5 little known facts about Benjamin Franklin

Today, January 17, 2019, we celebrate the 313^th birthday of Benjamin Franklin. He was born in the city of Boston in the year 1706 and died in Philadelphia in 1790.

To most people when they hear the name Benjamin Franklin you think of him as a founding father of the United States of America, his kite experiment during a lightning storm, poor Richard's almanac, his securing funds for the Revolution, being Postmaster General. All of these are major accomplishments and show how diverse of a life he lead.

There is much though that many of us may not know about the man that play such a big roll in shaping our country. The following are a few of those lesser known facts:

1. He only had two years of formal education. As a young child Benjamin attended both Boston Latin School and a private academy. After just two years at these schools he was put to work for his parents in their candle and soap making shop.
2. At the age of 12 he went to work for his brother as an apprentice in his print shop. This was were Benjamin started what would be a successful printing and journalism career. Four years after starting there Benjamin started writing essays and commentary as a fictitious Widow named “Silence Dogood”.
3. He was an abolitionist in his later life. Much like many business and land owners at the time, Yes, Benjamin Franklin was a slave owner. A few years after the Revolution, he came to the conclusion that slaves should enjoy all of the freedoms that the rest of the country receives. In 1787 he became the president of the Pennsylvania abolitionist society and in 1790 he petitioned congress to grant liberty “to those unhappy men who alone in this land of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage”. Upon his death he not only freed his slaves but put a clause in his will that his children must release their slaves to get their inheritance.
4. He is a member of the international swimming hall of fame. Early in his life, one of his first inventions were hand paddles that he would use to propel himself.
5. He was not in favor of the Revolution at first. Benjamin lived in London for many years and received several royal appointments. Because of all this he still wanted to remain on good terms with England. So, when the other founding fathers talked about Revolution, he talk about trying to compromise with the crown. He even called the Boston tea party “ an act of violent injustice on our part”. Of course this raised some suspicions and started rumors of him being a British spy.

The Human Brain

What is the Brain?

Depending on who you ask, you will get several different answers to this question. If you ask a neurologist you will most likely get an answer about how the brain is broken down into different areas and what we believe each area controls. If you ask a computer scientist you will probably get an answer about the neuronets. A philosopher would tell you about how the brain is a wondrous device that can solve any problem and make all your dreams come true. The true answer is that the brain is all of those and much more.

Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku once gave one of the best quotes about what a brain is when he said, “The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron is connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the universe.”

How much of the brain do we use?

It was once said that humans use 10 percent, or less, of their brains. This answer assumes that we know what the brain is capable of doing. That is far from the truth though since we actually have no idea of the limits of what the human brain can accomplish.

Physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson once the talked about how much of the brain we use in the following quote, “Everything we do, every thought we ever had, is produced by the human brain. But exactly how it operates remains one of the biggest mysteries and it seems the more we probe its secrets the more surprises we find.”

Over the years there have been dozens of theories on just what can be accomplished if we unleash the full potential of the brain. Some of them have suggested that we would be able to manipulate matter, read thoughts, come up with new ways of traveling through space, or see through time and space. It is amazing to think about what our future might hold for us.