And while we're sticking up links to great things to read...

...this is making the blog today, too. Totally OT and about the current thinking of physicists on how the universe is. Longform and with video, too.

UPDATE: This received from reader 'JMD', who seems to have enjoyed the piece as much as your humble scribe:

energy does in fact come from "nothing"

 

But when you calculate how much high tech explosives these guys would have to have at their disposal to start the universe formation, they would need 10⁸⁰ tons of high tech explosives, compressed to a ball smaller than 1 centimeter, and ignite all of its parts exactly at the same time with precision better than 1 in 10,000. 

But to say it with the accent of The Count off seasame street just made my year. Wonderrrful. Ha Ha ha ha ha. (thunder and lightning, bats fly)