inflation, smackdown

I spent the day at CITA today. The morning was spent with talks on inflation, and they nearly convinced me that it might make some testable predictions! In the afternoon, Rocky Kolb (Chicago) and Simon White (MPA) faced off in the Dark Energy Smackdown. In the end there was no smacking, because they agreed. But I think they were being too conciliatory: Although we all agree that both large dark energy projects and chaotic astronomy are good parts of our future, I do think there are deep disagreements about how to balance these and how to protect ourselves from the secretive culture of high-energy experiment.