This article quickly goes over my head but the story suggests that a 5d black hole would be quite comfy.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18925381.200-life-inside-a-black-hole.html

Someday someone is going to have to explain to me why physics still maintains matter as something distinct from energy.

Sometimes, the things I read that physicists come up with seem like bandaids on theories to make them work that are on top of bandaids to theories.

This sounds a lot like the complex explanations given to explain why some of the stars rotated backwards back when we believed they were all on crystal spheres.

On an interesting note, this comes as the episode of Dr. Who showing in the states involves a massive black hole (and the devil, but hey).

Someday someone is going to have to explain to me why physics still maintains matter as something distinct from energy.
That's easy, physics doesn't maintain that. Matter and light are different states of the same thing. This is essentially what E = mc2 is all about.

Then I'm completely lost how we have a 5th dimension of electromagnetic energy according to that article...

I thought it was strange to have a long article about a 5th dimension without actually telling us what that dimension is.

I thought it was strange to have a long article about a 5th dimension without actually telling us what that dimension is.
lol -- It seems to be the deus ex machina of scientific theories. Can't make the math work? Just add another dimension and adjust the numbers accordingly.