LEDGE POOL
At 10 floors up, this hanging pool in Texas gives swimmers a dazzling view. The pool has an overhang of 8 feet directly above Dallas main street.
The UPC, or Universal Product Code, barcode is a method of marking consumer products so that they may be identified easily. Most UPC barcodes, called version A, and have twelve numbers. However, there are other versions such as the UPC version E with only eight digits, and the ISBN-13
version with thirteen numbers used for books. There are also other barcode systems such as EAN-13 and EAN-8 that are used outside the U.S. But the UPC version A barcode is the most common.
What do the numbers in the UPC version A barcode mean?
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A couple of weeks ago I was on a bus tour of the space shuttle launch area at the Kennedy Space Center Florida. For $58 you can ride a bus past some of the outlying security barriers and get within about a mile of the Discovery on the pad. This is about as close as an ordinary citizen can get without being asked serious questions by men with automatic weapons.
It was an impressive tour in all respects, but this story today brought back a part of the tour related by the guide: NASA Delays Discovery Launch Fourth Time
An all-day review of the craft’s readiness for launch left managers still under-confident about the operations of three hydrogen control valves that channel gaseous hydrogen from the main engines to the external fuel tank. Engineering teams have been working to identify what caused damage to a flow control valve on shuttle Endeavour during its November 2008 flight. NASA managers decided Friday more data and possible testing are required before launch can proceed.
Disney’s “Earth” documentary about various animal species across the planet is coming out today.
But after Congress sharply raised taxes this year for many Americans living abroad, some international tax lawyers say they detect rising demand from citizens to renounce ties with the United States, the only developed country that taxes it citizens while they live overseas. Americans abroad are also taxed in the countries where they live.
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1. President Abraham Lincoln created the IRS during the Civil War to help pay for the military expenses.
2. The initial income tax was a mere 3% tax on individuals making over $800. Nowadays the top tax bracket consists of a 35% tax.
3. When it was first created, the IRS was known as the Bureau of Internal Revenue, it wasn’t until the 1950’s that the name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service.
4. Over 229 million income tax returns were filed with the IRS in 2006.
5. In 2006, the IRS collected over $2.2 trillion, with $1.2 trillion coming from just income taxes.
6. Prior to the introduction of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in 1998, the burden of proof was put entirely on taxpayers, meaning taxpayers had to prove themselves innocent.
7. The IRS sends out an average 8 billion page of paper every tax season. If all the pieces of paper were laid out end-to-end, it would wrap around the earth 28 times.
8. In order for the IRS to print the necessary forms and documents on paper over 300,000 trees must be cut down every year.
9. The federal government spends $200 billion per year on federal tax compliance, which is more money than it takes to produce every vehicle in the United States.
10. The IRS employs over 114,000 individuals, which is over double as many as the CIA and five times more than the FBI.
11. The United States tax systems is widely known for being confusing and difficult to understand. As such over 60% of seek professional help preparing their tax returns.
12. The average family pays over 38% of their total income to the IRS, which is more than the average family spends on food, clothing, and shelter combined.
13. The federal government spends about $10 billion per year to pay the IRS’s 114,000 employees.
14. The IRS has a whistleblowers program designed to help catch tax evaders. In 2005 they paid over $27 million to informants which resulted in nearly $350 million in revenue.
15. Tax Day, the date when tax returns must be filed with the IRS typically falls on April 15th. However, if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday, Tax Day is moved to the next business day.
Here are some sites on the internet to find what your looking for,
or are willing to trade for.
What ever you need…
You can find in a vending machine.
Photo from the Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Collection 12002-39.
Wow, the flying hotel and largest helicopter in the world, Cool! The Hotelicopter is modeled on the Soviet-made Mil V-12, of which there were only two prototypes ever made. The Hotelicopter Company purchased one of these prototypes from the Mikhail Leontyevich Mil helicopter plant in Panki-Tomilino, Russia in 2004 and have been engineering the world’s first flying hotel ever since.
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