If you've never seen neon up close, plasma is such an incredible light source. It's like the light is just floating being emitted from empty space. I took a neon workshop a few years ago, and it became clear why people are still willing to painstakingly make these signs - there is really nothing comparable to them, they're like magic
I wish I could just buy one of these as a commercial product. I'll never be able to make this and it's too cool to not be able to buy.
post_break 2 hours ago [-]
I wish these could be made with something non toxic. Having one on my desk to shake would be a great fidget spinner.
gwbas1c 6 minutes ago [-]
To put it in perspective, people used to consume mercury-based medicine. I'm sure if the glass is thick enough, the risk of a spill (and your health) will be generally managed.
janderson215 1 hours ago [-]
Just drink a little bit at a time to buoys up an immunity.
1 hours ago [-]
ck2 5 hours ago [-]
for a moment I thought this was going to be about arc-lights in the 1800s that mechanically touch electrodes and then draw apart
think about Benjamin Franklin twenty-five years before Declaration of Independence naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery) by connecting a series of lynden jars (basically capacitors) - he also invented the concept of +/- positive and negative
now we've got space telescopes and probes leaving the solar system
imagine what's coming in another 300 years
ambicapter 5 hours ago [-]
> naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery)
That's an amazing fun fact.
throwway120385 4 hours ago [-]
Another fun fact is that it was impossible to deduce from any of Ben Franklin's experiments what material was transferred and what material remained in place to give rise to "charge" as we think of it. So he picked a convention that we've continued to use even after we learned that his negative charges were the material that gets transferred by friction.
ck2 4 hours ago [-]
somewhat more "fun" and impressive (despite useless) are "Franklin Bells" which way before anyone figured out electric motors, was the first example of electricity to mechanical energy
but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly he bears the original sin of owning slaves EVEN AS AN ABOLITIONIST and didn't free them until after his death (via will) - it's more than a little f-ed up
liveoneggs 1 minutes ago [-]
You can opt out of electricity, various shaped stoves, the USA, and his other stuff to live out your moral superiority
Andrew_nenakhov 3 hours ago [-]
> but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly ..
Some people can't help themselves from bringing irrelevant facts to the conversation.
bensmoif 1 hours ago [-]
I don't think it's irrelevant that a brilliant man like Benjamin Franklin may not have been able to achieve as much as he unmistakably did WITHOUT the heavy assistance of forced slave labor in his life, from cradle to grave.
Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy
WalterBright 3 hours ago [-]
People are better judged by the mores of their time, not our time.
Besides, without Franklin, there would be no United States, the free-est country in history.
krapp 58 minutes ago [-]
Slavery was immoral during Franklin's time too, Walter. Many, many people of the time understood this. Even Franklin himself, hypocrite though he was, came around to it.
WalterBright 40 minutes ago [-]
I understand that. I also know that half the country thought slavery was ok, and made it clear they would not join the union if it was abolished.
krapp 28 minutes ago [-]
So what? That doesn't affect the morality of slavery one bit. Subjective and relative moral questions do exist, but slavery isn't one of them.
Likewise, Ben Franklin being a founding father doesn't somehow balance the scales in that regard. The existence of the United States doesn't retroactively make slavery ok.
wat10000 2 hours ago [-]
Plenty of people at the time thought slavery was evil. Franklin was even one of them, calling it "cancer." He said this while still owning slaves, which is rather peculiar, but people are complicated.
bensmoif 1 hours ago [-]
In this century we have a word for that kind of talk by slaveholders who professed some longing for abolition (Franklin. Jefferson, Washington, John Jay) but did not really wanna be inconvenienced: trolling.
fhdkweig 19 minutes ago [-]
Trolls do things for the LOLs. They are motivated by humor. Someone who wants rules for others but breaks those rules personally is better referred to as a hypocrite.
And while he did have a sense of humor (I hear that daylight savings time was just a joke), I don't think that is why he had slaves. He kept them because they were useful to him, and the moment he died they were no longer useful. The slaves owned by others were never useful to him, so they should be freed immediately.
ck2 2 hours ago [-]
Yeah no, Norway and a few others are the free-est country in history, just because someone declares US is "free" doesn't make it true, we disappear citizens all the time, police can seize your property without cause, government can seize your land for datacenters and women lose more and more rights every year
Again, Franklin knew slavery was wrong, literally campaigned to end it for that reason, yet did it himself for decades in the meanwhile, not a difficult horror to grasp in any time
WalterBright 53 minutes ago [-]
I consider freedom to include the free market. Norway has a mixed economy, due to its extensive regulation.
While it operates as a free-market country, the Norwegian government holds large ownership stakes in strategic industries, including petroleum, hydroelectric power, telecommunications, and banking.
Experts often characterize the Norwegian economy as a blend of private enterprise, state ownership, and social welfare that provides high standards of living.
(Cribbed from google)
helterskelter 3 hours ago [-]
Franklin also invented the lightning rod, something which we take for granted these days.
NopIdoN 36 minutes ago [-]
Franklin also shoved his hands down his dog's throat to make it "speak"
Rendered at 20:22:49 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barometric_light
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_lamp
it's amazing how far we've come
think about Benjamin Franklin twenty-five years before Declaration of Independence naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery) by connecting a series of lynden jars (basically capacitors) - he also invented the concept of +/- positive and negative
now we've got space telescopes and probes leaving the solar system
imagine what's coming in another 300 years
That's an amazing fun fact.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_bells
of course incredibly crude
(imagine showing a paperclip motor to someone in 1750 https://player.vimeo.com/video/120255518 )
but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly he bears the original sin of owning slaves EVEN AS AN ABOLITIONIST and didn't free them until after his death (via will) - it's more than a little f-ed up
Some people can't help themselves from bringing irrelevant facts to the conversation.
Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy
Besides, without Franklin, there would be no United States, the free-est country in history.
Likewise, Ben Franklin being a founding father doesn't somehow balance the scales in that regard. The existence of the United States doesn't retroactively make slavery ok.
And while he did have a sense of humor (I hear that daylight savings time was just a joke), I don't think that is why he had slaves. He kept them because they were useful to him, and the moment he died they were no longer useful. The slaves owned by others were never useful to him, so they should be freed immediately.
Again, Franklin knew slavery was wrong, literally campaigned to end it for that reason, yet did it himself for decades in the meanwhile, not a difficult horror to grasp in any time
While it operates as a free-market country, the Norwegian government holds large ownership stakes in strategic industries, including petroleum, hydroelectric power, telecommunications, and banking.
Experts often characterize the Norwegian economy as a blend of private enterprise, state ownership, and social welfare that provides high standards of living.
(Cribbed from google)