This blog wishes you a very Merry Christmas, if...

You would not really expect me to wish Merry Christmas à tout le monde, right ? I hate nobody, but the fact you visit my site on December 24th does not make you eligible to have my sympathy, by itself. There are a few -very few- things that I attach as a condition for my best wishes.

So, Merry Christmas to you, and your loved ones,

• if you live in the knowledge that you are a guest on this planet, and make an effort to keep it good for those who will one day take your place in it;
• if you hate nobody, and reject violence and war as means of resolution of controversies;

It is over, but it was frantic. Luca, the Ph.D. student who works with me at the analysis of CMS data (the one which has brought us to the approval of a first signal of the phi meson) summarized it best on Tuesday evening, at the party thrown by our big boss Dario. Holding a glass of good wine in his right hand, and a platter of assorted appetizers in the other, he said: "It is a delirium to work with you: your activity profile is a succession of Dirac deltas".

Just a short note, a record to be precise. Last night the sea water level rose to +1.35 meters above average in the Venice lagoon, in a quite uncharacteristic quarter-moon surge triggered by low pressure conditions on the Adriatic sea. Tonight and tomorrow night two more surges of the same entity are predicted, as shown in the following graph.


The blue line shows the predicted tide, while the red line shows the astronomical tide (the one which would occur under average atmospheric conditions). The surplus of almost one meter of water is due to exceptional conditions.