Thomas J. Love, 40, walked into the WSFS branch in the Crossroads Shopping Center on New Castle Avenue near New Castle about 3 p.m. and handed a bank teller a demand note on a deposit slip, state police reported today.
The teller, unable to decipher what was on the deposit slip, handed it back to Love to rewrite. Empty handed, he then fled the bank on foot.
If you are always seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, be warned — it could be an oncoming train.
The U.S. Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to coin money, and an 1884 Supreme Court decision makes it clear that this power also applies to paper currency (in that case, backed by gold.) And with rare exception, money printed for use in one state is valid for use in the other states and American territories. One exception: the bills pictured, below.
Pay attention to the sides of the front of the bill — you will see the word “HAWAII” printed, vertically, on either side, next to the seals. The obverse is more clear, with the word “HAWAII” printed over the picture of the Lincoln Memorial and spilling into the sides. What’s going on here?
On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, bringing the U.S. into World War II in the process. Hawaii (not yet a state) was isolated both geographically and politically and — given the losses at Pearl Harbor especially — was the most likely widely-inhabited American candidate for a successful Japanese occupation. Any successful occupation would also allow the invading Japanese to seize, potentially, hundreds of millions of dollars in currency from Hawaiian financial institutions. With federal spending still in the tens of billions, such an outcome would have been significantly harmful to the American economy. The HAWAII-emblazoned bills were the solution.
I have absolutely no idea what good a Ping Pong playing robot is to mankind, but after you watch the video you’ll have to admit it’s pretty cool. It takes some pretty good technology to produce this robot, so the question is why doesn’t the U.S. have one? Bring on Forrest Gump….let the competition begin!
Some newspapers, to the dismay of the scientists involved, have gleefully announced that the test – which measures the telomeres (the protective caps on the ends of my chromosomes) – can predict when I will die. Am I about to find out that, at least statistically, my days are numbered? And, if so, might new telomere research suggesting we can turn back the hands of the body’s clock and make ourselves “biologically younger” come to my rescue?
