Observatory Hill

Sydney Observatory was established in 1858 and is the oldest observatory in Australia. The night sky here is beautiful, starting with the Southern Cross and a lovely view of the Milky Way. We also have fine views of nearby stars like Sirius and Alpha Centauri. Australia still has that frontier spirit of unlimited horizons. Especially when talking with Antarctic scientists, there is a feeling of teamwork toward common goals. Women in science are most welcome here. By the way, we have a whole group of astronomers working on a changing speed of light.

I have added a further comment on Cosmic Variance:
One could question the wisdom of calling something a "cosmic jerk," naming a "dark energy" after what Sith Lords peddled, or christening "Concordance" cosmology after a plane that crashed and doesn't fly anymore.

However, it is time to question the "independently supported" mantra. Evidence of cosmic acceleration was published simultaneously by two groups in 1998. One group was headed by Saul Perlmutter at LBL. The other lead author was Adam Riess of Berkeley, whose office was only 500 m from Perlmutter's. Both groups looked at the same phenomenon, redshifts of Type Ia supernovae. The independence was that Perlmutter was head of one group and Riess part of another.

Redshifts are the only evidence of cosmic acceleration. The CMB says nothing about acceleration. In fact, the CMB is good evidence that c has changed. Average temperature is the same over large parts of the sky, indicating that large regions were in causal contact. Even at the time of recombination 300,000 years after the Big Bang, c was much greater.

Additional evidence comes from Active Galactic Nuclei. These massive primordial Black Holes are observed to have formed shortly after the Big Bang. This could only occur if the horizon distance determined by c was much greater. There is even more precise evidence from a nearby star.

If one knows how to read a Graph, it can be seen that GM=tc^3 precisely predicts redshifts of Type Ia supernovae, even in the transitional "jerk" period. All this has been shown without inferring repulsive "dark" energies.

On the lighter side, in his comment on Not Even Wrong, Chris offers some hilarious career advice for a woman. He was also nice enough to include a trackback, so you can quickly return here. Not to worry, Chris, I have already met Stephen H. Your comments on Woit's post have been cut off, so you are welcome to leave them here.