As Congress and the White House pivot from trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act to overhauling the U.S. tax code, it’s helpful to take a closer look at how the tax system works presently in the context of its recent history. Individual income taxes are the federal government’s single biggest revenue source. In fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 30, the individual income tax was expected to bring in nearly $1.66 trillion, or about 48% of all federal revenues, according to the Office of Management and Budget. The corporate income tax was estimated to raise another $324 billion, or 9% of total federal…

TOKYO — As world leaders congratulated Joe Biden on his election win over the weekend, a long-standing U.S. adversary remained conspicuously silent. On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a congratulatory message to Cambodia’s king on the 67th anniversary of his country’s independence. But Kim’s state media has made no mention of the U.S. elections this past week, focusing instead Monday on reports about cement production and self-reliance. Pyongyang’s reticence isn’t surprising: The nuclear-armed, one-party state is not inclined to highlight political freedoms available in other countries. But there are reasons to believe the mood in Pyongyang is glum this week, and…

The Maya city of Tikal is famous for its soaring palaces and temples. But something far more humble kept Tikal functioning: its water filtration system, the earliest known of its kind. Researchers recently discovered a volcanic mineral that captures microbes and heavy metals in one of Tikal’s largest reservoirs. Because the material is not found nearby, the finding suggests the presence of a deliberate filter. The finding contradicts the long-standing idea that the ancient world’s technological prowess was concentrated in places such as Greece, Rome, Egypt, and China, says study co-author Kenneth Tankersley, an archaeological geologist at the University of…

1. One day near the end of 2014, a nineteen-year-old white University of Michigan student named Andrew Jacob was sitting in his dorm, thinking about the police. All he seemed to hear that fall were complaints: about the cop who strangled unarmed Eric Garner, the cop who shot unarmed Michael Brown, the cop who killed twelve-year-old Tamir Rice. Black lives matter, sure, Jacob thought, but what about blue lives? Jacob, who grew up in an affluent Detroit suburb, was not from a police family and had no interest in going into law enforcement, but his father had recently started a…

Mankind has been at constant war with nature, we need to save the planet, our house is on fire, Global Warming and the Apocalypse have become the new buzz words to motor the sustainable planet movement. While there is no doubt that plastic has entered the food chain and the world needs to find a serious solution to the elimination of single use plastic and electronic waste, it is also pertinent to note that the developed countries are among the largest garbage generators globally and have been exporting them to the less developed world as waste bins. Environment and water…