Horava is a serious string theorist (if there is anything like that...) I like the last comment by Dvali: if the theory can be adjusted in such a way that it becomes indistinguishable from GR then it should be taken seriously. Gosh, am I glad to be among engineers now!!!
yeah an interesting theory, definitely worth following. But it is far from being mature, and a lot of work remains before saying that it is viable or not... I posted something on this some time ago (http://www.diigo.com/user/pacome/horava_theory) and proposed to do smthing on it in the idea storm (our new creative game...), which didn't have a lot of success...
I like also the idea of matrix gravity (see Matrix general relativity: a new look at old problems, Ivan G Avramidi, CQG 21, 103)
"In an effort to help solve the black hole information paradox that has immersed theoretical physics in an ocean of soul searching for the past two years, two researchers have thrown their hats into the ring with a novel solution: Lasers. Technically, we're not talking about the little flashy devices you use to keep your cat entertained, we're talking about the underlying physics that produces laser light and applying it to information that falls into a black hole. According to the researchers, who published a paper earlier this month to the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity (abstract), the secret to sidestepping the black hole information paradox (and, by extension, the 'firewall' hypothesis that was recently argued against by Stephen Hawking) lies in stimulated emission of radiation (the underlying physics that generates laser light) at the event horizon that is distinct from Hawking radiation, but preserves information as matter falls into a black hole."
At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December, he reported an average figure that was between 0.005 and 0.008 per cent greater than the value for Earth's mass established by the International Astronomical Union. A disc of dark matter around the equator 191 kilometres thick and 70,000 km across can explain this, he says. Harris has yet to account for perturbations to the satellites' orbits due to relativity, and the gravitational pull of the sun and moon.
Maybe relativistic GPS could improve this even further? As a side note however, the Juno spacecraft flyby showed an gravity acceleration which matched the calculations, casting doubts on the earlier calculations.
It turns out that falling along any straight line through the Earth takes 42 minutes (Gravity train). I think this has not been opted as an explanation of Douglas Adams' 42 but this fact is definitely quite beautiful.
The effect of gravity on virtual electron-positron pairs as they propagate through space could lead to a violation of Einstein's equivalence principle, according to calculations by James Franson at the University of Maryland. While the effect would be too tiny to be measured directly using current experimental techniques, it could explain a puzzling anomaly observed during the famous SN1987 supernova of 1987.
From the section Science & Environment Scientists are claiming a stunning discovery in their quest to fully understand gravity. They have observed the warping of space-time generated by the collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from Earth.
First really strong evidence that the vestibular system affects sleep architecture, sleep stability and sleep spindles. If there is an effect due to a changing acceleration there might also be an effect of no gravity vector. We'll find out when I get the space shuttle data.