Yeah, I clicked on the link to this thread fully expecting to find a meaty argument to get in the middle of - and instead, to my horror, I was reminded that "clouds" are also real things that float in the sky.
Fair question. It is unfair your post was downvoted. Honestly, when I saw it, I assumed it was a Wiki troll who created a fake page. It seemed possible. Then, I looked at the talk page and I could see some heated arguments. Reviewing a few of the sources convinced me that the page was unusual, but legitimate.
I highly recommend‘The Cloudspotter’s Guide’[0] from Gavin Pretor-Pinney (the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society). One of the most eclectic read I’ve had, covering history, science and adventure in always a funny a didactic way.
Also comes with huge privacy/PII-law / GDPR issues: European clouds could end up in the US, China and Russia and back again, while also mixing with other clouds and it's practically impossible to track.
One of the perks of living at 60°N: noctilucent clouds are a fairly frequent phenomenon in the summer, moreso than northern lights in the winter in fact.
Looks like this is not the digital "cloud" HNers often engage with.
As a movie-watcher, I really appreciate the way John Ford depicts the majestic clouds of Monument Valley. More interestingly, he had underexposed them in B&W films like "My Darling Clementine", increasing their contrast and shadows as if they were sculptures in the sky.
Reminds me of the wonderful passage about clouds from Herman Hesse's novel Peter Camenzind: "...zeigt mit das Ding in der Welt, das schöner ist als Wolken sind! Sie sind Spiel und Augentrost, sie sind Segen und Gottesgabe, sie sind Zorn und Todesmacht. Sie sind zart, weich und friedlich wie die Seelen von Neugeborenen, sie sind schön, reich und spendend wie gute Engel, sie sind dunkel, unentrinnbar und schonungslos wie die Sendboten des Todes. Sie schweben silbern in dünner Schicht, sie segeln lachend weiß mit goldenem Rand, sie stehen rastend in gelben, roten und bläulichen Farben. Sie schleichen finster und langsam wie Mörder, sie jagen sausend kopfüber wie rasende Reiter, sie hängen traurig und träumend in bleichen Höhen wie schwermütige Einsiedler. Sie haben die Formen von seligen Inseln und die Formen von segnenden Engeln, sie gleichen drohenden Händen, flatternden Segeln, wandernden Kranichen. Sie schweben zwischen Gottes Himmel und der armen Erde als schöne Gleichnisse aller Menschensehnsucht, beiden angehörig — Träume der Erde, in welchen sie ihre befleckte Seele an den reinen Himmel schmiegt. Sie sind das ewige Sinnbild alles Wanderns, alles Suchens, Verlangens und Heimbegehrens. Und so wie sie zwischen Erde und Himmel zag
und sehnend und trotzig hängen, so hängen zag und sehnend und trotzig die Seelen der Menschen zwischen Zeit und Ewigkeit..."
> show me the thing in the world that is more beautiful than clouds! They are play and eyebright, they are blessings and gifts of God, they are wrath and the power of death. They are delicate, soft and peaceful like the souls of newborns, they are beautiful, rich and bounties like good angels, they are dark, inescapable and ruthless like the emissaries of death. They float silver in a thin layer, they sail laughingly white with a golden edge, they stand resting in yellow, red and bluish colors. They slink darkly and slowly like murderers, they rush headlong like mad riders, they hang sad and dreaming in pale heights like melancholy hermits. They have the forms of blessed islands and the forms of blessing angels, they are like threatening hands, fluttering sails, migrating cranes. They hover between God's heaven and poor earth as beautiful parables of all human longing, belonging to both — dreams of the earth in which she nestles her tainted soul against the pure heaven. They are the eternal symbol of all wandering, all searching, longing and longing for home. And just as they hang timidly and longingly and defiantly between earth and heaven, so the souls of men hang timidly and longingly and defiantly between time and eternity.
