Author: Atanu Dey

In a July 18th post, I had shared a video of two kids offering to shovel someone’s driveway for $20. Go there to get the context of this post.

As I wrote in the post, I would be happy to point out why [the video] delighted me. A reader obliged and asked what was so special about it. Therefore here is why that brief video warmed my cold, economist’s heart. It’s a mix of enterprise, innocence, trust, and division of labor — all things that go into the creation of wealth in a society. Continue reading “Trust”

Image description:  A dense spherical cluster of stars. The stars merge into a bright core in the center, and spread out to the edges gradually, giving way to an empty, dark background. Most of the stars are small points of light. A few stars with cross-shaped diffraction spikes appear larger, and stand out in front.

The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects. The image above (click on image to embiggen) is the globular cluster NGC 6652. A bit more about that from the European Space Agency: Continue reading “APOD”

The atomic bomb and the Trinity Test is much in the news due to the release of the movie Oppenheimer last week on July 21st. I hope to watch the movie one of these days on an IMAX GT screen. There are a few in the US (sadly none in India.)

The popular press bombards us with sensational headlines (what else is new?) without really helping comprehension. Oftentimes, it ends up misinforming the public about important issues. A glaring example of that is “climate change.” Fortunately for us the social media, never celebrated as bastions guarding the public interest, has exceptionally great explainers who advance the public understanding of important matters.

The movie motivated a lot of excellent YouTube channels to explore the science, technology, engineering and history related to the project. Continue reading “The Bomb”

In a comment to a recent post “Book Titles” a reader wanted recommendations on books that explain the principles, philosophy and policy prescriptions of economics. In this post you will find a few titles for a start and I will update this post as I think of more books to add.

For a basic primer, I recommend Per Bylund’s book, “How to Think about the Economy – A Primer.” Simple, short and well-written. I like re-reading the fundamentals of any subject. By clearly understanding the fundamentals of any subject, one can work out the rest without much trouble.

Click on the book cover for downloading a free pdf copy of the book. Here’s a bit from the preface of the book: Continue reading “Economics Books”

The Climate Change Apocalypse has been postponed — once again.

As they say in the investment business, past performance is no guarantee of future profits. Just because the climatistas consistently got it woefully wrong  in the past does not mean that this time around they aren’t right. They could be right this time. There may be a wolf for real this time.

But here’s the thing. They got it wrong in the past for a particular set of reasons. Those same reasons continue to apply in the present case too. Therefore, past performance guarantees the present performance to be precisely the same. Continue reading “Climate”

Time lapse compilation of best mesocyclones and supercells resembling flying saucers, alien crafts and motherships. All Cinematography and Music by Pecos Hank.

From the details of the video by Pecos Hank: Continue reading “Mesocyclone”

Day after tomorrow, 21st July, will be the premier of the biopic Oppenheimer. I looking forward to watching the movie at an IMAX GT theater in Austin TX sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’ve always been fascinated by J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Part of my fascination was due to his deep knowledge of and interest in Hinduism. In a TV interview, when asked what his reaction was when he witnessed the test (in New Mexico, code named Trinity) of the atom bomb he had helped in creating, he said that he had recalled lines from the Bhagavad Gita — “I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.” Continue reading “Oppenheimer”

I am fascinated by the philosophical foundations of the various dharmas. The dharmas — the Sanatana dharma (aka Hinduism), the Jain dharma, the Buddha dharma — have a shared foundation. Having evolved in the same geographic region, they share certain foundational concept such as karma, moksha, etc.. However, they differ somewhat in their social and cultural expressions. To borrow a zoological metaphor, they belong to the same genus (dharma) but are distinct species (Sanatana, Jain, Boudha.) Continue reading “Advaita Vedanta”