Paul Richardson

2 months ago | sfgate.com | Paul Richardson

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors discovered something that would clean their bodies and clothes. As the story goes, fat from someone’s meal fell into the leftover ashes of a fire. They were astonished to discover that the blending of fat and ashes formed a material that cleaned things. At the time, it must have seemed like magic. As the centuries passed, people around the world began to use soap to clean the things that got dirty.

2 months ago | metropolitandigital.com | Paul Richardson |Coastal Carolina

Tumeggy/Science Photo Library via Getty Images A microscopic viewTo see what happens when you wash your hands with soap and water, let’s zoom in. Picture all the gunk that you touch during the day and that builds up on your skin to make your hands dirty. Maybe there are smears of food, mud from outside, or even sweat and oils from your own skin. All of that material is either water-loving or water-fearing on the molecular level. Dirt is a jumbled mess of both.

2 months ago | bloomberg.com | Paul Richardson

Pedestrians at an outdoor market in St George's Mall pedestrian walkway in Cape Town, South Africa. (Bloomberg) -- A South African court ordered that a proposed increase in the value-added tax rate be suspended, formally scrapping the measure. The ruling on Sunday brings to an end a dispute between the two largest parties in South Africa’s coalition government over the revenue-raising measure.

2 months ago | bloomberg.com | Paul Richardson

Enoch Godongwana(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s National Treasury will scrap a proposed tax increase that threatened to rupture the nation’s coalition government. The rand rallied. A bill will be introduced in parliament proposing that the value-added tax rate be retained at 15%, the Treasury said in a statement on Thursday. The reversal comes days after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said he sees no alternative to the tax increase, which was set to raise the levy to 15.5% on May 1.

2 months ago | bloomberg.com | Paul Richardson

South Africa’s parliament approved a key piece of budget legislation despite objections from the second-biggest party in the coalition government, raising the risk of the alliance unraveling. The National Assembly approved the fiscal framework, which establishes economic policy, revenue projections and limits on government spending, by 194 votes to 182 at a sitting in Cape Town on Wednesday.