[Southack]

"Umm, yeah, actually it does do all that. In fact, it has basically done so since the 1917 de Sitter cosmological model which seems increasingly to be on the mark, and which was extrapolated on purely mathematic grounds directly out of Einstein's General Relativity. Why is it that you think that just because you're ignorant about something that everyone is ignorant about something?"

No, AntiGuv, the de sitter model proposes universal expansion at exponential rates *forever* (remedial tour here: http://www.site.uottawa.ca:4321/astronomy/index.html#deSittermodel). Didn't happen.

[AntiGuv]

Well, I don't really see much point in debating what the de Sitter model did or didn't say. So, here are the answers to your questions:

(a) gravity
(b) dark energy
(c) they weren't

I hope you're happy now.

[AntiGuv]

BTW, here's a book I'd recommend if you're actually interested in something more than being an idle contrarian - Hyperspace : A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension.