Saturday, December 31, 2022

Trump and Taxes Released: How Were the First World Maps Created

 The finding led to criticism from Democrats. Don Beyer, a member of the committee that oversaw the record release, said that the IRS' auditing system was broken and that "Congress has so much work to do to make tax enforcement in this country fairer." 

In a memo cited in an earlier report, the IRS noted that "it is not possible to obtain the resources available to examine all potential issues" associated with Mr Trump's hundreds of business interests.


Donald Trump paid $1.1 million in federal income taxes in his first three years as president, and paid no taxes in 2020 as his income began to dwindle, new figures in a House Ways and Means Committee report show. nyti.ms/3Q5dXLM


Releasing six years' worth of Donald Trump's tax returns ensures transparency


How Were the First World Maps Created?

After seeing an abstract US map where the borders between the states were preserved but the shapes of the individual states were not, Tom Comerford was inspired to design what he calls The Topologist’s Map of the World.

I describe this a a topologist’s map because topology is a branch of mathematics concerned with the way that space is connected. In topology it’s common to think of stretchy, distortable surfaces that can be moved around without being punctured or torn.


The Best Book Covers of 2022

cover for Pure Colour

Talking Trash with George Eliot

Curious if that term had been in use before George Eliot wrote Middlemarch in the early 1870s, I found Mark Liberman’s post on Language Log, where the earliest citation of the “abuse of opponents” sense of the phrase seems to be 1933. I will leave it to the etymological experts whether what Eliot meant by the phrase can be linked to the competitive speech of Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, and other athletes.