© Reuters
Society's Child
© AP/Andy Wing
As 230 U.S. Olympic athletes gear up to compete in the 2014 Winter Games, the only thing colder than the slopes at Sochi is the fact that any prizes awarded by the U.S. Olympic Commission (USOC) will be taxed by the IRS. Many Americans don't realize that the U.S. taxes income earned abroad, and as such even the winnings of Olympic athletes are subject to the reach of the IRS. The USOC awards prizes to U.S. Olympic medal winners: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. Relative to each athlete's income tax bracket, some top earners such as Shaun White could end up paying over a third (39.6 percent) of their winnings to the IRS.
Additionally, because the U.S. is one of only a handful of developed countries that tax income earned abroad, it is likely America's competitors will not be subject to such a tax. Taken together - the tax on Olympic athletes and the tax on income earned abroad - it can be said the U.S. has officially "earned the Gold" for having one of the most backwards and illogical tax codes in the world.
© Mirror
Chilling: The gas chamber in Arizona State Prison.
Chilling: The gas chamber in Arizona State Prison.
Today is the 90th anniversary of the first use of the gas chamber to execute a prisoner on death row.
An unsuccessful attempt to kill convict Gee Jon by pumping gas directly into his cell led to the use of a specially built gas chamber to finally carry out the sentence on February 8th 1924.
The last person to be executed in the gas chamber in the US is Walter LaGrand - a German national - who was executed in Arizona on March 3, 1999.
Six states, Arizona, California, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri and Wyoming, authorize the use of lethal gas under certain circumstances.
Whatever the means of execution, a condemned inmate is usually able to request a last meal of their choice.
This meal is supposed to symbolise the condemned making peace with those responsible for their death. We look back at some of the extraordinary culinary requests made by inmates.
© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Data obtained by The Associated Press shows that the number of officers who left the Army due to misconduct more than tripled in the past three years. The number of enlisted soldiers forced out for drugs, alcohol, crimes and other misconduct shot up from about 5,600 in 2007, as the Iraq war peaked, to more than 11,000 last year.
The data reveals stark differences between the military services and underscores the strains that long, repeated deployments to the front lines have had on the Army's soldiers and their leaders.
© Reuters / Bogdan Cristel
Every zoo which is a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), kills approximately five animals per year, bringing the total among the 247 EAZA constituent members to 1,735, according to the estimates of the association's spokesman David Williams Mitchell, cited by the Associated Press.
However, this statistic exempts all zoos and animal parks across the continent that do not belong to the organization.
© Gary Gardiner/Bloomberg News
Kayla M. Finley, 27, went to the Pickens County Sheriff's Office to report a crime on February 13th, but when she provided her name to the deputies, she was placed in handcuffs.
Nine years earlier, she had rented Monster In Law and apparently had not returned it to the video store. A warrant for her arrest had been issued in September 2005. Even though the rental store is no longer in business, police still intend on collecting that late fee - in the form of wringing her through the court system.
Her actual offense was "Failure to return rented video cassette," which is classified under petty larceny, a misdemeanor.
Police say that she was sent a warning letter from the store, but Finley says she never got this letter.
"Its obvious that Pickens County has nothing better to do. I fully intend on fighting this. Its ridiculous that I had this happen to me," Finley said to KPLCtv.com.
© Daily Life, Australia
The terms may have changed, yet the game remains very much the same. Match a charismatic teacher with eager and often vulnerable students, add a touch of human ego and just enough mysticism that students won't question any dodgy practices too closely. Wait a few years, then watch the whole thing end up in court cases and recriminations.
The latest 'don't call them gurus' to end up in hot water are Bikram Choudhury, head of Bikram yoga, and John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, one of the fastest growing styles of yoga in the west. Last year five separate cases were filed against Bikram by former teachers, accusing him of rape, harassment, assault, discrimination and false imprisonment.
In the Anusara case, John Friend has been accused of mismanaging company finances, using tantric sexual practices to order to 'heal' a student with whom he was having a relationship, and misusing his power in creating a Wiccan coven (which he named 'Blazing Solar Flames') with three female employees. The coven's practices involved 'sexually charged rituals' which were meant to serve as a 'battery' powering up the Anusara enterprise. "It was certainly never the way that I had experienced Wicca," former coven member 'Melissa' told Daily Beast.
Army caps and 'so many cell phones' were also seized
Human flesh was apparently being sold as an expensive treat at the restaurant, with authorities saying that roasted human head was even on the menu.
"I went to the hotel early this year, after eating, I was told that a lump of meat was being sold at N700, I was surprised," a pastor who had visited the eatery said.
"So I did not know it was human meat that I ate at such expensive price.
"What is this country turning into? Can you imagine people selling human flesh as meat," he added. "Seriously I'm beginning to fear people in this part of the world. "
© Dr_Flash/Shutterstock
Oklahoma is not a politically competitive states in presidential elections. No Democratic nominee has carried the Sooner State since President Lyndon Baines Johnson in his 1964 landslide victory - and Mitt Romney received more than twice as many votes as President Barack Obama in the 2012 race, carrying all 77 counties. As such, candidates on both sides of the aisle focus their travel and advertising budgets elsewhere, largely ignoring the state's 3.8 million residents.
SB 906, which passed 28 to 18 and now proceeds to the Oklahoma House, would add Oklahoma to a growing group of states that have agreed to automatically give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, regardless of how the candidate does in their state. The compact, which has already been endorsed by ten jurisdictions possessing 136 electoral votes, would only go into effect when at least 270 electoral votes are governed by the compact. Oklahoma's 9 electoral votes would bring the count to 145, about 53.7 percent of the needed total.
A photograph of the hanging of Mary the elephant
They sat on their haunches, stood on their heads, and formed an elephantine train as they placed their forelegs on each other's backs and trumpeted around the ring.
In short, they performed every trick they had been tortured into learning, but they could not make up for the absence of the real star of the show, a five-ton Asian elephant named Mary.
Comment: Different animal species are going extinct every day because the agricultural industry wants its profits above their - and our - lives; the greed of conscienceless scientists is causing the death of animals due to the GMOs; Hollywood is killing animals for entertainment; sadists kill animals because they have the opportunity and they want to.
In all times through history, the respect humanity showed to the animals who cohabit our planet reflected the health of the society as a whole. News as the above and
Barbarians! Shameful! Marius the giraffe killed and dissected at Copenhagen zoo despite worldwide protests
Second giraffe named Marius at risk of being put down in Denmark
tell us that our current society's sickness has reached very dangerous levels. Read a very interesting discussion on the subject that is taking place in our forum.