Space News, Near and Far

Item: The people behind the X Prize (the prize for conducting two sucessful private passenger flights into space) are apparently making a major announcement next week. Looks like we might we see some serious competition soon.

http://www.space.com/news/xprize_announcement_040721.html

Item: After insisting for years that black holes do not ever let back into the universe any information about the matter and energy they swallow, Dr. Stephen Hawking has rethought his position and come up with a new theroy for the behavior of those cosmic mass consumers:

http://www.space.com/news/hawking_dublin_040721.html

Truth be told, I never quite understand what Dr. Hawking is saying, but I think his pursuit of knowledge, and his willingness to admit he was wrong, are both as noteworthy as his intellectual prowess.