1.)     After going public last year, Facebook made $1.1 billion in profits.    You’d think they’d have to play a lot of taxes on that profit.  However, not only won’t Facebook be paying any federal or state taxes on it, the company will receive a 429 million dollar refund.   Citizens for Tax Justice, a research group, just released a breakdown of what Facebook pulled off in its 2012 annual report.    Essentially, because of a tax deductibility on executive stock options, the deductible ended up actually equaling more than Facebook owed in taxes.   So instead of paying anything to the government, the government will instead be paying Facebook a refund of almost half a billion dollars.

2.)     Could the next big medical break through come from an alligator?   It turns out blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics.    A study at LSU shows peptides — fragments of proteins — within alligator blood help the animals stave off fatal infections     In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.     The scientists think that these peptides could one day lead to medicines that would provide humans with the same antibiotic protection.  

3.)     It only took them 148 years, but the state of Mississippi has finally officially ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.    The state’s legislature actually voted to approve the amendment outlawing slavery in 1995, but it was never official since the state never notified the United States Archivist.     The oversight was cleared up after a doctor saw the movie “Lincoln” and did some research into when different states had ratified the slavery ban.