An interesting cosmology paper

"Mapping extreme-scale alignments of quasar polarization
vectors."

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/p.../0507274v1.pdf

I'm less inclined to think that these guys have found cosmic strings
than that they've found an initial polarization of matter from the big
bang.

If there is such a thing as cosmic strings, why don't we have any
nearby? Why are they all way out at the edge of the universe, where
we can't get a good look at them?