are you in the dark? if so, like my good self

you've probably wondered what else is "out there"
you know, in those idle moments when you are watching the pot and waiting for it to boil. . . last night I saw a programme on the televisual box which explained many questions that I frequently ponder about (especially in between Vicus' pieces on the LHC); basically the story goes like this:
.

a while ago there was a big bang

and now things aren't turning out quite as some scientificky people predicted so some other scientificky people have filled the gap with stuff called "dark matter", dark energy" and "dark flow"

despite once in my life being on first name terms with the lovely Patrick Moore, having a telescope in the family thru which I've seen some of the wonders of our solar system, achieving A grades in 'O'-level maths and chemistry, I never studied astronomy or physics. . . but for the slightly more educated amongst you, I'm fairly sure that the following equations will help explain things:

(and if that's not clear the following note may help:
"when k = 0, this can be extended to k ≠ 0,
where r is one of the radial coordinates,
but this is rare")
.
(did that shed some light on the matter!
or, like me, are you still in the dark?)
..

anyhoo, what they've decided (and are now trying to prove) is that inbetween everything we can see and detect is this dark stuff which we can't see or detect and probably won't be able to - but it has to be there, because if it's not then everything we've known and thought that we understood until now is wrong

.

so, given that there's supposed to be a huge amount of this dark stuff out there, I started to ponder over it a little:
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I have recently purchased a bar of lovely smelling soap - my little bathroom is now filled with its scent - there were no smells in my bathroom before (you'll be pleased to know) but what I wondered was what was in the gaps before, where there was no fragrance - or, by bringing the soap into this space has something else been forced out? or is the scent mingling inbetween and amongst what was already there (but undetectable). . . now, having seen yesterday's programme I know that my bathroom is full of all sorts of other undetectable things and so perhaps I don't have to think about the soap smell any longer
.

extrapolate that, and you don't quite get to dark stuff, but we're on the right lines (or in the right space, anyhow)
.

and then I started thinking about the dark side in general, and looked into it (metaphorically, literally and figuratively speaking) (well, writing) and look what I found. . .
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all the marbles people have lost over the years! see if you can spot yours. . .

are they in here?

here? here? here? here? here? (actually, those can't be yours, because they are mine!
the ones I lost a couple of years ago. . .)

and while I was looking for the marbles, I also managed to find all the socks that go missing in the laundry. . .

and, given that I haven't had any breakfast yet this morning, I'm delighted to find something to nibble. . .

so, there we have it
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the dark side: really useful to have around!