Not so hot, it seems

Scientists, we're told here, "aren't quite understanding" what their robots are telling them about ocean temperatures. That's a euphemism for the fact that what the robots are saying is diametrically opposite to what they had expected. In normal circumstances, this would be interesting, possibly of such weight as to warrant a raised eyebrow and a murmured "Fascinating." After all, the idea was that the robots would find a bubbling, Vulcan-like undersea world of Julia Child, full of pre-sauteed fish and red lobster in no need of boiling. But no, the information that came back was "puzzling." It's not puzzling. It's contradictory and, worse, heresy. There's something touching about noting that robots, unfeeling machines that they are, telling us that the Earth isn't heating according to the anti-gospel of Al Gore. And that scientists are puzzled. Maybe they should get out more on the Web. They could find snippets such as this. It could be that the globe's climate shifts are related to cyclical changes in the sun, an obvious area of inquiry that "puzzled" scientists can't be bothered to study. It could be that Shakespeare had it almost right: The fault, dear Al, lies not in our stars but in our star ..."