My question above posted at the Physics StackExchange has received a fair degree of attention. So much so that it managed to find a migrant home at Luboš Motl's blog The Reference Frame as well ...
Meanwhile I spent most of today writing a TV review of 'Outcasts' (a flop on the BBC) and a book review of Ben Bova's indifferent 'Leviathans of Jupiter' for sciencefiction.com.
Update: these have now been sent to the website for future publication.
