When I was ~9, I was given the book of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I was captivated by the series and I read the book constantly. I loved the wonderful artist's impressions, especially those of alien worlds - I used to spend so much time gazing at them that the pictures are burned into my memory. The Pleiades, seen from an…

Aww - it is the nature of the program that companions come and go, but I will be sad to see these two leave.

One of the Godel solutions modeled a universe with Hubble expansion and rotation, but the observational constraints on angular velocity are very tight, something like 10^-9 radians per year - consistent with zero.

Yeah, it could just be coincidence. It's a merchant's thumb problem, i.e. does any particular alignment require causal explanation.

That's the good news.

One of the most curious things about the CMB anisotropies is that the multipoles seem to line up with the solar system's ecliptic.

I can;t help thinking a little much is being read into this. After all, you can't simply ignore all the cultures around you. I was exposed to a wide variety of religious traditions growing up (although my family is entirely secular, as well as practically everyone I know).

Cut diamonds, no less. Not just any old natural rough diamonds, but cut gems straight out of a jeweler's window. I was particularly impressed by that.

"... the music your uncle blasts when he burns incense in the garage."

Wow.

If I really had to bet I'd say half a gee, assuming Kepler 22b is mainly composed of water. My hunch is that it's a warm ice dwarf.

Those are great!

"Tired light" is simply incompatible with observation.

"...I always thought that the oldest, outermost stars in the galaxy would be moving away from the 'centre' faster than those closer to it because the outermost rim is simply less dense and therefore the original energy imparted by the 'Big Bang' isn't competing against so much gravity as it would be in a denser,…

I've been watching the E-Space DVD set, because Full Circle really freaked me out as a kid. Warrior's Gate is next, which I haven't seen since it first aired... I wonder how well it will stand up!

You know, I can't think of a name for those.

From my limited understanding there are a great many advantages to thorium reactors and the fact we don't have more of them is largely due to the historical requirement for generating fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

I too am absolutely baffled by the comment about dark matter. The only connection made to dark matter seems to be a casual interview answer given by one of the researchers:

2010's got its moments - but it's obviously not even in the same league as 2001! It's a lesser film in every way, but still enjoyable enough for what it is.