How did clouds get their names?

Look at the picture - How are the names for the different cloud forms related to one another?

The study of clouds has always been a daydreamer’s science, aptly founded by a thoughtful young man whose favorite activity was staring out of the window at the sky. Richard Hamblyn tells the history of Luke Howard, the man who classified the clouds and forever changed humanity’s understanding of these changeable, mysterious objects.

The Naming of Clouds

On a cold December evening in 1802, a nervous young man named Luke Howard stood before the assembled members of a London science club about to give a lecture that would change his life and go on to change humanity's understanding of the skies.

Luke Howard was a pharmacist by profession, but he was a meteorologist by inclination, having been obsessed by clouds and weather since childhood. As a school boy, he spent hours staring out of the classroom window, gazing at the passing clouds. Like everyone else at the time, he had no idea how clouds formed, or how they stayed aloft. But he enjoyed observing their endless transformations.

By his own admission, Luke paid little attention to his lessons, but fortunately for the future of meteorology, he managed to pick up a good knowledge of Latin.

Compared to the other natural sciences, meteorology, the study of weather, was a late developer, mainly because weather is elusive. You can't snap off a piece of rainbow or a section of cloud for convenient study. You can, of course, collect rain water in calibrated containers, but all you really end up with are buckets of water.

Understanding clouds required a different approach, which is where Luke Howard's idea came in. His simple insight based on years of observation was that clouds have many individual shapes but they have few basic forms. In fact, all clouds belong to one of three principal types to which Howard gave the names: cirrus, Latin for tendril or hair; cumulus, heap or pile; and stratus, layer or sheet.

But that wasn't the clever part. Clouds are constantly changing, merging, rising, falling, and spreading throughout the atmosphere, rarely maintaining the same shapes for more than a few minutes. Any successful naming system had to accommodate this essential instability, as Howard realized.

So, in addition to the three main cloud types, he introduced a series of intermediate and compound types as a way of including the regular transitions that occur among clouds. A high, wispy cirrus cloud that descended and spread into a sheet was named cirrostratus, while groups of fluffy cumulus clouds that joined up and spread were named stratocumulus.

Howard identified seven cloud types, but these have since been expanded to ten, cloud nine being the towering cumulonimbus thunder cloud, which is probably why being on cloud nine means to be on top of the world.

Howard's classification had an immediate international impact. The German poet and scientist J. W. von Goethe wrote a series of poems in praise of Howard's clouds, which ended with the memorable lines:

"As clouds ascend, are folded, scatter, fall,
Let the world think of thee who taught it all,"

while Percy Shelley also wrote a poem, "The Cloud," in which each of Howard's seven cloud types was characterized in turn.

But perhaps the most impressive response to the naming of clouds was by the painter John Constable, who spent two summers on Hampstead Heath painting clouds in the open air.

Once they had been named and classified, clouds became easier to understand as the visible signs of otherwise invisible atmospheric processes. Clouds write a kind of journal on the sky that allows us to understand the circulating patterns of weather and climate.

Perhaps the most important breakthrough in understanding clouds was realizing that they are subject to the same physical laws as everything else on Earth. Clouds, for example, do not float, but fall slowly under the influence of gravity. Some of them stay aloft due to upward convection from the sun-heated ground, but most are in a state of slow, balletic descent.

"Clouds are the patron goddesses of idle fellows," as the Greek dramatist Aristophanes wrote in 420 B.C., and nephology, the study of clouds, remains a daydreamer's science, aptly founded by a thoughtful young man whose favorite activity was staring out of the window at the sky.

The names of the clouds were derived from which language?

A Latin

B Greek

C French

D German

 

Luke Howard's profession was:

A Meteorologist

B Teacher

C Pharmacist

D Clergyman

 

The name 'cirrus' means:

A Heap or pile

B Layer or sheet

C Light or pale

D Tendril or hair

 

Which famous poet wrote a poem called 'The Cloud':

A William Wordsworth

B Lord Byron

C Percy Shelley

D Henry W. Longfellow

 

The study of clouds is known as:

A Meteorology

B Cloudology

C Nephology

D Geology 

Pre-learn the vocab:

24 terms

Watch:

How clouds got their names

Short radio clip on Shelley's The Cloud

shaken     rest        showers     hail     sun     shade     again     thunder     streams

 

I bring fresh 1______ for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the 2______;

I bear light 3______ for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are 4______ the dews that waken

The sweet buds every one,

When rocked to 5_____ on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the 6 ______.

I wield the flail of the lashing 7_____,

And whiten the green plains under,

And then 8______ I dissolve it in rain,

And laugh as I pass in 9______.

 

What or who is “I” in this poem?

 

What do these words mean?

Bear   noonday   dews    buds    wield    flail   lashing   

The Cloud

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

next verses...

...

I sift the snow on the mountains below,

And their great pines groan aghast;

And all the night 'tis my pillow white,

While I sleep in the arms of the blast.

Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,

Lightning my pilot sits;

In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,

It struggles and howls at fits;

Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,

This pilot is guiding me,

Lured by the love of the genii that move

In the depths of the purple sea;

Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,

Over the lakes and the plains,

Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,

The Spirit he loves remains;

And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,

Whilst he is dissolving in rains.

The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,

And his burning plumes outspread,

Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,

When the morning star shines dead;

As on the jag of a mountain crag,

Which an earthquake rocks and swings,

An eagle alit one moment may sit

In the light of its golden wings.

And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,

Its ardours of rest and of love,

And the crimson pall of eve may fall

From the depth of Heaven above,

With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest,

As still as a brooding dove.

That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,

Whom mortals call the Moon,

Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,

By the midnight breezes strewn;

And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,

Which only the angels hear,

May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,

The stars peep behind her and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,

Like a swarm of golden bees,

When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,

Till calm the rivers, lakes, and seas,

Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,

Are each paved with the moon and these.

I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,

And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;

The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,

When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.

From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,

Over a torrent sea,

Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,

The mountains its columns be.

The triumphal arch through which I march

With hurricane, fire, and snow,

When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,

Is the million-coloured bow;

The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,

While the moist Earth was laughing below.

I am the daughter of Earth and Water,

And the nursling of the Sky;

I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;

I change, but I cannot die.

For after the rain when with never a stain

The pavilion of Heaven is bare,

And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams

Build up the blue dome of air,

I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,

And out of the caverns of rain,

Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,

I arise and unbuild it again.

Cloudy with a chance of joy

Lead in

find shapes in these clouds. write your discoveries up on the board.

Write down six things you can see in the clouds in this image

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

Vocab and discussion:









think of five things that are wonderful but ephemeral
eg. waves















What is good for you soul? Think of one example for the following and write it on the board.
something to eat
something to read
something to listen to

something to look at
a place

Word - to make something legitimate







Think of 4 activities which legitimise doing nothing











Do you get hail where you live?







Do you sometimes ponder your mortality?








Back to board - describe the images you can see in the Rorschach

Write down some things you can see in this image: try to write in sentences.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Crazy


Lead in:
Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart!

1. According to Massimo, what's the most important thing to have in life?
2. What makes mistakes beautiful to Massimo?
3. What's the meaning of Massimo's story about the tart for you?
4. Where / what do you draw inspiration from?


You don't need to plan an exotic trip to find creative inspiration. Just look up, says Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society. As he shares charming photos of nature's finest aerial architecture, Pretor-Pinney calls for us all to take a step off the digital treadmill, lie back and admire the beauty in the sky above.

Watch:

Cloudy with a chance of joy





Transcript

Clouds. Have you ever noticed how much people moan about them? They get a bad rap. If you think about it, the English language has written into it negative associations towards the clouds. Someone who's down or depressed, they're under a cloud. And when there's bad news in store, there's a cloud on the horizon. I saw an article the other day. It was about problems with computer processing over the Internet. "A cloud over the cloud," was the headline. It seems like they're everyone's default doom-and-gloom metaphor. But I think they're beautiful, don't you? It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omnipresent, so, I don't know, commonplace, that people don't notice them. They don't notice the beauty, but they don't even notice the clouds unless they get in the way of the sun. And so people think of clouds as things that get in the way. They think of them as the annoying, frustrating obstructions, and then they rush off and do some blue-sky thinking.

But most people, when you stop to ask them, will admit to harboring a strange sort of fondness for clouds. It's like a nostalgic fondness, and they make them think of their youth. Who here can't remember thinking, well, looking and finding shapes in the clouds when they were kids? You know, when you were masters of daydreaming? Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, he described the clouds as the patron goddesses of idle fellows two and a half thousand years ago, and you can see what he means. It's just that these days, us adults seem reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence of just allowing our imaginations to drift along in the breeze, and I think that's a pity. I think we should perhaps do a bit more of it. I think we should be a bit more willing, perhaps, to look at the beautiful sight of the sunlight bursting out from behind the clouds and go, "Wait a minute, that's two cats dancing the salsa!" Or seeing the big, white, puffy one up there over the shopping center looks like the Abominable Snowman going to rob a bank. 

They're like nature's version of those inkblot images, you know, that shrinks used to show their patients in the '60s, and I think if you consider the shapes you see in the clouds, you'll save money on psychoanalysis bills. Let's say you're in love. All right? And you look up and what do you see? Right? Or maybe the opposite. You've just been dumped by your partner, and everywhere you look, it's kissing couples. Perhaps you're having a moment of existential angst. You know, you're thinking about your own mortality. And there, on the horizon, it's the Grim Reaper. Or maybe you see a topless sunbather. What would that mean? What would that mean? I have no idea.

But one thing I do know is this: The bad press that clouds get is totally unfair. I think we should stand up for them, which is why, a few years ago, I started the Cloud Appreciation Society. Tens of thousands of members now in almost 100 countries around the world. And all these photographs that I'm showing, they were sent in by members. And the society exists to remind people of this: Clouds are not something to moan about. Far from it. They are, in fact, the most diverse, evocative, poetic aspect of nature. I think, if you live with your head in the clouds every now and then, it helps you keep your feet on the ground.

And I want to show you why, with the help of some of my favorite types of clouds. Let's start with this one. It's the cirrus cloud, named after the Latin for a lock of hair. It's composed entirely of ice crystals cascading from the upper reaches of the troposphere, and as these ice crystals fall, they pass through different layers with different winds and they speed up and slow down, giving the cloud these brush-stroked appearances,these brush-stroke forms known as fall streaks. And these winds up there can be very, very fierce. They can be 200 miles an hour, 300 miles an hour. These clouds are bombing along, but from all the way down here, they appear to be moving gracefully, slowly, like most clouds. And so to tune into the clouds is to slow down, to calm down. It's like a bit of everyday meditation.

Those are common clouds. What about rarer ones, like the lenticularis, the UFO-shaped lenticularis cloud? These clouds form in the region of mountains.When the wind passes, rises to pass over the mountain, it can take on a wave-like path in the lee of the peak, with these clouds hovering at the crest of these invisible standing waves of air, these flying saucer-like forms, and some of the early black-and-white UFO photos are in fact lenticularis clouds. It's true. A little rarer are the fallstreak holes. All right? This is when a layer is made up of very, very cold water droplets, and in one region they start to freeze, and this freezing sets off a chain reaction which spreads outwards with the ice crystals cascading and falling down below, giving the appearance of jellyfish tendrils down below. Rarer still, the Kelvin–Helmholtz cloud. Not a very snappy name. Needs a rebrand. This looks like a series of breaking waves, and it's caused by shearing winds -- the wind above the cloud layer and below the cloud layer differ significantly, and in the middle, in between, you get this undulating of the air, and if the difference in those speeds is just right, the tops of the undulations curl over in these beautiful breaking wave-like vortices. All right. Those are rarer clouds than the cirrus, but they're not that rare. If you look up, and you pay attention to the sky, you'll see them sooner or later, maybe not quite as dramatic as these, but you'll see them. And you'll see them around where you live. Clouds are the most egalitarian of nature's displays, because we all have a good, fantastic view of the sky. And these clouds, these rarer clouds, remind us that the exotic can be found in the everyday.

Nothing is more nourishing, more stimulating to an active, inquiring mind than being surprised, being amazed. It's why we're all here at TED, right? But you don't need to rush off away from the familiar, across the world to be surprised. You just need to step outside, pay attention to what's so commonplace, so everyday, so mundane that everybody else misses it. One cloud that people rarely miss is this one: the cumulonimbus storm cloud.It's what's produces thunder and lightning and hail. These clouds spread out at the top in this enormous anvil fashion stretching 10 miles up into the atmosphere. They are an expression of the majestic architecture of our atmosphere. But from down below, they are the embodiment of the powerful, elemental force and power that drives our atmosphere. To be there is to be connected in the driving rain and the hail, to feel connected to our atmosphere. It's to be reminded that we are creatures that inhabit this ocean of air. We don't live beneath the sky. We live within it.

And that connection, that visceral connection to our atmosphere feels to me like an antidote. It's an antidote to the growing tendency we have to feel that we can really ever experience life by watching it on a computer screen, you know, when we're in a wi-fi zone. But the one cloud that best expresses why cloudspotting is more valuable today than ever is this one, the cumulus cloud. Right? It forms on a sunny day. If you close your eyes and think of a cloud, it's probably one of these that comes to mind. All those cloud shapes at the beginning, those were cumulus clouds. The sharp, crisp outlines of this formation make it the best one for finding shapes in. And it reminds us of the aimless nature of cloudspotting, what an aimless activity it is. You're not going to change the world by lying on your back and gazing up at the sky, are you? It's pointless. It's a pointless activity, which is precisely why it's so important.

The digital world conspires to make us feel eternally busy, perpetually busy. You know, when you're not dealing with the traditional pressures of earning a living and putting food on the table, raising a family, writing thank you letters, you have to now contend with answering a mountain of unanswered emails, updating a Facebook page, feeding your Twitter feed.And cloudspotting legitimizes doing nothing. And sometimes we need — sometimes we need excuses to do nothing. We need to be reminded by these patron goddesses of idle fellows that slowing down and being in the present, not thinking about what you've got to do and what you should have done, but just being here, letting your imagination lift from the everyday concerns down here and just being in the present, it's good for you, and it's good for the way you feel. It's good for your ideas. It's good for your creativity. It's good for your soul.

So keep looking up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds. Thank you very much.

Shorter version

Clouds. Have you ever noticed how much people moan about them? They get a bad rap. If you think about it, the English language has written into it negative associations towards the clouds. Someone who's down or depressed, they're under a cloud. And when there's bad news in store, there's a cloud on the horizon. I saw an article the other day. It was about problems with computer processing over the Internet. "A cloud over the cloud," was the headline. It seems like they're everyone's default doom-and-gloom metaphor. But I think they're beautiful, don't you? It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omnipresent, so, I don't know, commonplace, that people don't notice them. They don't notice the beauty, but they don't even notice the clouds unless they get in the way of the sun. And so people think of clouds as things that get in the way. They think of them as the annoying, frustrating obstructions, and then they rush off and do some blue-sky thinking.

But most people, when you stop to ask them, will admit to harboring a strange sort of fondness for clouds. It's like a nostalgic fondness, and they make them think of their youth. Who here can't remember thinking, well, looking and finding shapes in the clouds when they were kids? You know, when you were masters of daydreaming? Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, he described the clouds as the patron goddesses of idle fellows two and a half thousand years ago, and you can see what he means. It's just that these days, us adults seem reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence of just allowing our imaginations to drift along in the breeze, and I think that's a pity. I think we should perhaps do a bit more of it. I think we should be a bit more willing, perhaps, to look at the beautiful sight of the sunlight bursting out from behind the clouds and go, "Wait a minute, that's two cats dancing the salsa!" Or seeing the big, white, puffy one up there over the shopping center looks like the Abominable Snowman going to rob a bank. 

They're like nature's version of those inkblot images, you know, that shrinks used to show their patients in the '60s, and I think if you consider the shapes you see in the clouds, you'll save money on psychoanalysis bills. Let's say you're in love. All right? And you look up and what do you see? Right? Or maybe the opposite. You've just been dumped by your partner, and everywhere you look, it's kissing couples. Perhaps you're having a moment of existential angst. You know, you're thinking about your own mortality. And there, on the horizon, it's the Grim Reaper. Or maybe you see a topless sunbather. What would that mean? What would that mean? I have no idea.

But one thing I do know is this: The bad press that clouds get is totally unfair. I think we should stand up for them, which is why, a few years ago, I started the Cloud Appreciation Society. Tens of thousands of members now in almost 100 countries around the world. And all these photographs that I'm showing, they were sent in by members. And the society exists to remind people of this: Clouds are not something to moan about. Far from it. They are, in fact, the most diverse, evocative, poetic aspect of nature. I think, if you live with your head in the clouds every now and then, it helps you keep your feet on the ground.

Nothing is more nourishing, more stimulating to an active, inquiring mind than being surprised, being amazed. It's why we're all here at TED, right? But you don't need to rush off away from the familiar, across the world to be surprised. You just need to step outside, pay attention to what's so commonplace, so everyday, so mundane that everybody else misses it.

And that connection, that visceral connection to our atmosphere feels to me like an antidote. It's an antidote to the growing tendency we have to feel that we can really ever experience life by watching it on a computer screen, you know, when we're in a wi-fi zone.

And it reminds us of the aimless nature of cloudspotting, what an aimless activity it is. You're not going to change the world by lying on your back and gazing up at the sky, are you? It's pointless. It's a pointless activity, which is precisely why it's so important.

The digital world conspires to make us feel eternally busy, perpetually busy. You know, when you're not dealing with the traditional pressures of earning a living and putting food on the table, raising a family, writing thank you letters, you have to now contend with answering a mountain of unanswered emails, updating a Facebook page, feeding your Twitter feed.And cloudspotting legitimizes doing nothing. And sometimes we need — sometimes we need excuses to do nothing. We need to be reminded by these patron goddesses of idle fellows that slowing down and being in the present, not thinking about what you've got to do and what you should have done, but just being here, letting your imagination lift from the everyday concerns down here and just being in the present, it's good for you, and it's good for the way you feel. It's good for your ideas. It's good for your creativity. It's good for your soul.  

Comprehension Questions (Gist)

1. What is the speaker's main message about clouds, and why does he think people should change the way they think about them?

2. Besides talking about clouds, what broader point is the speaker making about modern life and the importance of slowing down?

Comprehension Questions

1. Why did the speaker create the Cloud Appreciation Society?

A. To teach people how to predict the weather.
B. To encourage people to see clouds as beautiful and inspiring rather than annoying.
C. To help scientists study rare cloud formations.
D. To persuade people to spend more time outdoors for exercise.

 

2. According to the speaker, what do rare cloud formations remind us of?

A. Nature is becoming more dangerous.
B. Only experts can truly appreciate the sky.
C. The extraordinary can be found in ordinary, everyday life.
D. People should travel more to experience nature.

 

3. Why does the speaker describe cloudspotting as an important activity?

A. It helps people become better photographers.
B. It improves knowledge of weather forecasting.
C. It gives people permission to slow down, be present, and use their imagination.
D. It encourages people to spend less time at work.

Vocabulary in Context

3. Early in the talk, the speaker says that clouds "get a bad rap." What does this phrase mean in the context of the talk?

4. The speaker says that when there is "bad news in store," there is "a cloud on the horizon." What does "in store" mean here?

5. Why does the speaker describe clouds as everyone's "default doom-and-gloom metaphor"? What does this expression suggest?

6. The speaker says adults seem "reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence" of letting our imaginations drift. What does "allow ourselves the indulgence" mean in this context?

7. The speaker says that looking at clouds could save money on "psychoanalysis bills." Why does he use this phrase, and what point is he making?

8. At the end of the talk, the speaker says that the digital world "conspires to make us feel eternally busy." What does "conspires" mean here, and why does he choose this word instead of simply saying "makes us feel busy"?

Excerpts of transcript

 

Someone who's down or depressed, they're ______ a cloud. And when there's bad news in store, there's a cloud on the _____.

 

It seems like they're everyone's default doom-and-gloom _________. But I think they're beautiful, don't you? It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omni______, so, I don't know, common______

 

And so people think of clouds as things that get in the way. They think of them as the annoying, frustrating obstructions, and then they rush off and do some _____-sky thinking.

 

But most people, when you stop to ask them, will admit to harboring a strange sort of fondness for clouds. It's like a nostalgic fondness, and they make them think of their ______.

 

It's just that these days, us adults seem reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence of just allowing our imaginations to drift along in the _______, and I think that's a pity.

 

They're like nature's version of those ________ images, you know, that shrinks used to show their patients in the '60s, and I think if you consider the shapes you see in the clouds, you'll save money on psychoanalysis bills

 

You've just been _______ by your partner, and everywhere you look, it's kissing couples. Perhaps you're having a moment of existential angst. You know, you're thinking about your own mortality. And there, on the horizon, it's the _____ Reaper.

 

Or maybe you see a _______ sunbather. What would that mean? What would that mean? I have no idea.

 

Far ______ it. They are, in fact, the most diverse, evocative, poetic aspect of nature. I think, if you live with your _____ in the clouds every now and then, it helps you keep your _____ on the ground.

Review:

Column A

1. get

2. under

3. harbor

4. keep your feet

5. pay

6. step

7. be in

8. raise

9. answer

10. live with your head

11. rush off and do

12. find

13. burst out from

14. lie on your back and

15. put

 

Column B

a. on the horizon

b. a family

c. in the clouds

d. the present

e. a mountain of unanswered emails

f. a bad rap

g. outside

h. attention

i. a strange sort of fondness

j. on the ground

k. blue-sky thinking

l. food on the table

m. behind the clouds

n. gaze up at the sky

o. shapes in the clouds

 

Transcript with gaps

Clouds. Have you ever noticed how much people moan about them? They get a _____ rap. If you think about it, the English language has written into it negative associations towards the clouds. Someone who's down or depressed, they're under a cloud. And when there's bad news in store, there's a cloud on the _____. I saw an article the other day. It was about problems with computer processing over the Internet. "A cloud over the cloud," was the headline. It seems like they're everyone's default doom-and-gloom _________. But I think they're beautiful, don't you? It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omnipresent, so, I don't know, commonplace, that people don't notice them. They don't notice the beauty, but they don't even notice the clouds unless they get in the way of the sun. And so people think of clouds as things that get in the way. They think of them as the annoying, frustrating obstructions, and then they rush off and do some blue-sky thinking.

But most people, when you stop to ask them, will admit to harboring a strange sort of fondness for clouds. It's like a nostalgic fondness, and they make them think of their youth. Who here can't remember thinking, well, looking and finding shapes in the clouds when they were kids? You know, when you were masters of daydreaming? Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, he described the clouds as the patron goddesses of idle fellows two and a half thousand years ago, and you can see what he means. It's just that these days, us adults seem reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence of just allowing our imaginations to drift along in the _______, and I think that's a pity. I think we should perhaps do a bit more of it. I think we should be a bit more willing, perhaps, to look at the beautiful sight of the sunlight bursting out from behind the clouds and go, "Wait a minute, that's two cats dancing the salsa!" Or seeing the big, white, puffy one up there over the shopping center looks like the Abominable Snowman going to rob a bank. 

They're like nature's version of those inkblot images, you know, that shrinks used to show their patients in the '60s, and I think if you consider the shapes you see in the clouds, you'll save money on psychoanalysis bills. Let's say you're in love. All right? And you look up and what do you see? Right? Or maybe the opposite. You've just been _______ by your partner, and everywhere you look, it's kissing couples. Perhaps you're having a moment of existential angst. You know, you're thinking about your own mortality. And there, on the horizon, it's the _____ Reaper. Or maybe you see a _______ sunbather. What would that mean? What would that mean? I have no idea.

But one thing I do know is this: The bad _____ that clouds get is totally unfair. I think we should stand up for them, which is why, a few years ago, I started the Cloud _______ Society. Tens of thousands of members now in almost 100 countries around the world. And all these photographs that I'm showing, they were sent in by members. And the society exists to remind people of this: Clouds are not something to moan about. Far from it. They are, in fact, the most diverse, evocative, poetic aspect of nature. I think, if you live with your _____ in the clouds every now and then, it helps you keep your _____ on the ground.

And I want to show you why, with the help of some of my favorite types of clouds. Let's start with this one. It's the cirrus cloud, named after the Latin for a lock of _____. It's composed entirely of ice crystals cascading from the ______ reaches of the troposphere, and as these ice crystals fall, they pass through different layers with different winds and they speed up and slow down, giving the cloud these brush-stroked appearances,these brush-stroke forms known as fall streaks. And these ____ up there can be very, very fierce. They can be 200 miles an hour, 300 miles an hour. These clouds are bombing along, but from all the way down here, they appear to be moving gracefully, slowly, like most clouds. And so to tune into the clouds is to slow down, to calm down. It's like a bit of everyday meditation.

Those are common clouds. What about rarer ones, like the lenticularis, the UFO-shaped lenticularis cloud? These clouds form in the region of mountains.When the wind passes, rises to pass over the mountain, it can take on a wave-like path in the lee of the peak, with these clouds hovering at the crest of these invisible standing waves of air, these flying saucer-like forms, and some of the early black-and-white UFO photos are in fact lenticularis clouds. It's true. A little rarer are the fallstreak holes. All right? This is when a layer is made up of very, very cold w____ droplets, and in one region they start to freeze, and this freezing sets off a ch_____ reaction which spreads outwards with the ice crystals cascading and falling down below, giving the appearance of jellyfish tendrils down below. Rarer still, the Kelvin–Helmholtz cloud. Not a very snappy name. Needs a rebrand. This looks like a series of breaking waves, and it's caused by shearing winds -- the wind above the cloud layer and below the cloud layer differ significantly, and in the middle, in between, you get this undulating of the air, and if the difference in those speeds is just right, the tops of the undulations curl over in these beautiful breaking wave-like vortices. All right. Those are rarer clouds than the cirrus, but they're not that rare. If you look up, and you pay attention to the sky, you'll see them sooner or later, maybe not quite as dramatic as these, but you'll see them. And you'll see them around where you live. Clouds are the most egalitarian of nature's displays, because we all have a good, fantastic _____ of the sky. And these clouds, these rarer clouds, remind us that the exotic can be found in the everyday.

Nothing is more nourishing, more stimulating to an active, inquiring mind than being surprised, being amazed. It's why we're all here at TED, right? But you don't need to rush off away from the familiar, across the world to be surprised. You just need to step outside, pay attention to what's so commonplace, so everyday, so mundane that everybody else misses it. One cloud that people rarely miss is this one: the cumulonimbus storm cloud.It's what's produces _______ and lightning and hail. These clouds spread out at the top in this enormous anvil fashion stretching 10 miles up into the atmosphere. They are an expression of the majestic architecture of our atmosphere. But from down below, they are the embodiment of the powerful, elemental _______ and power that drives our atmosphere. To be there is to be connected in the driving rain and the hail, to feel connected to our atmosphere. It's to be reminded that we are creatures that inhabit this ocean of _____. We don't live beneath the sky. We live within it.

And that connection, that visceral connection to our atmosphere feels to me like an antidote. It's an antidote to the growing tendency we have to feel that we can really ever experience life by watching it on a computer screen, you know, when we're in a wi-fi zone. But the one cloud that best expresses why cloudspotting is more valuable today than ever is this one, the cumulus cloud. Right? It forms on a sunny day. If you close your eyes and think of a cloud, it's probably one of these that comes to ______. All those cloud shapes at the beginning, those were cumulus clouds. The sharp, crisp outlines of this formation make it the best one for finding shapes in. And it reminds us of the aimless nature of cloudspotting, what an aimless activity it is. You're not going to change the world by lying on your back and gazing up at the sky, are you? It's pointless. It's a pointless activity, which is _______ why it's so important.

The digital world conspires to make us feel eternally busy, perpetually busy. You know, when you're not dealing with the traditional pressures of earning a living and putting food on the table, raising a family, writing thank you letters, you have to now contend with answering a _________ of unanswered emails, updating a Facebook page, feeding your Twitter feed.And cloudspotting legitimizes doing _________. And sometimes we need — sometimes we need excuses to do nothing. We need to be reminded by these patron goddesses of idle fellows that slowing down and being in the present, not thinking about what you've got to do and what you should have done, but just being here, letting your imagination lift from the everyday ________ down here and just being in the present, it's good for you, and it's good for the way you feel. It's good for your ideas. It's good for your creativity. It's good for your _____.

So keep looking up, marvel at the ephemeral ________, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds. Thank you very much.

Discuss:









think of five things that are wonderful but ephemeral
eg. waves















What is good for you soul? Think of one example for the following:

something to eat.
something to read.
something to listen to.
a place.











Think of 4 activities which legitimise doing nothing











Do you get hail where you live?













What have you learnt in the lesson?

Quizlet review:

Collocations