Today is Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. So what? So, he was the first person to document that weather patterns moved from west to east, generally speaking, due to a thing called the "jet stream" set up by the earth's rotation. And he is well known to have been an avid swimmer -- a very bizarre activity back in the mid 1700's. But that ain't what makes him one of us. He was the first person, at least that can be documented, who intentionally launched a huge kite in order for it to pull him across the surface of a pond JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT. There was an "artist rendering", aka, a drawing, of Ben doing this in our newspaper this week. I knew I liked that guy -- Ben Franklin, the kitesurfer... or skimmer or something. I heard he also did some other important stuff.