Day: December 9, 2024

Since time immemorial, we humans have looked up and wondered at the moon, earth’s only natural satellite. We continue to be captivated by the beauty of the moon and the 28-day cycle of waxing and waning. Not just that, the moon has played a crucial role in shaping our planet’s evolution and the development of life itself.

Modern scientific theories explain the origin of the moon and its impact on life on earth. Indeed the moon began with an impact, an interplanetary impact. The leading theory is the Giant Impact Hypothesis. According to that, about 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized protoplanet called Theia collided with the earth. This massive impact ejected a vast amount of debris into space, consisting of material from both earth and the impactor. This debris coalesced due to mutual gravitational attraction over time, forming our moon. This explains several key observations, including the similarity between moon rocks and earth’s mantle composition, and why the moon is relatively large compared to earth. Continue reading “Our Moon”

All things must pass. Paul Krugman is going to retire from being a NY Times columnist after 25 years. Some people claim that being a columnist helped him get the 2008 Nobel Memorial prize in the economic sciences.

I can’t say anything about his NYT columns. I am  not a subscriber. I did catch glimpses of his political position, though. He was totally sold out to the Democratic party. Over the years, he’s infamously made a bunch of poor predictions. I was surprised at his mistakes considering that he was a first-rate economist.

I say “was” because he appeared to have forgotten the economics lessons that he learned and taught to a couple of generations of students — including yours truly. Continue reading “Krugman Retiring from NYTimes”