Week of December 22, 2008

That the Earth is small is undeniable. If the inner solar system were the size of the United States, the Earth would be the size of a football field; if the distance to the center of the galaxy were a mile, the Earth would be less than an atom. But if the “Earthrise” photo could have captured our planet in the dimension of time instead of space, things would look different. In its duration, as opposed to its diameter, the Earth demands to be measured on a cosmic scale. At more than four billion years old, it stretches a third of the way across the history of the universe, a third of the way back to the Big Bang itself. Many of the stars you can see on a clear winter’s night are younger than the planet beneath your feet.

People think show business was in Hollywood, but I think [Ronald] Reagan was absolutely right,' Schwarzenegger said. 'If he wouldn't have the training in acting, this would have been a very difficult job.'

The Washington Post runs a front-page graphic giving perspective to the $850 billion stimulus bill Congress is going to be debating. That's more than the inflation-adjusted cost of the Vietnam War ($698 billion), the Iraq war ($597 billion), the Korean War ($454 billion), the initial 42,700 miles of the Interstate highway system ($425 billion), the race to the moon ($237 billion), the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s ($153 billion), the Louisiana Purchase ($217 billion), the Marshall Plan ($115.3 billion) or the Works Project Administration of 1939 ($100 billion).