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Today's Topics:
1. Our Universe Is Getting ?Colder, Deader,? Astronomers Say
(Stephen Loosley)
2. Choice Awards: 2025's Shonky Awards go to... (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:16:35 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Our Universe Is Getting ?Colder, Deader,? Astronomers
Say
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Our Universe Is Getting ?Colder, Deader,? Astronomers Say
New evidence suggests our universe has long "passed its prime."
By Gayoung Lee Published November 10, 2025
https://gizmodo.com/our-universe-is-getting-colder-deader-astronomers-say-2000683693
Comments (15)
Earlier this year, Euclid?a European telescope tasked to create the largest 3D
map of the universe?sent back troves of cosmic data from deep space.
Astronomers have since been hard at work picking through the stars, with one
team arriving at a surprising conclusion about the fate of the universe.
By studying both Euclid?s optical measurements and far-infrared data from the
now-concluded Herschel mission, a team of 175 astronomers constructed the most
detailed heat map of the universe. The temperature map strongly suggests that
star formation in our universe has already passed its peak rates and that
galaxies have begun to cool down. In short, our universe is ?already past its
prime,? the researchers noted in a statement.
?The Universe will just get colder and deader from now on,? added Douglas
Scott, study author and a cosmologist at the University of British Columbia in
Canada, in the statement. The paper describing the results has been submitted
for publication to Astronomy & Astrophysics and is currently available as a
preprint on arXiv.
As the cosmic dust settles
For the analysis, the researchers studied heat emission data from 2.6 million
galaxies captured by Euclid. Specifically, they used a stacking method to trace
the evolution of stardust and relevant heat signals for the past 10 billion
light-years of the universe?s history. Then, they made the appropriate
adjustments to account for elements such as redshift, or shifts in the
wavelengths of a galaxy as it moves away from us.
Average dust temperatures had not changed that much from around 35 Kelvin, or
-396 degrees Fahrenheit (-238 degrees Celsius), in the universe?s early days,
according to the study. In 10 billion years, dust temperatures fell a mere 10
Kelvin, so about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
This is significant because the temperature of galactic dust is strongly linked
to the rate of star formation, the researchers noted in the release. Simply
put, hotter galaxies form more stars, whereas cooler galaxies form fewer stars.
The small yet clear downward trends in galactic dust loads and temperatures
imply that our universe is gradually becoming populated with the latter,
meaning that ?we?re past the epoch of maximum star formation,? Scott explained.
A distant future
All that said, if anything is to be felt on Earth as a result of this gradual
cooling, it won?t happen for at least tens of billions of years. Still, the new
findings are impressive in that the astronomers leveraged a huge dataset to
draw insightful conclusions about galaxies, which are considered the building
blocks of the cosmos.
?In the past, researchers wouldn?t have a large enough sample or might be
missing key populations of cold or hot galaxies,? said Ryley Hill, an
astrophysicist at the University of British Columbia who led the research, in
the statement. ?Since Euclid is so comprehensive, you can really measure dust
temperatures in a way you can?t argue with.?
If the universe is indeed slowing down in terms of star formation, it opens up
a whole new set of questions for researchers to explore. What does this imply
about dark energy or dark matter? And because this is the first batch of Euclid
data, will the next rounds reveal something completely different? Will current
cosmological models continue to successfully defend their reliability?
None of these questions will be easy to answer. So it seems that, even if the
universe?s star formation is past its prime, humanity?s research has a long way
to go.
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:25:10 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Choice Awards: 2025's Shonky Awards go to...
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
https://www.choice.com.au/shonky-awards/hall-of-shame/shonkys-2025/2025-shonky-winners
Choice Awards: 2025's Shonky Awards go to...
Commonwealth Bank ? for making bank off Australia's poorest
Temu ? for being an unsafe haven for dodgy sales tactics and fast fashion
Energy retailers ? for pricing tactics designed to confuse
Handy Heater Turbo 800 ? for being a plug-in heater that doesn't plug in
HCF health fund ? for a price rise in disguise
Commonwealth Bank
We've been doing the Shonkys for 20 years, so it's only fitting that our old
buddies at CommBank return to the fold. All up, this is the fourth Shonky Award
for CommBank and it's a well-deserved one.
In July, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced
it had found many of the major banks had kept customers who were on Centrelink
incomes in fee-charging accounts for years, when they should have automatically
been transferred into low-fee or no-fee accounts.
A few weeks after refusing to pay $270 million in refunds, CommBank celebrated
a $10 billion dollar annual profit
Many of the banks called out by ASIC said they would engage in remuneration
efforts to refund the financially vulnerable customers who had collectively
been charged millions in unfair fees.
Australia's biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, was not among them.
"A few weeks after refusing to pay $270 million in refunds, CommBank celebrated
a $10 billion dollar annual profit. It is thumbing its nose at ASIC, and at its
low-income customers," says CHOICE head of policy Morgan Campbell.
Read more: 2025 Shonky Award for Commonwealth Bank
Temu
Temu's problems are many. Shoppers often wait weeks for deliveries, only to
receive products that don't match descriptions or photos. It uses manipulative
"gamified" tactics and countdown timers to pressure people into buying. It's
also a major contributor to fast fashion ? cheaply made, short-lived clothing
that quickly ends up in landfill.
But what we think is especially shonky about the online retail platform is its
failure to take adequate responsibility for product safety.
In late 2024, we anonymously bought 15 coin- and button battery-operated
products from Temu at random ? products like children's watches and electronic
toys. Each and every one failed at least one safety requirement under the
Australian button battery regulations. Regulations that are designed to protect
children's lives. Temu has since removed the offending items from the store.
Waiting until consumer advocates call you out ? or worse, someone becomes
grievously injured ? before acting on safety is simply unacceptable
Earlier that year in Queensland, eight-year-old Daniella Jacobs-Herd suffered
burns to 13% of her body when sparks from a firepit ignited her
glow-in-the-dark unicorn hoodie ? a hoodie bought from Temu and lacking the
fire warning label required under Australian law.
Yes, we have found unsafe products on plenty of other online marketplaces. But
unlike Amazon Australia, eBay Australia and AliExpress, Temu still refuses to
sign up to the ACCC's voluntary Product Safety Pledge, which commits online
marketplaces to certain product safety-related responsibilities. (Since
publication, Temu has reached out to CHOICE to confirm it is "currently in
discussions with the ACCC about becoming a signatory to the Online Product
Safety Pledge.")
Waiting until consumer advocates call you out ? or worse, someone becomes
grievously injured ? before acting on safety is simply unacceptable, and
extremely shonky indeed.
Read more: 2025 Shonky Award for Temu
Handy Heater Turbo 800
Why is this heater shonky? First off, it's a plug-in heater that doesn't plug
in. That's strike one. You need to use an Australian power outlet adaptor just
to get it to work. That goes against Australian standards.
To overcome this issue the Handy Heater came packed with a travel adaptor, but
that also wasn't compliant. This heater ain't so handy is it?
Also, it fails at its key task: it doesn't put out anywhere near as much heat
as its advertising claims.
>From top to bottom, the Handy Heater Turbo 800 is a shonkily made product that
>no-one should consider buying
"We strongly advise against buying any of these mini heaters that plug into the
wall," says CHOICE heating expert Chris Barnes. "Although they may seem like a
cheap and convenient option for heating, they carry serious risk of fire or
electrical fault."
"Despite the advertising claims made about this type of heater, we found the
Handy Heater Turbo 800 is extremely weak and would be pretty useless for
heating any room."
>From top to bottom, the Handy Heater Turbo 800 is a shonkily made product that
>no-one should consider buying.
Read more: 2025 Shonky Award for the Handy Heater Turbo 800
Energy retailers
When 84% of households are worried about paying their energy bills, and one in
five Australians are vulnerable to some form of energy hardship, you'd think
the energy retailers would be making an effort to point their customers towards
the cheaper plans.
But instead, the retailers are making it difficult for consumers to even figure
out what the best deal is.
Exhibit A: the 'same name messaging' strategy. Energy retailers roll out new
cheaper plans with the exact same name as existing ones.
Such a customer-friendly approach seems out of character for this industry
Why don't customers switch to the new plan with the same name? Logically
enough, they think they're already on that plan.
We've estimated that energy customers as a whole could have saved around $65
million a year if retailers had made it clear that the new plan with the same
name was cheaper than the existing one. But such a customer-friendly approach
seems out of character for this industry.
Read more: 2025 Shonky Award for energy retailers
HCF health fund
At CHOICE we call it "insurance phoenixing". And HCF is the worst offender.
Each year, health insurers must seek government approval to increase premiums.
But this only applies to existing policies, not new policies. So what are
insurance companies doing? They're closing existing policies, creating "new"
policies that are essentially the same product with a new name, and charging
whatever increase they like.
Over the past five years, the government-approved increase on health insurance
premiums was 16%. HCF's increase? 97%
For example, this year, on the exact same day as the Minister for Health Mark
Butler announced a 3.73% average annual increase to health insurance premiums,
HCF closed its Premium Gold policy to new members and released an almost
identical policy called 'Optimal Gold'.
With a 34.6% increase in price.
Multiple insurance companies are doing this, but HCF is amongst the worst. Over
the past five years, the government-approved increase on health insurance
premiums was 16%. HCF's increase? 97%.
Very shonky indeed. We believe this needs to stop.
Read more: 2025 Shonky Award for HCF
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