What is w allowed to be?
The enigmatic title isn't anything I can explain right now; it is the title of the talk I'm supposed to give at the conference in Tuscon at which I just arrived. A collection of cosmologists at a golf resort in the desert; who thinks of these things? The talk is tomorrow morning, and it's not written yet, so no substantive posting today.
Instead, read
Michael Bérubé's ideas about conferences. Spit-takes and electric shocks are involved, so you won't be wasting your time.