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.

Comments

Chaotic Systems

[BitZtream]

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.

Re:Chaotic Systems

[BitZtream]

Before the replies about it come in, you do realize the point of posting this on the slashdot front page was to get page views as people ranting about Trump and the political flame wars that follow.

At no point did anyone involved in posting this story actually give a fuck that Fred Trump was a major asset to our species. Lets remember where we are and stay focused.

Re:Chaotic Systems

[wallsg]

What's really sad is that now you don't have "opponents", you have "enemies".

Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill were two men with diametrically opposed beliefs and politics, but they did not hate each other. They were opponents, not enemies. They respected each other and were friendly, though not really the "friends" that some people see in the glow of nostalgia. They both believed in doing the best thing for the country and each knew that's what the other was trying to do too. They just had opposing views of what was best.

That doesn't happen today. People seem to believe that things are a zero-sum game where the only way they can profit is to take from you and the that only way you can profit is to take from them. If they won, then you lost. Nothing is a Win-Win. You must crush your enemy. (And probably drive them before you so you can hear the lamentations of their women.)

When asked about what "enemies" she'd made in her political carrier that she was proud of, one of Hillary's answers was "the Republicans." (The Republicans aren't much better, unfortunately.) Now why on Earth should anyone who considers themself a Republican have any trust in or respect for someone who says that you and they are "enemies"? Even crazy Uncle Joe [Biden] doesn't consider Republicans as "enemies" (though I doubt they're the "friends" he claims they are).

Anti-Trump insults masquerading as "jokes".

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Or This Guy

[Idou]

Yeah? How about this?

When America sends its people to become Trump supporters, they’re not sending their best. . . .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.

Re:Or This Guy

[Anonymous Coward]

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.