IN OTHER NEWS: MAY 27, 2018

Back Up Your Life

The experience led Adamska to turn a background as a professional organizer into Back Up Your Life, a company focused on preparing people, particularly in their digital lives, for the day they can no longer speak for themselves.

Her services include conversations designed to identify everything that someone wants documented, stored, and shared. “If they are a writer, where do they store their writing? What if you have subscriptions or automatic withdrawals?” Adamska told MIT Technology Review. “If you get groceries delivered through Blue Apron, you could still keep getting an automatic delivery of groceries every week even after you pass.”

She creates plans for dealing with social-media accounts, online memberships, password storage, recurring financial payments, creative work, and more. And, just as important, she ensures that other people in your life know how to access them and how you want them to be handled.

To read the complete article, see:
Job of the future: Embalming your online persona (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611162/job-of-the-future-embalming-your-online-persona/)

The Inverted Jenny

During his lunch break on May 14, 1918, William T. Robey, a bank teller at Hibbs and Company in Washington D.C., traveled, as he often did, to the post office on New York Avenue. There, he hoped to purchase a new stamp celebrating the launch of the U.S. airmail service, set to make its first official flight the following day.

The stamp was an impressive sight. It featured a Curtiss JN-4 or “Jenny”, the same plane set to deliver the mail the following day, and was printed in carmine rose and deep blue. The striking color scheme no doubt wooed buyers, but like many of the avid collectors who gathered at post offices in Philadelphia, New York and the nation’s capital, Robey also knew that it enabled an even more spectacular possibility—a printing error. It was just the second time the Postal Service had attempted a two-color stamp and with the fervor of World War I, sloppy mistakes were a more likely occurrence.

Among the many philatelists, Robey was the lucky one. Instead of flying high through the skies, the Jenny on his stamp appeared upside down, as if it were doing an elaborate aerial flip for some grand barnstorming performance. Even luckier for Robey, the person selling him the stamps on that fateful day had never seen an airplane and couldn’t tell the difference. When he saw the error, Robey saw opportunity, and he coolly asked to purchase a 100-count sheet for $24.

Soon after, he sent word of the mistake to fellow friends and collectors, and it didn’t take long for the news to spread to postal inspectors, who were eager to reclaim the errant stamps. Of course, Robey rebuffed their offers, and for a few days, he hid the sheet of stamps under the mattress in a one-room apartment he shared with his wife. Under mounting scrutiny, he was eager to make a deal, and in a panic, he sold the stamps to Eugene Klein, a Philadelphia businessman an avid philatelist for $15,000.

To read the complete article, see:
How the Inverted Jenny, a 24-Cent Stamp, Came to Be Worth a Fortune (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-inverted-jenny-24-cent-stamp-came-be-worth-fortune-180969090/)

Scratch and Sniff Stamps Debut

Ah, the sweet smells of summer: freshly cut grass, barbeque on a grill, the beach and suntan lotion. Now add stamps to that list.

The U.S. Postal Service said Monday that it will issue its first-ever scratch-and-sniff stamps that will aim to evoke the sweet scent of summer. The 10 different stamp designs each feature a watercolor illustration of two different ice pops on a stick.

There will be one scent for all of the stamps and the secret smell will be unveiled when the Postal Service issues the stamps on June 20, according to U.S. Postal Service public relations representative Mark Saunders.

To read the complete article, see:
U.S. Postal Service announces first-ever scratch and sniff stamp with popsicle scent (https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/05/21/post-office-scratch-and-sniff-stamp-summer/629469002/)

High School Finds Coins in 1921 Time Capsule

A time capsule hidden in the cornerstone of Sarnia’s Great Lakes Secondary School (GLSS) in August 1921 was unveiled late last month.

Among the contents of the 97-year-old time capsule, which was opened on April 28, were five coins, including 1920 50- and 25-cent pieces as well as 1921 10-, five- and one-cent pieces.

To read the complete article, see:
Sarnia high school discovers 1920, 1921 coins in 97-year-old time capsule (http://canadiancoinnews.com/sarnia-high-school-discovers-coins/)

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