And all of these things combine to create an enormous amount of torque on the planet.

That spread can introduce a bias in samples of distant supernovae, leading to erroneous estimates of universal deceleration.

And if we cannot figure out a way to deal with that torque, we are going to find ourselves more and more and more quickly facing situations which are simply unthinkable.

The hardest part of the mission is that the probe just has one chance before entering the Martian atmosphere for aerodynamic shape and parachute deceleration.

And, in this kind of cauldron of moments and places and acts of deceleration, lie what a lot of people now refer to as the International Slow Movement.

The core and the most difficult part of the Mars exploration mission are the aerodynamic shape and parachute deceleration process after the probe enters Martian atmosphere. There is just one chance to ensure success.

After all, emerging and developing economies are growing much faster than the advanced countries. But even the world s most dynamic emerging markets including China, Brazil, and India are experiencing a sharp deceleration that cannot be ignored.

This deceleration was inevitable as China advanced from extreme poverty and technological backwardness to become a middle income economy powered by external trade and consumer spending. It was also desirable, because rapid growth was hitting environmental limits.

At the same time, output growth has slowed from the 10 trend of the 33 years ending in 2011 to around 7 today. That downshift, in the face of sustained rapid job creation, implies an unmistakable deceleration of productivity.

This time, the descent has been far milder. From a peak of 11.9 in the first quarter of 2010, China s annual GDP growth slowed to 7.6 in the second quarter of 2012 only about half the outsize 8.2 percentage point deceleration experienced during the Great Recession.

The world trade multiplier, though less widely recognized, helps to explain why the growth deceleration has been so widespread and persistent. When a country s economic growth slows, it imports less from other countries, thereby reducing those countries growth rates, and causing them, too, to reduce imports.

Third, the renminbi s international and reserve currency prospects will be shaped by how China handles its growth slowdown. The key will be whether it manages a smooth deceleration, in which case renminbi internationalization will proceed, or suffers a hard landing, in which case social unrest will intensify and all bets are off.

Economic growth picked up in the final quarter of 2012 to 7.9 half a percentage point faster than the 7.4 increase in GDP in the third quarter. This was a meaningful increase after ten consecutive quarters of deceleration, and it marks the Chinese economy s second soft landing in slightly less than four years.

Sky high commodity prices, rock bottom dollar interest rates, and ample international liquidity are what Chile hopes for in the rest of the world they are also precisely what Chile got since 2010. Unsurprisingly, growth was swift until late last year, when the combination of the US Federal Reserve s gradual exit from quantitative easing and lower commodity prices worldwide caused a swift deceleration in economic activity.

BEIJING After three decades of 9.8 average annual GDP growth, China s economic expansion has been slowing for 13 consecutive quarters the first such extended period of deceleration since the reform and opening up policy was launched in 1979. Real GDP grew at an annual rate of only 7.5 in the second quarter of this year (equal to the target actually set by the Chinese government at the beginning of this year).

So in a sense, the Chinese bubble as much an intellectual and political bubble as an economic one has burst. As China s economic deceleration exposes its structural vulnerabilities and flawed policies, the much hyped notion of Chinese exceptionalism that China can continue to grow without the rule of law and the other essential institutions that a modern market economy presupposes is proving to be nothing but a delusion.