Free Republic

My history with bubble universes began in 1968 when I met Robert Kirshner while we were both undergraduates at Harvard in Massachusetts. He was a lively, funny, interesting fellow. We met up again a few years later, when he was a graduate student at Caltech in California and I was a new postdoc there. At Caltech, he had a piece of good luck that changed the direction of his career and, ultimately, helped reshape modern cosmology. While he was at Caltech, a bright supernova (an exploding star ending its life) became visible, and Kirshner was able to study it using...

My history with bubble universes began in 1968 when I met Robert Kirshner while we were both undergraduates at Harvard in Massachusetts. He was a lively, funny, interesting fellow. We met up again a few years later, when he was a graduate student at Caltech in California and I was a new postdoc there. At Caltech, he had a piece of good luck that changed the direction of his career and, ultimately, helped reshape modern cosmology.While he was at Caltech, a bright supernova (an exploding star ending its life) became visible, and Kirshner was able to study it using the...

<p>When the state's budget problems fully blossomed last year, Gov. Gray Davis and his minions clearly sought to minimize the situation.</p> <p>It was, after all, a year in which Davis would be seeking re-election, and he didn't want to impose large new tax burdens or deeply slash state spending, either of which could alienate significant voter blocs. The 2002-03 budget that was finally enacted in September was "balanced" largely with borrowed money, inflated revenue estimates and bookkeeping tricks.</p>