Good evening or afternoon,

DID YOU KNOW that using gas to heat homes was invented in 1919 by Alice H Parker, an African-American woman from New Jersey? I for sure didn’t, but I have only the haziest of ideas how gas gets from a pipe to a home so I’m not really an expert in the space:

In the early 20th Century, Parker graduated from Howard University with honors in an era when few African Americans - let alone African American women - were college educated. Not much is known of Parker's life. But we know she grew tired of the cold Morristown winters and the limited effectiveness of fireplaces in warming her home, not to mention the residual smoke and ash fireplaces created.

http://www.njchamber.com/index.php/350innovators/643-20-alice-h-parker

This week is also the first time I found out about Lillian Friedman, the first American woman to be a studio animator. Some nice gifs under the link, so I strongly encourage you to click:

After a few months, Shamus Culhane, ‘a very fussy animator,’ liked her work so much that he made her his assistant in February 1932. ‘This required,’ she recalls, ‘some very strong persuasion, or as he put it, yelling and screaming. Culhane taught me a great deal about animation, but his greatest contribution was that he encouraged me for the first time to aspire to become an animator.’

http://animation-appreciation-education.tumblr.com/post/147148784188/animation-appreciation-education-lillian

Finally, please enjoy this article about Equity, a film about women on Wall Street that is mostly funded by women on Wall Street:

With “Equity,” a financial thriller that opens Friday, July 29, Ms. Thomas and Ms. Reiner, co-stars and producers of the film, set out to portray the women who take that as an unapologetic stance. In an unusual move, they also sought out those women to finance their work: Much of their budget was raised from 25 female investors, including current and former Wall Streeters, who also shared their own war stories of working in a male-dominated industry. While there are more female financiers now on Wall Street than in generations past, their numbers drop precipitously in the upper reaches of the business, and there has never been a female chief executive of a major investment bank.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/movies/equity-women-wall-street.html

Have a great weekend! It’s already the weekend if you are in Omsk or east of Omsk!

Alex.