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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I am feeling a sense of calm relief from the recent data. Some inflation models suggested the Big Rip could happen as soon as 22 billion years in the future. This has been bothering the hell outta me since the first time the theory was published:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The convincing Brout et.al. analysis has now suggested not only that the Big Rip is much farther away, it will not happen at all. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I will provide links when they appear in something other than the popular press. But I sure hope the Harvard team is right. I don’t want it all to end that way. The Big Rip is just too sad. Now… smart people say it isn’t coming that soon, if at all. Whew, such a relief.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>