The Serpent Tamer

– by Horatio Algeranon

The Uncertainty Monster

Has been tamed

By the one

Who’s aptly named

Tamino tames

The data snakes

And even more

Ferocious fakes

"Tamino plays his magic flute in hopes of summoning Pamina and Papageno. The tones summon a group of magically tamed beasts, which listen in rapture to Tamino's music" -- from wikipedia article on Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute"

Cause for pause?

-- by Horatio Algeranon

The "warming pause"

Is without cause

But I regress

Instead of guess

At zany "theories"

That break known laws.

A new paper by Foster and Rahmstorf (which uses "multiple regression" to estimate and "subtract out" short term variations in the temperature signal due to el Nino, volcanic eruptions and solar output changes)  indicates that the claim of a "pause" in warming over the past decade is simply not supported by the temperature evidence (not to mention the minor fact that ithe claim has no basis in physics, given that the atmospheric CO2 level has continued upward, which scientists know induces warming)

Foster and Rahmstorf

"With the bulk of the fluctuations removed, the continued course of warming over the entire time span (including the last decade) is undeniable." (from "The Real Global Warming Signal" )

Posterity's Promises

-- by Horatio Algeranon

Why should I

Give to Posterity?

What has she

Ever done for me?

Posterity is always

Procrastinating

Says "Tomorrow"

She'll be waiting

To give me riches

And her charms

Keep me from

The Future's harms

But I'm quite sure

She won't deliver

Never does

So don't believe her.

 
 
H/T Sir Boyled Roche, Groucho Marx,  Winston Churchill or whoever it was that said "Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?"