Wow, Steve. You know stuff! I have lots of homework, looking into the various theories: pops, space filaments, and space bubbles at the end of long ropes. I intend to spend quite a bit of time with your answer, but first...

Please everyone, bear with me while I get the following concept off my chest. What if the universe started out at its present size, absolutely filled solid with matter. Crazy? Well, it gets worse. The big bang (fizzle?) occurs, and matter starts to decay; to shrink. No expansion. The shrinking, decaying matter clumps and swirls around together, making slowly decaying galaxies all across the stable-sized universe as time passes.

From our perspective, or at least my pathetic perspective since I don't have any idea what I am talking about, the grid of space appears to be expanding. Our frame of reference seems stable, so we assume that it is space that is doing the changing. Matter would not have to decay (shrink) perceptably to make a HUGE megaparsec of space seem only 73.5 km/sec bigger. Maybe we wouldn't even notice since everything made of matter which we perceive shrinks too, except space!

This helps me with two troubling concepts in particular. Pamela, in the inflation show, was talking about the peculiar homogeneity (sp?) of space in all directions. This would not be as irksome if everything was already spread out across the stable sized universe. It is just the spaces between things that appear bigger. With any luck, the model also relieves us of Dark Energy. Again, with everything already out there, we don't need this mysterious (to me) force shoving it all apart.

I am trying to figure dark matter into my ridiculous unified theory, but I haven't.

Whew, thanks for listenting to this nonsense. Please, no one needs to waste time explaining all the ways this is a ridiculous concept. I know, surely it is like some kid asking why their dog can't be president of General Motors.

Out to Pamela and Fraser (I got the spelling right this time), thanks for the show. It even appeals to someone who knows as little as I do.