By contrast, Mr Willetts describes the British policy in terms that capture the brutality of the natural world.

BBC: Can UK science navigate around the Valley of Death?

But even ambiguity doesn't quite capture the Clinton policy, which is, even more than ambiguous, uncertain and unpredictable.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Chris Cox 1997 Keeper of the Flame remarks

Policy entrepreneurs piggyback on zombies to capture attention, but they too often overlook a key element of zombie stories: They are relentlessly, depressingly apocalyptic.

WSJ: Why Zombies Are Everywhere

Last fall, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland tried to capture the impact of this policy uncertainty.

FORBES: Starbucks, the Jobs Crisis, and the Limits of Corporate Benevolence

So what does vaporware have to do with Carbon Capture and Storage, known by policy wonks as CCS?

FORBES: Is The Next Big Climate Change Solution Just Vaporware?

The concept, called carbon capture and sequestration, is discussed by policy-makers and emitters of large amounts of CO2 as a sure thing.

FORBES: Magazine Article

It's too soon to know what history will say is President Barack Obama's yet-to-emerge signature policy--windmills, electric cars or perhaps carbon cap and capture.

FORBES: The Efficacy Of Presidential Energy Policy

The Colombian leader urged Mr Calderon to adopt his policy of paying large rewards for information leading to the killing or capture of drugs traffickers.

BBC: Colombia hails Mexico's drug war

And value capture, an idea long en vogue with economists and policy wonks, is now starting to bleed slowly into City Halls, changing the way we pay for our cities.

FORBES: Value Capture and the Future of Financing Cities

But as with everything around energy policy, notably including the 'race' to win government support for carbon capture and storage, it's proceeding at snail's pace.

BBC: Energy: flicking the dimmer switch