Is the sun shrinking?

Observations of 23 transits of Mercury in front of the sun between 1736 and 1973 show no indication of any significant change in the diameter of the sun. Regression analysis yields a decrease of the angular diameter, as viewed from the earth, of under 0.3 arc second per century (> 90 percent confidence limit). This limit is incompatible with the 2 arc seconds per century decrease obtained by Eddy for the equatorial diameter from direct observations made at the Greenwich Observatory and at the U.S. Naval Observatory.     

Is the stock market efficient?

A stock market is said to be efficient if it accurately reflects all relevant information in determining security prices. Critics have asserted that share prices are far too volatile to be explained by changes in objective economic events-the October 1987 crash being a case in point. Although the evidence is not unambiguous, reports of the death of the efficient market hypothesis appear premature.