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Donald Trump's 'Nuclear' Uncle (newyorker.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
In 1936 a reporter watched Donald Trump's uncle John, an MIT professor of engineering, as he was struck by two high-voltage sparks while demonstrating the grounding of an new X-ray machine which could generate a million volts of power. And immediately after Nikola Tesla's death in 1943, the FBI called John G. Trump to review the scientific papers Tesla left behind, according to a new article in The New Yorker. They joke that now John's nephew Donald "seldom sounds as ungrounded as when he invokes Professor Trump, the younger brother of his father, Fred," while campaigning for president. But while comparing the candidate's statements to the historical record, they conclude that "John Trump really does seem to have been a brilliant scientist," noting that he performed both radar and short-wave research for the allies during World War II and helped design medical X-ray machines.
Trump is surely a very intelligent person.
However, a lot of things go into making us who we are by the time we get to his age, and even the tiniest of silly little things 40 years ago can cause an otherwise intelligent person to pick up some silly and outright wrong logic.
Its all a matter of perspective and his has simply had some bad data feeds which resulted in him becoming what he is today.
The man is not stupid and he is not 'wrong' in every way. He is wrong IN A WHOLE BUNCH OF IMPORTANT WAYS, but not every one.
Replace the word Trump in this post with Clinton, Sanders, YourLastName and it still applies all the same.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Volt isn't a unit of power..
Good people can have relatives who are bad people. Smart people can have relatives whoa re dumb people. It might be interesting to minimally note that John Trump was in fact a decent scientists, bu it says absolutely zero in any direction about his nephew. Donald Trump's repeated invocations of his uncle as evidence that he has "good genes" is however decent evidence of how Donald Trump thinks about himself and the world, and it isn't pretty.
Can we please stop with the submissions that contain anti-Trump insults disguised as "jokes"? There was just one a few hours ago, for crying out loud!
Look, I don't support Donald Trump, and I don't particularly like his policies. But the last thing I want to read when I come to Slashdot is some snide swipe at him.
He clearly represents the views held by a lot of Americans, perhaps even the majority of them, even if they can't come out and admit this publicly. He will likely be the next president.
If it weren't for that pathetic, childish jab at Donald Trump, this would be a really interesting submission about a very interesting scientific figure from history. But that stupid partisan attack ruins the submission.
Please, Slashdot, can we stop with this nonsense? Can we have objective submissions that aren't peppered with anti-Trump messages?
Not sure what you're implying here, but you would have a very hard time convincing me that, somehow, Donald Trump is not an intelligent and decent person. Despite some of his wacky outbursts, he is in no way unfit to be president of the US, and might be exactly what this country needs right now.
gene's that matter is that they all came from white people.
Fuck off, racist.
It's not like the genius of that guy even got to this moron currently trying to be elected.
Not sure what you're implying here, but you would have a very hard time convincing me that, somehow, Donald Trump is not an intelligent and decent person. Despite some of his wacky outbursts, he is in no way unfit to be president of the US, and might be exactly what this country needs right now.
I don't know about intelligent or not, since that's very hard to judge, but he's ignorant, not at all decent, and wildly unqualified to be President. He doesn't know about basic aspects of US military and foreign policy, like the nuclear triad which combines with his terrible ideas about using nukes as a serious threat instead of conventional troops. This combines with his general deep misunderstandings of basic issues in international relations http://www.vox.com/2016/3/28/11318722/trump-foreign-policy.
As for being a decent person, decent people don't attack war heroes for being POWs http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317, they don't suggest they'll pay legal fees for supporters who engage in violence http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317, and then lie about it http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/03/15/fact-check-trump-claims-he-never-said-hed-pay-legal-fees-for-rally-attendees-who-hit-protesters/. They don't have such thin skins that they get upset over a comment about the size of their hands and then proceed to reference the size of their genitalia on at a Presidential debate http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/03/04/donald-trumps-obsession-with-size-surfaces-in-crude-ways.html .These are only a few examples.
He's an unqualified, egotistical blowhard. It is a deep shame that the party of Lincoln has been reduced to this.
Is like million miles of ignorance.
William Shockley basically was the father of semiconductors, but he though that Eugenics, and its application to race was valid..
William Patrick Stuart-Houston had a really famous uncle too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Patrick_Stuart-Houston
Inferring one is great because one's uncle is great... is a false economy..
Replace the word Trump in this post with Clinton, Sanders, YourLastName and it still applies all the same.
One of my pet peeves on Slashdot is posters that keep saying "both parties are just as bad", or "all the candidates for POTUS are just as bad".
No, they're not, not even close. Get some perspective. You are correct in saying that they all have serious flaws, but that is hardly worth bringing up. Very few people who have reached the stretch run for a major party nomination for the US Presidency do not have serious flaws, and one should not expect that they wouldn't.
Few people in his age group understand social media.
Trump on the other hand wields Twitter like a sword with the precision of a scalpel.
Must admit I thoroughly enjoyed when he used these skills to eviscerate the Republican establishment.
Have no opinion on his overall intelligence, but obviously somebody must have gotten under his skin to cry uncle like that.
"it is all a matter of the right conscience". So if someone in your utopias die of hunger, they die because they did not believe in your Spartan Ideas.
Some of the genes of John Trump must indeed be in Donald Trump, that is just accepted science. One can even attach calculate how much of these genes are in Donald Trump. One chromosome must be 100% the same as his uncle's, for example.
Sponsor of wars, whore of the Sunnis, whore of the weapons industry and "pow hero" according to you.
No, he is a dangerous part of a cynical elite - people like Bush, Clinton, the Battenbergs, Tony Blair.
Trump is 100% correct to call this guy what he is.
...has already rigged the nomination process ? Is it that what you are saying ?
More power to Trump !
I usually do not respond to Anons, but as soon as you implied you were for Trump, I knew there was a high probability that you were white, old, and racist.
Being so ape-shite crazy that no one wants to associate themselves with you does not qualify you to become president. The guy is a spoiled brat and attracts self-victimizing white people with low self-esteem and intelligence. . . If you value people thinking for themselves, why don't you start trying to do that yourself instead of supporting a nutjob that doesn't give two fucks about you?
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
"X-ray machine which could generate a million volts of power"
- Had this article been written by a farmer in 1936?
For those who dropped out of a high school too early:
1. Power is not measured in volts.
2. X-ray machines generate X-rays.
By way of Exploding the Telephone (highly recommended) I was reading Trump's Nuclear Experience just yesterday, which reprints a 1987 interview between Rosenbaum and Trump, in which uncle John plays a critical role.
Then I spent another hour perusing Rosenbaum's views on Nabokov (also recommended), because at the end of the day it doesn't matter who or what inhabits Trump's public persona, the persona itself is unfit to hold public office.
It skips a generation.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Thanks for your excrement, Mr Sparta, you will still lose, as you did for the last 2900 years.
We now have Russia on our side and they now how to deal with folks like you.
Here, please.
This is about as relevant today as the much publicized history of George W. Bush's grandfather "dealing with Nazis".
WTF, are we preparing for a round of "Jeopardy" or something? I'll be happy to see Trump on my ballot come November, but his uncle has nothing to do with it.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Indeed. The worst most heinous criminals of history can have very decent relatives.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I can't parse your first paragraph in a way that makes any sense in context since no one has been discussing any sort of utopia or socialism. Your second paragraph is also wrong: this is a common misconception. Genes can cross over from pairs of chromosomes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosomal_crossover. The only thing of note is the Y chromosome which does exhibit crossing over with the X chromosome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoautosomal_region. So no, you don't have any specific reason to think that they share a chromosome.
The energy of the electrons in an X-Ray tube is a function of acceleration voltage. And that means the energy of the x-ray photons is a direct function of the voltage applied to the tube.
The higher the photon energy, the more dangerous the whole contraption becomes. And the higher the resolution you can achieve with said photons in an imaging process.
Now replace "old white people" in your rant with "suppressed young blacks" and voila - the Clinton message comes out.
Donald Trump works for all Americans who are law-abiding. It does not matter whether they are black, white, yellow, Chinese or whatever.
What DOES matter though, is whether they are traitors or criminals. Criminals who do not want to apply for a visa to enter the country or crimimals who think it is their prerogative to shaft the U.S. economy.
Or traitors who bring with them an devilish ideology, one which wants to erase all other competing ideologies by fire and sword.
My age or race has NOTHING to do with all this.
I'm related to President Lincoln, and a famous scientist. So what? Although I do think Trump is the least evil than anyone else... by a longshot, which is why I'm voting for him. I actually re-registered to vote after staying out of the system for 30 years to vote for Trump, to keep the psycho bitch from hell from becoming the first woman pres.
Ironically for you, a not-insignificant number of Trump supporters are young minorities.
You spew hatred and lies, pretending to be superior to anyone who dares not feel exactly as you feel. You casually dismiss others as racist, instead of tackling their arguments with rational rebuttals.
There are plenty of reasons not to like Trump. It's a shame you're too stupid and myopic to present anything other than, "UR RACIST!!".. Because you are the reason why he has any chance of being our next president.
You're smug, condescending, insulting, and full of yourself. You're also opposed to Trump, and irrationally so.
I see you, and know that I never want to be as you are. You hate Trump, and so there must be something good about him. He might be Hitler, but you're fucking Satan.
He's not a bought and paid for puppet for big business interests who pull others strings to advance THEIR interests at the expense of the rest of the people in the nation. He finances his own campaigns. He says what people know is the truth and what needs doing (bring back us good paying jobs without which you CANNOT have a healthy economy where money is changing hands since people have more disposable income above food, shelter, utilities etc. in hand-to-mouth minimum wage jobs that are only part time with no benefits coverages). He's a businessman (who is willing to even harm his OWN kind's ill gotten gains that came at the expense of the rest of us in the working class) and the business of the USA needs a good businessman to set it right again. Importing enemies enmasse and giving them welfare and perfect credit right away into your nation is STOO-PID too and he's correct on that also. When I see his detractors saying things about "his likability in this poll" etc., it makes me wonder WHO CONTROLS SAID POLL? Their paymasters obviously. It's ALL about "framing the narrative" and "controlling perception", not right and wrong. Mass media marketing/advertising is no longer effective once you know it's mechanics. Take some marketing courses and be amazed at how they 'cow the masses' by those very same techniques heavily sociologically/psychologically based that work on the weak minded ignorant (which is becoming less and less due to the internet itself where many views can be expressed, not controlled by a single media outlet).
The "left/right" dichotomy actually is part of how the elite rules over the plebs.
And Trump has violated many of the "informal rules".
But I can also tell you that many guys at the FBI and CIA are actually supporting things which run against the elite. To do this effectively and over a long period, they cannot do this overtly. They are not all assholes, most importantly because you can make much more money elsewhere.
we should talk a little about stereotypes and prejudice.
Oh, never mind...
I assume you already discussed a hit job, a honeytrap, a fat bribe in order to remove Trump, eh ?
Let me tell you one thing: If you manage run over the interests of the people one more time, the Final Outcome will be much, much, much more worse than Trump. You better accept this as a healthy correction of your corruptness.
Yeah? How about this?
.They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. They're high school drop outs and white supremacists. And some, I assume, are good people.
When America sends its people to become Trump supporters, they’re not sending their best. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
"if you are not for us, you must be a NAZI!!!"
The internet already knows you commies and has a name for your tactic: "to godwin the discussion".
As a final note, it was the Russian Commies who taught Hitler how mass-kill people and how to run concentration camps (which they called GuLags). Hitler was their best pupil.
And it 1789, they mass-murdered the French Elite, but where I go to school I was explained "how the downtrodden masses rose up". Conveniently they did not talk much about the hundreds of thousands of people who were exterminated or driven abroad under threat of annihilation.
The only thing which is better about the commies is their superior propaganda.
So Donald Trump's father got the bully gene and not the brilliant gene. That explains a lot.
How about this: When criminals break the law big time, they hop the border. US murderers, rapists, and pedophiles go to Mexico or Canada. Mexican murders, rapists and pedophiles along our border come to the USA.
How about that?
Have you ever actually talked to a Mexican person in Mexico? The LOVE Trump's plan to build a wall and, aside from their corrupt elite, the people want to help us build a better wall (we already have a shitty wall in place that doesn't work). You see, their police and government are corrupted by cartels who run drugs to the USA and so building a better wall will cut off the cartel funding and help Make Mexico Great Again.
Trump also wants to make Syria great again. He's a nationalist. Trump wants to make all nations great so that refugees don't have to flee their countries in the first place. Oh, but Liberals don't give a fuck about the plight of the Mexican people. This is because migrants typically vote left, so they want as many immigrants as possible, and voting stat! Fuck their poor standard of living, and screw our poor out of jobs too, anything for a fucking vote, all the better if it keeps the masses powerless and in check.
The lefties and the Mohammedists have a very similar psychological structure, and that is why they help each other.
"The world is evil and we must make it good by deadly force. Whoever does not comply with our goodness must be killed".
Very dangerous people with very dangerous propaganda methods. Another one of their Basic Tactics is to lie other people into the face, totally cool.
They can say "we fight ISIS", when in reality they ship weapons to them. Same with the Taleban.
Lying is honorable for a Marxist or a Mohammedist, "as long as it serves higher moral objectives".
Or "war is deceit". And war will only be over for a Mohammedist, if the entire planet has been subued.
Smart people can have relatives whoa re dumb people.
I'm reminded of that every time my tea party relatives in Idaho send me another news item from the right wing echo chamber. Then again, I'm one of the few in my family who has a college education.
Wait what is this real or a troll. God 50/50 either way....it's so ridiculous so maybe it's a troll but...that sounds like a Trump supporter?
I usually do not respond to Anons, but as soon as you implied you were for Trump, I knew there was a high probability that you were white, old, and racist.
As opposed to white, "hip" and complete Racist, 'Ageism' Bigots? You mean like that?
If you value people thinking for themselves...
The absolute definition of irony coming from someone who would rather have people completely shutout of the process by declaring themselves superior in thought to all others who do not think exactly like them. You know, like the bigotry, et cetera.
And this may surprise some, I do not support Trump. But I am sick of these twits with superior-attitudes who sit in their Mommies house; who have never lived a bit of real life, except in a classroom and make these racist, bigoted remarks with what they think is impunity because they *think* they are smarter than everyone else.
George Washington makes the case that "the alternate domination" of one party over another and coinciding efforts to exact revenge upon their opponents have led to horrible atrocities, and "is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism." From Washington's perspective and judgment, the tendency of political parties toward permanent despotism is because they eventually and "gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Every time Bush opened his mouth I knew something comical and embarrassing would come out.
Every time Trump opens his mouth, I know something mean and embarrassing will come out.
Every time Bush opened his mouth his stupidity was obvious, and 'murikans loved him for it. What can make Joe 6-pack feel better than knowing even he is smarter than the president? W really made you believe that it is possible for any dip-shit to become a president of the US, or at least, any rich dip-shit.
Every time Trump opens his mouth there's a glimmer of intelligence struggling to come out but it can't seem to get past all the stupid, mean stuff in his head.
Bush made me embarrassed to be American. A president Trump would do the same.
I have to give it to you USA:ians, your elections keep getting more and more entertaining. Remember Bush v.s. Gore? What a sleeping pill.
My predictions for the next few presidencies:
Clinton/Clark 2016
Clinton/Clinton 2020 (Hillary/Bill)
Palin/Trump 2024
Clinton/Clinton 2036 (Chelsea/Hillary)
Musk/Superhuman AI 2040
Superhuman AI 2.0/Mecha-Rumsfeld 2044
Lord Rumsfeld 2048
(Assumes slight reinterpretations of the constitution with regards to eligibility for foreign-born citizens and death robots.)
That is how he seems to know everything that is about to happen. ;-)
...uncles.
Here's a clue, it you disagree with someone, they are a troll.
WTF? I have been hearing internet rumours, myths, disinfo campaigns, new age cultists, etc essentially since the dawn of the internet about the mythical Tesla papers that the FBI stashed away.
If Trump has knowledge of what was in those papers that puts him in a very small category of people.
"Wacky" that's one way to put it.
Running on a platform that promises to round up all illegal immigrants while having profited from them certainly seems wacky.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us...
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
Donald Trump is obviously a talented guy, it's no accident he is where he is, but I could understand why people refuse to believe it.
I'd challenge them to watch Ivanka speak - she's a better illustration of the intelligence which she probably inherited from her father.
I disagree. I do not think a desire, plan or action to make illegal immigrants accountable to US immigration laws is at all wacky.
In fact, it's a great idea. Just ask Mexico among the many other nations that have strict immigration policies.
Holy shit. Paragraphs, motherfucker. Do you know what they are?
It's one thing to guard your borders, i.e. "the Trump Wall", but he also promised to expel all illegal immigrants. The kind of intrusive control required to round up all illegal immigrants in the US will create a police state.
Be careful what you wish for.
It's not the volts that kill you, it's the amps.
Normally liberals with shit in their head do not do not warrant a reply from me - but you are so way off your league this time
I am not a White, I am from China
True, I am no longer in my twenties, but old? What? You want to play the game of ageism?
As for the racist bit --- who the fuck is not a racist?
You mean Hillary Clinton is not a racist?
Are you going to tell me the people from NAACP, from the BLM movement, et cetera, are not racists?
Jesse Jackson is not a racist?
Hussein Obama is not a racist?
Just because one calls him/herself a 'liberal' does not make them 'un-racist'
And this important bit that I need to tell ya --- I am a Chinese, a naturalized citizen of the United States of America, and I support Donald J. Trump
If you do not like my choice, shove it!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Let it go -- he's on a roll!
There is a difference between a strict immigration policy and an impossible-to-access immigration policy, which for the vast majority of Mexicans is precisely the policy the US has. Assuming all strict immigration policies are the same is naive beyond belief, and probably one of the reasons positions like yours get some degree of ridicule.