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Kea hereby declares Arcadian Pseudofunctor closed.

Conferences Coming

Amongst the many interesting, upcoming conferences that I am unable to attend is Cosgrav 12: International Conference on Modern Perspectives of Cosmology and Gravitation. Oh, look. The invited speakers all seem to be men, yet again. Perhaps I won't be missing much.

Further away, there is Moriond in March, and a workshop on Scattering Amplitudes at Cambridge in April. Anastasia Volovich is of course the token woman there, and participation is by invitation only. Meanwhile, the icHEP12 website has a cute disclaimer:

In particular, no bona fide scientist will be excluded from participation on the grounds of national origin, nationality, or political considerations unrelated to science.

Yes, we need that qualification there, don't we?

Tevatron Strikes Back

A Fairy Update! A new CDF analysis of $10$ inverse femtobarns in the $\gamma \gamma$ channel. No fairies.

Does that $125$ GeV Higgs look a little more uncertain now? Not really, since this is at ten times the SM $\sigma$. Only CMS and ATLAS can tell us the answer.

Color Z News

As discussed a few years ago around the physics blogosphere, one possibility for new physics at the LHC was a $720$ GeV state that had something to do with $Z'$ bosons. Evidence for $Z'$ type anomalies, of the non standard kind, has grown in recent years. Now we hear that the only possible new physics seen by CMS is in fact a three event HSCP signal somewhere near $720$ GeV.

Not much to speak of, three events, but definitely something to ask ATLAS about.

Quote of the Month

The truth is that sustainable development is fundamentally a question of people’s opportunities to influence their future, claim their rights and voice their concerns. Democratic governance and full respect for human rights are key prerequisites for empowering people to make sustainable choices. The peoples of the world will simply not tolerate continued environmental devastation or the persistent inequality which offends deeply held universal principles of social justice. Citizens will no longer accept governments and corporations breaching their compact with them as custodians of a sustainable future for all.

From the new UN report: Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing

Quote of the Week

I'm vehemently against copyright infringement: the files I lost were created & owned by me for my job.

One of 150 million legitimate Megaupload users, whose data has been stolen and censored by the US government.

Dark Matters

Recent dark musings now summarised on vixra.