If you are interested in a globe, I’d highly recommend the “Phoenix Rising” Jr. globe they offer. At lower powers it’s near silent, and you can typically adjust them down to have 3-5 small tendrils wafting around each other lazily. APD’s gloves also have thicker glass, and are rated for running all day at below 80% power. At full power my phoenix rising globe uses ~12 watts, and at the lowest power it’s something like 3-4 watts. Unfortunately tariffs, inflation and noble gas cost have hammered the price in the last year.
I definitely prefer silent and lazy looking plasma instead of the frantic screeching storms that most globes have. I uploaded a few example videos here: https://imgur.com/a/bg8fsCW
One thing you can often do is take a cheapo Chinese glove, and use a voltage adjustable power supply and tune it down that way, though I couldn’t tell you if that’s ok for the electronics long term or not.
Example video demonstration: https://youtu.be/Q4sUre79ncA
More if you liked that:
Zerg Labs [TeslaCoilPro]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRKfNzc7-524yD8nlyZC5Zg
BackMacSci: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7D566ClLdr1By2JnKh_DgA
zilipoper: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJeTqOt4xDuL2imX7zYnJlw
* 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
Also you may freely ignore his change of stance, the laws and norms of the time, etc
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
Ben Franklin was one of the greatest minds worldwide of the 18th century. Odds are, even without slavery, he would have contributed just as much as he did with slavery. It's not like he made his money working slaves to the bone in a field and couldn't turn a profit without slavery.
He was a publisher. A few slaves were involved but they were largely incidental to the business. As in, he could have easily paid John and Sam a wage instead of paying to feed and house Peter and George and the business would be entirely unaffected
I think it's because, in his own calculus, he believed he needed to desecrate human beings, destroy their families, and humiliate their dignity to maintain his greatness.
I don't think you really have any basis for that analysis of franklins psychology. If anything, I think the safe assumption is just that for most of his life slavery was there and people don't always question every part of society.
Them facts you were looking for: https://share.google/J4zlTt102nc81Fhay
I think it's a sound analysis, he was a thoughtful and philosophical man who considered the nature of slavery heavily, and he benefitted from it greatly, and dearly understood its terrible nature, and continued it's cruelty, and freed no one.
Besides, without Franklin, there would be no United States, the free-est country in history.
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.
Franklin's ability to speak plainly about the evils of slavery, in between his own acts of unspeakable cruelty, and robbing families of their dignity and humanity, requires a level of disconnect and pride that is worth significant mention whenever we do justice to his great legacy.
This talk of human utility sounds like a lot of chump shit.
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)
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.
The Founders saw fit to abolish the nobility, and disassociated religion from government. We've forgotten what an enormous leap both of those were (each of the colonies had an establishment of religion). I've seen endless documentaries on the founding of the country, and there's no mention of either of these.
Half of the colonies did abolish slavery. But, again, if it was demanded of the other half, the Union would never have happened.
Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington all held slaves.
I am certainly not advocating slavery. I'm merely pointing out that people should be judged on the morality of their times, not today's morality. If we judged past people by our modern standards, they would all be condemned.
Also, if we must judge by the morality of the times, we must also view abolishing the nobility and separating church from state to be immoral and unchristian. You seem to want to avoid a "modern moral framework" when it would tarnish the reputation of a founding father, but embrace it otherwise. You're not advocating slavery, but you don't want to judge slaveowners harshly.
It's perfectly fine to acknowledge the good that people do, while also acknowledging the evil. Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington all held slaves, and they were all evil for doing so. If we judged past people by our modern standards, they would all be condemned, and if we believe at all in some form of moral progress (which you must, since you bring up American freedom and the establishment of a secular republic as virtues) then we can condemn them all for some things.
I've lived long enough to see a distinct shift in what people consider moral and immoral. Are you certain in your moral rectitude? (I am, even though I fall short of it, and change my mind now and then.)
> these men were judged by the morality of their times
Half the colonies considered slavery to be moral in their time. So much so that, a few years later, fought and died in a terrible war to defend it.
But I don't own other humans as property, so at least I have that going for me.
>I've lived long enough to see a distinct shift in what people consider moral and immoral.
And yet you have no issues making moral judgements yourself, as you so often do in political threads. You seem to believe in the absolute moral good of the US and free market capitalism, and the absolute moral evil of socialism and leftism, but you just can't bring yourself to say the founding fathers were immoral for owning slaves. Why? Because maybe in the future slavery might come back and someone might say "That Walter Bright guy didn't even believe in slavery that shmuck, we should tear down his statues forthwith?" Is that really how you think?
I'll leave you with the last word, since you're starting to go in circles. Good night.
Nope. It is wrong that Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington kept slaves. But they grew up in a society that accepted slavery, and so harshly judging them as evil is unjust.
But they did make the leap of getting rid of the notion of nobility, and separating church and state. In that they rose above what was the accepted norm, implemented their new ideas. Those were huge changes for their time, and that makes them great men. That they did not go all the way to today's morality is an unjust indictment of them.
P.S. Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson would have been drawn and quartered if the British had captured them. Are you that brave? I doubt I am.
https://missionlocal.org/2025/07/sf-roxie-theater-projection...
if you donate you can get a tour :)