FYI January 07, 2020

  • Filed under FYI

On This Day

1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.[2]
The Bank of North America was a private bank first adopted on May 26, 1781, by the Continental Congress, and opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 1782.[1][2][3] It was based upon a plan presented by US Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris on May 17, 1781[4] that created the Nation’s first de facto central bank.[5] When shares in the bank were sold to the public, the Bank of North America became the country’s first initial public offering.[6] It was succeeded in its role as central bank by the First Bank of the United States in 1791.

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Born On This Day

1827 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer, created Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)
Sir Sandford Fleming KCMG (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, and use of the 24-hour clock as key elements to communicating the accurate time, all of which influenced the creation of Coordinated Universal Time.[1] He designed Canada’s first postage stamp, left a huge body of surveying and map making, engineered much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada and founder of the Canadian Institute, a science organization in Toronto.

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FYI

By Harrison Smith, The Washington Post: Elizabeth Wurtzel, ‘Prozac Nation’ author who spurred a memoir boom, dies at 52

Ms. Wurtzel announced in 2015 that she had breast cancer, a challenge that she dismissed as “nothing” compared to stemming her drug use or overcoming the death of her rescue dog Augusta. She underwent a double mastectomy, but the breast cancer recently metastasized to her brain, said her husband, Jim Freed. The immediate cause of death was complications from leptomeningeal disease, which occurs when cancer spreads to the cerebrospinal fluid.
 
 
 
 
Maggie Menderski, Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville, you’re weird and wonderful. So we got a ‘new’ columnist to tell your stories
 
 
 
 

By John Bacon, USA Today: Teen firefighter is among dozens accused of igniting fires that have ravaged Australia
 
 
 
 

The Rural Blog: New index offers better measurement of rural innovation; Giant telecoms fighting requirements to provide higher broadband speeds under new rural subsidy program; Dairy giant Borden files Chapter 11 bankruptcy and more ->
 
 
 
 
Open Culture: Pink Floyd Films a Concert in an Empty Auditorium, Still Trying to Break Into the U.S. Charts (1970); John Coltrane’s Handwritten Outline for His Masterpiece A Love Supreme; Watch Peluca, the Student Film That Became the Cultural Phenomenon Napoleon Dynamite (2002)
 
 
 
 

The Passive Voice: Dating apps need women. Advertisers need diversity. AI companies offer a solution: Fake people and more ->
 
 
 
 

Ideas

By DanPro: Socks the Old Way on a CSM
 
 
By mighty_sparrow: L.A.R.S. (Launch and Recovery System)
 
 
By Jedi1983: Musical Hard Drives
 
 
By Bevelish Creations: A Mid-Century Inspired Desk Organizer

Recipes

By Honus: Seven Layer Cookie Bars
 
 
By In the Kitchen With Matt: Easy Meringue Cookies
 
 
By Befferoni and Cheese: Red Velvet Cookies