vol.1 issue.12

:: The Incredible Music Machine
:: Avalonn Stats & Traffic report
::The Amazing life of Benjamin Franklin
:: Is Boxing a sport?

.....We all know that Ben Franklin was a writer, publisher, scientist, solder, politician, founding father, musician, inventor, philosopher, Husband, and a Father. This man was a amazing person. He accomplished more in a single lifetime than most of us could imagine.
.....Even at age 70 when most modern men are enjoying there golden years of leisure and retirement, Franklin crossed the Atlantic to become Americas first ambassador to France.
.....Franklin was America’s first and possibly greatest polymath. And even at the end of his long life he still had a flair for great things.
In 1785 when the French mathematician Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour, who admired Franklin greatly, wrote a friendly parody of Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" called "Fortunate Richard." The main character leaves a smallish amount of money in his will, to collect interest over one, or, two,three, or five full centuries, with the resulting astronomical sums to be spent on impossibly elaborate utopian projects.
.....Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he had decided to leave a bequest of 1,000 pounds each to his native Boston and his adopted Philadelphia, in a trust to gather interest for 200 years.
.....As of 1990, more than $2,000,000 had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000 during that same time; at the end of its first 100 years a portion was allocated to help establish a trade school that became the Franklin Institute of Boston and the whole fund was later dedicated to supporting this institute.
.....If one of us today would do something like this, who would you bequest it to, and what would you have them do with the money?


e-mail: matt@avalonn.com

.....Avalonn.com was established in 1997 in Macomb Illinois by Matt Capps. Over the years the web page has served as a news letter for students, business, musicians, and local artists.
.....Today Avalonn.com is published from Jerseyville Illinois and includes online video, original video productions, original essays, and local news and information.
.....Avalonn.com web page receives over 26,000 hits per year from over 40 country's from all around the world.
.....However the majority of the viewers are from people who live in western Illinois, primarily in and around Jersey County.
.....If any one has a up coming event or a message that you would like to have published to a large and diverse group of people you can contact Matt Capps via E-mail.
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