truesee's Blog

 

 

 

Sean Sexton

 

This is the pouting face of 21-year-old Sean Sexton. Tempe police say Sexton was standing outside of a check-cashing store near Southern and Mill avenues October 28 firing an Airsoft rifle at the store's windows.

Police are unsure why exactly Sexton was shooting at the store but speculate that he may have had a vendetta against the business.

When police got to the scene, Sexton started firing at them, as well.

Luckily, the responding officers realized Sexton was firing an air rifle and didn't return fire, so nobody was injured.

Police estimate that Sexton did about $15,000 worth of damage to the building, and he was arrested.

Sexton was booked on suspicion of aggravated assault and felony criminal damage. He was taken to jail, where officers snapped this shot of him looking like someone just in his cereal.

 

Happy Palindrome Day, everyone!

You probably woke up knowing it was Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, but to Aziz Inan (pictured above), a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland, today's date looks more like this: 11022011.

That makes it a very rare, eight-digit palindrome day.

Just how rare is an eight-digit palindrome day? In an interview with The Times, Inan, who has taken on the discovery of palindrome dates as a sort of hobby, explained that there will only be 12 eight-digit palindrome days this entire century.

In addition to the automatic awesomeness of a date being a palindrome,  Inan points out that Wednesday's date is extra special because it is 1001 x 11 x 1001, or the product of a mathematical expression in which both sides are almost mirror images of one another.

In an email to the Los Angeles Times, he wrote: "I know both 11-1-11 (which can also be interpreted as 1-11-11) and 11-11-11 dates to occur this month are very interesting dates as well since they won't repeat again until the next century, but 11022011 won't happen again in ALL four-digit years!!"

Inan has found all kinds of crazy number patterns in Wednesday's date. If you're so inclined, you can read more about it in an article he wrote for The Beacon, the student newspaper of the University of Portland. One thing he didn't write about was how he intends to celebrate such an important date.

"In one of my classes, I asked my students to make palindrome triangle paper hats and decorate them with Wednesday's date," he said. "And then I'm going to have a photographer come and take a picture of me with all my students, and hopefully we will have a photograph that has some type of symmetry."

"This is so much fun," Inan added. "Engineering can get pretty boring because you talk about equations, but when I say, 'Do you know today is a special date?' it gets a lot of attention. It helps me change the subject for a few minutes and bring the students back from their dream or their hibernating."

So, get out the paper hats, and enjoy 11022011!

 

 

Palindrome dates in 2011:

 http://www.upbeacon.net/opinion/views-from-the-bluff/palindrome-dates-in-2011-1.1734957

 

 

 

Bank of America nixes plans to charge $5 debit card  fee, citing customer backlash 

Bank follows in footsteps of Wells Fargo and Chase

Tracy Connor
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, November 1 2011, 12:13 PM

The about-face comes just days after Chase and Wells Fargo scrapped tests of similar fees.

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” David Darnell, co-chief operating officer, said in a statement.

“As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.”

The turnaround comes too late for Brooklyn magazine editor Emily Nathan, who won’t be a B of A customer much longer.

“I’m already changing banks, switching to a smaller bank,” the 26-year-old said after withdrawing some cash from a Bank of America ATM in lower Manhattan.

“These people rob you blind. The whole banking industry is disgusting.”

Richard O’Brien, 40, an organizer with the United Federation of Teachers who was making a withdrawal at the same ATM, said the anti-greed protest a few blocks away probably helped sway bank bigwigs.

“I think it’s directly related to Occupy Wall Street, the pressure coming from there,” he said. “It’s a good sign. It’s testament that something is happening.”

Bank of America had planned to launch the fee in 2012, charging any customer who did not have $20,000 on deposit.

It was hardly the first bank to impose such a fee, but as the nation’s largest debit-card issuer, it became a lightning rod for angry consumers.

There were plans for a “Bank Transfer Day” encouraging people to switch to credit unions on Saturday, and more than 300,000 people signed an online anti-fee petition.

Other banks are feeling the heat, too.

Regions Financial, a large bank based in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta’s SunTrust Banks also rescinded debit fees on Tuesday.

Banks turned to the customer debit fees to make up for lost revenue after the Federal Reserve capped at 21 cents the “swipe” fees that merchants are charged per transaction.

There are still plenty of other fees for customers to complain about. Bank of America has started charging $5 to replace lost debit cards — a service that was free.

Citigroup doesn t charge for debit-card usage but announced plans in September to assess a $10 monthly fee for checking customers who don t maintain a $1,500 balance or pay a bill and make a direct deposit online.

With News Wire Services

A man living in a group home in the Uptown neighborhood died Monday night after he tried to remove his heart pacemaker from his chest, officials said.

Channing Askew, 47, of the 4700 block of North Winthrop, was pronounced dead at 11:33 p.m. at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Chicago Fire Department paramedics were called to the home after the man told a worker in the group home that he was experiencing chest pains and asked them to call an ambulance.

After the worker called for the ambulance, Askew returned to his room where he remained until paramedics arrived, police said.

When they did, he complained to them about chest pains and was then taken to the ambulance where he fell unconscious, police said.

As paramedics were trying to revive him, they took off his shirt and discovered he had a puncture wound on the upper left side of his chest, police said.

At some point police were called when it became apparent that the man had been stabbed, police said.

After the man was taken to the hospital, a doctor told police that the man had apparently tried to remove his pacemaker himself, police said. It was not known what the man used in that attempt.

The man may have had underlying mental and medical issues, police said. A representative of the group home could not provide any information.

No autopsy was conducted by the Cook County medical examiner's office who ruled his death natural, due to heart disease.