CCC2, Day 1

The first day of the Crisis in Cosmology Conference proved to be very interesting. The sessions covered several topics with which I was not very familiar. This has given me a load of observational data that I need to assimilate into my cosmological model.  A number of speakers covered the background to some of the topics that I needed to include in my session, which is good as I have been able to remove these from my presentation, giving me more time to devote to the key concepts.  

The other delegates fall into two main categories: professional physicists working at universities, who have an unconventional outlook on cosmology, and independent researchers such as myself, many of whom are either retired or working in engineering related jobs.  I have to say that I have a lot more time for the professional physicists than for the part-timers, whose ideas are often fairly flaky.  

Talking of flaky, I have been plagued by one guy (there as a non-participant observer) who turned out to be a UFO nutter, and ardent conspiracy theorist who would have been very at home in the X-files.  

My list of useful contacts has expanded yet further, and I have already received an invitation to talk at another theoretical physics conference to be held in Australia later next year.