Google Science Club: The Montgolfiere May Rise
May 3, 2017
The French have some nifty words for balloons. There is the mundane ballon. I much prefer dirigible. But the gem is gonfler or “to inflate.” This wonderful word has a number of variants; for example, se gonfler (to inflate oneself) and gonflage (inflating). I am buoyed by vocabulary.
These words floated through my mind when I read “Sergey Brin’s Secret Zeppelin.” The main idea is that Mr. Brin may be pumping up a big floating balloon. I noted this passage:
Dirigibles became a go-to metaphor for futurism, occupying a space in the popular imagination that would eventually make way for flying cars, jet packs, space elevators, and driverless vehicles. In the late 19th century, zeppelins appeared in newspaper headlines and artists’ renderings of the future like dreamy industrial clouds.
Steam punk? Hot air punk? An aerial sprite?
I also highlighted this altocumulitic passage:
Which brings us back to Brin and his secret zeppelin, apparently taking form somewhere in the shade of a massive hangar under the California sky. The mystery of Brin’s motivations only highlights the parallel to the golden era of dirigibles, when the intrepidity of the aeronaut was seen as equal parts heroic and insane. Their balloons may have been mere scientific toys. Perhaps that’s all Brin is after. Either way, the promise of what the airship might have become has kept generations of great minds transfixed by the skies.
If the Googler floats a dirigible, I wonder if an idea emerging from a bistro on La rue des Écoles would trail this banner, “Une idée se gonfle.” Does this mean AdWords?
Oh, how is that solving death work coming along?
Rising above the clouds?
Stephen E Arnold, May 3, 2017
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2 Responses to “Google Science Club: The Montgolfiere May Rise”
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It does seem fairly common that whey you buy something using a credit card and at a distance, e.g. by phone or on the web, and then you call to physically collect the item, they want you to produce the same card. This seems, in my experience, to be pretty much standard practice for theatres, railway station ticket machines, and airlines, and no doubt many other traders. It seems fairly reasonable. If you don’t have the card, or it has been replaced by a new one, they need a backup procedure of some sort. This is often the case when buying train or airline tickets months in advance.The airlines commonly ask for your passport – which for in this case you tend to have with you. Shops like John Lewis also need a backup procedure when the card used to purchase the goods cannot be shown. Asking for photo-id seems to me to be not unreasonable, but of course many of use don’t carry any with us normally (I too have an old-style driving licence without my picture on it). That’s the real criticism of John Lewis (and not alerting you to the need for some photo-id when they issued the receipt).
nice