One day in the dead of winter, I looked out my back window and saw a chicken. It was jet-black with a crimson wattle, and it seemed unaware that it was in New York City. In classic barnyard fashion, It was scratching, pecking and clucking.
I shrugged off the apparition. Birds come and go. Usually they're pigeons, not chickens, but like other birds, this one had wings and it would probably use them. Or so I thought.
The protagonist of this story is known simply as the chicken. How it came to a small backyard here, remains a matter of conjecture. The chicken made its first appearance next door, at the home of a multitude of cabdrivers from Bangladesh. My wife, Nancy, and I figured they had bought the chicken and were fattening it for a feast. That hypothesis fell into doubt when the chicken hopped the fence and began pacing the perimeter of our yard with a proprietary air.
Eating it was out of the question. As a restaurant critic and an animal lover, I subscribe to a policy of complete hypocrisy. Serve fish or fowl to me, but don't ask me to watch the killing. Once I meet it, I don't want to eat it.
Nancy and I next theorized that the chicken had escaped from a live-poultry market about four blocks away and was on the run. Our hearts went out to the brave little refugee. We had to save it.

Throughout history there have been many unusual taxes levied on such things as hats, Beds, Baths, marriages, and funerals. At one time England levied a tax on sunlight by collection from every household with six or more windows. And according to legend, there was a Turkish ruler who collected a tax each time he dined with one of his subjects. Why? To pay for the wear and tear on his teeth!
Different kinds of taxes help to spread the tax burden. Anyone who pays a tax is said to "bear the burden" of the tax. The burden of a tax may fall more heavily on some persons than on others. That is why the three levels of government in this country use several kinds of taxes. This spreads the burden of taxes among more people. From the standpoint of their use, the most important taxes are income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and estate, inheritance, and gift taxes. Some are used by only one level of government; others by two or even all three levels. Together these different taxes make up what is called our tax system.
Income taxes are the main source of federal revenues. The federal government gets more than three-fourths of its revenue from income taxes. As its name indicated, an income tax is a tax on earnings. Both individuals and business corporations pay a federal income tax.
The oldest tax in the United States today is the property tax. It provides most of the income for local governments. It provides at least a part of the income for all but a few states. It is not used by the federal government.
A sales tax is a tax levied on purchases. Most people living in the United States know about sales taxes since they are used in all but four states. Actually there are several kinds of sales taxes, But only three of them are important. They are general sales taxes, excise taxes, and import taxes.
Other three closely related taxes are estate, inheritance, and gift taxes. Everything a person owns, including both real and personal property, makes up his or her estate. When someone dies, ownership of his or her property or estate passes on to one or more individuals or organizations. Before the property is transferred, however, it is subject to an estate tax if its value exceeds a certain amount.

It takes only a tiny magnetic field to see clear through a person's head, a new study shows. A method called ultra-low field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has captured its first, blurry shots of a human brain, revealing activity as well as structure.
MRI scanners image the human body by detecting how hydrogen atoms respond to magnetic fields. They typically require fields of a few tesla—about 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. The powerful magnets necessary make scanners pricey and also dangerous for people with metal implants.
The new device hits a sample with a 30 millitesla magnetic field, about 100 times weaker than is normally used in MRI. The device then uses a 46 microtesla magnetic field—about the same as the Earth's magnetic field—to capture images of the sample.
The first target for the device was the head of lead researcher Vadim Zotev of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US.
"The cost of MRI can be reduced dramatically," Zotev says. The new set-up uses several ultra-sensitive sensors called superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which have to be kept at very low temperatures. "The most expensive part of our system is the liquid helium cryostat, which costs about $20,000," Zotev adds.
Ultra-low field MRI scanning was first performed with a single SQUID in 2004 by a group led by John Clarke at University of California, Berkeley, US, but this only allowed objects about the size of an apple to be scanned. The new device uses seven SQUIDs and can scan much larger objects.
MRI machines in the clinic today require a patient to be slotted into a long, cylindrical tube. Ultra-low field MRI machines can be much more open. "Microtesla MRI is more suitable for surgical environment than high-field MRI," Zotev says. "Some medical equipment can be conveniently placed inside [the scanner]," including surgical robots, Zotev says.
Today's MRI machines can also be problematic for people with metal implants, since intense magnetic fields can move or heat them causing damage to surrounding tissue.
Experiments show that ultra-low field MRI can image materials even when metal is placed near the magnets.
However, ultra-low field MRI hasn't been tested on animals or people with metal implants yet. "It would be wrong to claim that it is absolutely safe," Zotev says.
Since the new device also doubles as magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine, by picking up the feeble magnetic fields from electrical activity in the brain, it could perhaps let surgeons more easily identify areas of the brain with abnormal activity, such as in epilepsy.
"This is the main advantage of the new set-up," Clarke says. "It's a nice step forward./

After being designated by UNESCO the World Heritage sites, many places have become victims of their own popularity. Do you think the designation do more harm or good?