions, yet refused to file a patent for any of them. In fact, he published them openly, often with explanations of how they worked, so that others could copy and use them without paying him roylties.

Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroes

[Jim in Buffalo]

Without Benjamin Franklin's entreaties to the French for aid in the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army would certainly have suffered defeat at the hands of the British. For a man to tirelessly crusade for his country like Franklin did at his age and in a time when travel was no simple matter is astounding. Anyone with a quarter of that man's patriotism, devotion, and tenacity could move mountains.

Wish you were here

[digitaldc]

Ben Franklin, oh how we need people like him today.

Some great quotes from Poor Richard's Almanack:

• Drive thy Business, or it will drive thee.
  He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
  Setting too good an example is a kind of slander seldom forgiven.
  Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.
  Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar.
  Necessity never made a good bargain.
  Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
  Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
  If your Riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to t'other World?
  A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
  God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.
  Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
  Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
  If you'd know the value of money, go and borrow some.
  When befriended, remember it. When you befriend, forget it.

Re:Wish you were here

[corbettw]

More great Franklin quotes (not all from Poor Richard's):

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.
A place for everything, everything in its place.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Ben Franklin's Virtue Number 12, revised

[Dystopian Rebel]

"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.

It's not really his 300th birthday

[nurhussein]

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

- A Message From The President Of Google Groupies

Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe

[gEvil (beta)]

Anyone with a quarter of that man's patriotism, devotion, and tenacity could move mountains.

And the thought that in modern times he'd be locked up under the PATRIOT act is truly sad...

Such a great guy!

[mrchaotica]

A scientist, an advocate of separation of church and state, an opponent of "intellectual property" (he never patented any of his inventions), and a true patriot to boot!

(I still can't believe he didn't win that "greatest American" contest the History Channel ran a while back...)

Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe

[meringuoid]

And the thought that in modern times he'd be locked up under the PATRIOT act is truly sad...

Flamebait? No. It's the truth.

He first agitated for, and then actively participated in, the armed overthrow of the government, using an army of unlawful combatants backed by a rouge state.

Franklin, along with all the great founders of the United States of America, was undoubtedly guilty of high treason. Of course, as Shakespeare observed, if it prospers none dare call it treason; so Franklin's a hero. Certainly had things gone a little differently there would today be celebrations in the honour of the brave patriot Benedict Arnold.

Coffin size?

[mobby_6kl]

Happy birthday, but... I just hope the coffin is large enough to let him comfortably spin in it, as I'm sure that's what he does if he has any idea of what's going on in the US government now.

Interesting quote.

[JaxWeb]

I think Benjamin Franklin was very good, and I am glad to see him remembered.

Something I got from the website www.politicalcompass.org/:

Q:
Which founding father said of the proposed American Constitution This is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism ... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other ?

A:
Benjamin Franklin in a speech to delegates to the US Constitutional Convention prior to the final vote.

Franklin on Older Women

[SeanDuggan]

Franklin was also a bit the ladies man. For instance, his treatise on the advantages of older women vs younger women. I particularly like his dismissal of the lesser attractiveness...

5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part. The Face first grows lank and Wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower parts continuing to the last as plump as ever; so that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old one from a young one. And as in the Dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of Corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal and frequently superior; every Knack being by Practice capable by improvement.

Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe

[The-Bus]

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.

Slashdot readers should worship the guy!

[frank_adrian314159]

After all, he was a geek who got laid!

Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe

[east coast]

Flamebait? No. It's the truth.

He first agitated for, and then actively participated in, the armed overthrow of the government, using an army of unlawful combatants backed by a rouge state.

Oh, you mean that treason is part of the Patriot act and not the constitution?

Let's not be foolish about this. Stop trying to pin this on the Patriot act, it's one of the oldest laws on the books. As for speaking out against the government, it happens everyday. I don't see people being locked away for it.

What is sad here is that I'll probably get labled as troll when the truth is Franklin would agree with me even if he supported a current day revolution. Instead the parent post got modded as insightful for simply invoking the name of an unpopular law instead of being based on fact.

Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe

[eclectic4]

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben

My favorite quote of his, and quite fitting.