Muse reader responds to Michigan Facts and Trivia
In 1817 the University of Michigan was the first university established by any of the states. Originally named Cathelepistemian and located in Detroit the name was changed in 1821.
Michigan State University was founded in 1855 as the nation's first land-grant university and served as the prototype for 69 land-grant institutions later established under the Morrill Act of 1862. It was the first institution of higher learning in the nation to teach scientific agriculture.
Not sure about those Michigan facts. Ohio University was around for at least a decade before 1817 and Michigan wasn't a state until 1837. The University of Minnesota claims an 1855 start date and the same status as Michigan State, although the early years of these and many other institutions were as sketchy as their latter day claims.

The Land-Grant College: What Is a Land-Grant College?
A land-grant college or university is an institution that has been designated by its state legislature or Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. The original mission of these institutions, as set forth in the first Morrill Act, was to teach agriculture, military tactics, and the mechanic arts as well as classical studies so that members of the working classes could obtain a liberal, practical education. A key component of the land-grant system is the agricultural experiment station program created by the Hatch Act of 1887. To disseminate information gleaned from the experiment stations' research, the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 created a Cooperative Extension Service associated with each U.S. land-grant institution.
The Land-Grant College: Where Is It?
There is now at least one land-grant institution in every state and territory of the United States, as well as the District of Columbia. Certain Southern states have two land-grant institutions as a result of the Second Morrill Act, and some western and plains states have several of the 1994 land-grant tribal colleges.
The Land-Grant College: Who Created It?
Justin Smith Morrill, a representative and later a senator from Vermont, sponsored the land-grant legislation that bears his name and is generally credited as having secured its passage. Prior to Morrill's support for land-grant legislation, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, a Yale-educated farmer, newspaper editor, and college professor, made education for the working class his cause in the mid-nineteenth century. His "Plan for a State University for the Industrial Classes" advanced ideas that are now fundamental to the land-grant system, such as experimental research in agriculture.
The Land-Grant College: When Was It Created?
Morrill first introduced a land-grant bill in Congress in 1857, which after much struggle was passed in 1859 only to be vetoed by President James Buchanan. In 1861 Morrill introduced another land-grant bill that increased to 30,000 acres the grant for each senator and representative and added a requirement that recipient institutions teach military tactics. The newly felt need for trained military officers to fight in the Civil War, along with the absence of Southern legislators who had opposed the earlier bill, helped the Morrill Act through Congress in just six months. President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law on July 2, 1862. http://www.wvu.edu/~exten/about/land.htm

The College of William & Mary's website states, "The College of William and Mary was the first college to become a university (1779)." ]
Educational historian Frederick Rudolph once said Cornell University was "the first American university"
Harvard University, founded in 1636, claims itself to be "the oldest institution of higher education in the United States". The claim of being "the first university" has been made on its behalf by others.
The Johns Hopkins University says, "The Johns Hopkins University was the first research university in the United States." Johns Hopkins claim is based on its adherence to the German university model that stresses research as the primary function of a university.
The University of Pennsylvania makes claim on their website of being "America's First University". The university has published a book about being the first university in America, and their website contains numerous instances of the phrase "America's First University."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_university_in_the_United_States

Report: Despite the Recession, Many High Potential Employees Jump Ship
News release: "High potential employees aren’t afraid to strike out for greater opportunities despite the continuing recession, according to a study of how the best and brightest of high potential talent have weathered the global recession over the past 18 months. The report released by Catalyst, Opportunity or Setback? High Potential Women and Men During Economic Crisis, offers a surprising overview of the current workplace and recommends that even during international economic instability, employee retention must remain a foremost concern for businesses."

The UBS settlement, reached between the U.S. and Switzerland, will allow the U.S. to get the names of 4,450 UBS account-holders. Click here for the WSJ story; here for the NYT story; here for the FT story; here for the agreement itself. While some were saying the deal blew a hole in Swiss banking laws, Swiss justice minister and Law Blog all-name team member Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the agreement fully complies with Swiss law and doesn't violate banking secrecy, which she emphasized isn't meant to protect criminal behavior. WSJ Law Blog August 19, 2009

Switzerland’s government said Thursday that it was in the process of selling its stake in the giant bank U.B.S., a transaction that it expects will generate about one billion Swiss francs, or $938 million, in profit for taxpayers. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/global/21iht-ubs.html?hpw

A 28-year-old American, believed by prosecutors to be one of the nation's cybercrime kingpins, was indicted Monday along with two Russian accomplices on charges that they carried out the largest hacking and identity-theft caper in U.S. history. Federal prosecutors alleged the three masterminded a global scheme to steal data from more than 130 million credit and debit cards by hacking into the computer systems of five major companies, including Hannaford Bros. supermarkets, 7-Eleven and Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a credit-card processing company. The indictment in federal district court in New Jersey marks the latest and largest in at least five years of crime that has brought its alleged orchestrator, Albert Gonzalez of Miami, in and out of federal grasp. Detained in 2003, Mr. Gonzalez was briefly an informant to the Secret Service before he allegedly returned to commit even bolder crimes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125053669921337753.html

Earlier this month, we covered the story of the “Socialist Joker” Obama poster, which was spotted around Los Angeles and as far afield as Chicago. By early August, the image had gone viral, enraging progressives and earning plaudits from conservatives. Now, thanks to some gumshoeing by the folks over at the Los Angeles Times, the creator of the portrait has been unmasked. 20-year-old college student Firas Alkhateeb said he created the images using a tutorial on how to “jokerize” any portrait with Adobe PhotoShop.
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/08/18/creator-of-socialist-joker-obama-poster-unmasked/

August 19 is the birthday of a writer who passed away just last month, Frank McCourt, (books by this author) born on this day in Brooklyn (1930). His parents were Irish immigrants, and when Frank was four years old, the family moved back to Ireland. McCourt had a difficult childhood, living in extreme poverty with an alcoholic father who was often absent. Three of his six brothers and sisters died from malnutrition and disease. When Frank McCourt was 19, he managed to make it back to America, where he worked at a hotel and at a hat factory. He was drafted into the Army and fought in Germany. Afterward, the Army let him go to college on the GI bill, even though he didn't have a high school education. And from there, he became a teacher. He taught English in the New York public schools for 30 years, and he frequently told his students stories about his childhood. The Writer’s Almanac