Aerogel moments: One

A note arrives from our on-line blogmaster reporting that a Sunday Times article on 'Aerogel', sometimes known as 'frozen smoke', has attracted more than half a million visitors.

A hit of hits, it seems.

Aerogel, I learn, is a wonder-material, which may solve all our world's problems.

From global warming to space travel.

From the insulation of our homes to all those moon trips which will be necessary if the Earth continues to warm despite the Aerogel effect.

Fascinating. But what is a blogger to do?

The Editor of the TLS cannot add anything to the argument about how this 'smoke freezing' happens.

Or why or with what purpose any liquid is replaced by gases in gels.

Or whether Aerogel rackets will be the carbon-fibre tennis kit of the future.

Only the phrase 'frozen smoke' is half familiar.

From a poem by Rupert Brooke.

In a description of a single instant, almost scientific in its way, at an afternoon at a house in Dartmoor before the First World War.

After a survey of a typical teatime scene of the day, the flowers, the table cloths, the changing faces of friends, the poet stops.

Everything in Brooke's sight and mind stops.

"I saw the marble cup; the tea,
Hung on the air, an amber stream;
I saw the fire’s unglittering gleam,
The painted flame, the frozen smoke".

Dining-Room Tea is a striking poem - powered by an acute forensic eye.

It is a pity, in many ways, that Brooke is less known for this sharp touch with the camera-lens - and more known for fuzzier thoughts of war.

Perhaps, of course, the 'frozen smoke' phrase goes further back than Brooke.

I could be tempted to look into earlier poets with the physical sciences at the edges of of their minds.

But it is press day at the TLS.

There are other claims on time here.

The good thing about a blog about an online hit is that someone else will often have the answer.

Comments

[Dion Per Sona]

Ms Fitzgerald
The current atmosphere being what it is, I'm intrigued by one of your earlier comments. How did you guess (or come to imagine) that I most ressemble Cary Grant (North by Northwest) and not Ogden Nash whose ephemera I most admire?

This is my favorite:

I seek not in anonymity's cloister
The man who ate the first raw oyster,
But he braving spine and shoot
Unveiled the artichoke as food.

[Susan Balée]

Clayton: As Iago said, "All things will come forth in the womb of time." Or something like that.

Judith & Tony -- You guys need to get a room.

Candadai, I love that word "efflorescence," thank you.

[Tony Francis]

Hillary took s big hit this weekend for saying this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/08/24/VI2007082401548.html?hpid=topnews
Actually, she seemed to be stating the obvious. But everyone seemed to think it a blunder to calculate the politics of terrorism. Plays into the calculating persona she has deveolped.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/25/2007-08-25_hil_takes_flak_for_mixing_politics__terr.html

[Clayton Burns]

It seems almost Promethean. However, greater wonders exist. The Oxford World's Classics "Othello:" in his Introduction Michael Neill notes that the murder of Desdemona scene "seems to have been influenced by a story from Geoffrey Fenton's 'Certaine Tragicall Discourses'...a translation...of a collection of Italian 'novelle' by Bandello. Don Spado is "an insanely jealous captain:" "Like Othello, Don Spado murders his wife in bed, and kisses her ('in such sort as Judas kissed our Lord') before he kills her..." (pp.20-21).

In Othello's near final speech "Soft you, a word or two before you go," he says his hearers must speak "...of one whose hand,/ Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away/ Richer than all his tribe..." (pp.395-96). So why did Neill choose Q's Indian over F's
Judean (Iudean)? In a long and initially scrambled note in Appendix F, Neill sets out his reasoning (pp. 464-65), apparently having forgotten his reference to Don Spado and Judas in his Introduction to Setting, Characters, and Plot.

Professor Neill's edition is riddled with his inconsistencies about when Emilia came to suspect her husband Iago. Any TLS reader able to give a true account of those lapses will be moved to the head of the class. Michael Neill, by the way, has been honest enough as to admit the Emilia problem.

There is something wrong with Neill's explanation of the "Othello" music (p.24). What is it?

It is strange that this text got through as an Oxford Shakespeare without having been continuity edited. Has there been any comment from The Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham? What does Stanley Wells have to say about it?

[Tony Francis]

Judith, I am a TV addict. I have it on the business channel, or one of the news channels during the day. I am also sitting with a laptop on the kitchen table, writing reports or looking something up. So I just listen to TV, and look if there is something interesting. Also, mute the TV if someone calls, since I am yakking long distance much of the day. If a judge calls, turn the TV off, because I don't want any distraction. Usually the Pacific Time Zone, although I am getting calls from the Eastern Time Zone, now, also. I never could sit through more than about 5 minutes of "Friends". I guess I am too old.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Clayton, it was a (clearly failed) joke; and, if you didn't see it as such, I apologise for my carelessness.

Not sure what emails you're describing; but, I do have a "fan" who regularly impersonates me. Think logically, here: Why would I put my reputation and personal relationships on the line? I don't even like email; so, tend to do it less and less. Had to shut down public addie, anyway; my "fan" sends me all kinds of treats (trojans, spam, virii, yadda-yadda-yawn).

Please, don't allow this to upset you; I was just kidding. I will exercise all due caution and circumspection in the future. I'm sorry this has caused you any anxiety at all. Rest assured, I have nothing further to say on this (nor any other) subject (public and private both); ad feminam attack certainly doesn't look good on anyone.

Why stoop to conquer when you can rise to communicate?

I'm truly sorry. Please, forgive me and feel better, okay?

[Tony Francis]

Dogs4Democrats/Hillary Nutcracker:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2007/08/22/moos.dogs.nutcracker.cnn

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Inneresting, Tony; suspect guys don't ask other guys for pics of themselves b/cuz it smacks of homosexual overtones; but, women can request pics of either gender with impunity, n'est-ce pas?

You preach to the converted, St. Francis, as you well know. I wrote the book on McLuhan, remember [*G*]? You might find something of interest in its Preface, insofar as television and advertising enter the equation. Plan to upload it soon; will let you know URL.

You *listen* to TV all day? How come? Something to do with having to be up-to-the-min on RW events, I guess?

Friends? Sorry. Hain't watched TV for decades, now. A cheap-thriller, IMO, not unlike glue-sniffing, I guess; McLuhan called it, fittingly, a drug (and, it possesses all the usual suspect elements associated with same); he discovered that truth in the fact it is neither visual nor aural; rather, TV is tactile.

Advertising? In 19-flippin'-37, a Senior GM at GM nailed the future down to a T: The key to a successful economy is a population forever unhappified, forever taunted or tortured by lacking the latest with-its advertising flaunts.

The future, said one of the guests at the party Benjamin endures in The Graduate, "lies in plastic." An inspired line in a brilliant film, IMO; but, is the AeroFuture now, then? Rhetorical . . .

Tend to agree with you about women favouring sound over image; not sure why that happens. Hrmm . . . You can't teach an old hag new schticks, mebbe.

Just so you know, dames asks guys for their pics so guys can reciprocate and catch an eyeful :).

Yeah, social and educational. Thing is, here, IMO, part of its charm lies in its nature and substance; that, plus, it never yields to what David Lynch called The Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. (He should know.)

[Clayton Burns]

Judith Fitzgerald: I did not accuse you of cheating. Learn how to read. I am not interested in getting any sexually suggestive e-mails from you. Do not send me any more of your scatter-brained e-mails at all. I would be interested in a thoughtful blog on literature from Shakespeare to Joyce, more or less, but I just am not interested at all in pointless social blogging. Try someone else. Clayton.

[Tony Francis]

Judith, I heard some time ago that women respond to aural stimuli more than visual. I don't know if this true. But I think it might be. Early on, in law school, I learned that stating something in a definite, authoritative manner was related to credibility. Writing has a similar psychology. I spend a good part of the day talking on the phone with female lawyers (usually under the age of 35) in various federal offices. They always want me to send a picture. The male lawyers don't seem to care what I look like. There was a vulgar radio program I used to listen to. The callers were always asked, "What celebrity do you most closely resemble?" They always picked someone from "Friends". Of course, when they showed up at the radio station, they were berated because they didn't look anything like someone from "Friends". It was part of the stchick of the show.
Concerning psychology and advertising:
http://www.commercialalert.org/news/Archive/2003/09/in-search-of-the-buy-button
This reminds me of the old saying: "If you want to learn academic psychology, go to college, but if you want to learn real psychology, work for an ad agency." In other words, through trial and error, ad agencies know what works to get people's attention. I "listen" to TV all day, without watching. Ads repeat, over and over. But I have no idea what the product is. Poor advertising!
A rambling article on "male/female" websites:
http://www.ablestable.com/resources/library/articles/clife/clife004.htm
According to him, women are more likely to "make a blog go" by contributing. To me, it is part social, and also educational.

[Bert S]

I'm curious though if this substance can be sprayed...How does it react to Barium, Diethylene Bromide, or Aluminum Oxide Salts, etc...

What are it's effects if inhaled or breathed?

I'm not a scientist, but I'm not stupid, either. I beleive there can be many applications for this aerogel substance. For good purposes or for bad purposes. Why do they use the term "aero" when describing a gel?

Here's a couple of links to the websites. Any ideas anyone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBjDSNWiuKQ

These chemtrails are happening and people who don't beleive it never will. Youtube.com has amazing videos of them actually being sprayed, they're at least now talking about them in the news, etc...(its about time)
But I am very curious about this new substance and if its being used in our skies...

Glazedover2 from San Diego, Ca.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Tony, funny you mention visuals and the individual you most resemble. Serially, though, I went and looked for a pic of Peppard because I couldn't remember his Blue Max look (but, I could remember his voice). For some reason, your description clashes with my sense of how you look; this may be a result of the synaesthesia, though (and, how all words have colours associated with them for me); but, I thank you for indulging me in this since you still look good to my mind's ear.

Too, to tell you the truth, you always *sound* good to me; and, that's as nice as I can be today (otherwise I will ruin my rep). DPS, Andrew, and Candadai, to mention a few, have a different look in my brain-frame; also, I've seen pics of Sir Peter, Susan, and Clayton; still, I know who I'm reading by their words, not the way their writer looks. I can tell I'm reading you, for example, a few words into one of your always enlightening comments.

See, the reason I prefer Joyce and Eliot involves precisely this notion of visuals and aurals. It is also why I chose "The Mauve Tam-O'-Shanter" by Paul Groves as my winner in the TLS competition recently. Most poets are either aural or visual; in this regard, they are not complete poets and, IMO, invariably, they are inferior to my benchmarks. A great poet writes by ear, eye, touch, etc., writes from the whole sensorium and doesn't just focus on one aspect of it. (If I say more, I am giving away trade secrets; but, you get the picture, I'm sure.)

People say (or said) I look most like Hayley Mills (when I was a child) and Sissy Spacek. I say I look most like me, especially in the morning when I have way too much energy, hehe . . .

You sound handsome. Are you or what? I hope not! Also, non-sequiturning again to the topic at hand, will AeroGel ever replace tin or aluminium for mind-control protection beanies? Would such a move be cost-effective?

(In Canada, BTW, we have a chocolate bar named "Aero" which, I hope, does not end up on the AeroGel menu.)

I think I'll stick with my foil headgear; AND, Tonia, please, don't even think about considering a line of Toasty Hats or Beanies . . . I already have TFE, thanks to you :).

AeroGelastically and InterGalactically yours, etc.

[Dion Per Sona]

Dear Les
To the equation energy/price one needs to add durability. Energy is fungible and if it's useful properties can be transferred to AeroGel, they are preserved for the life of the substance. The equation could be positive.

[Tonia]

Aerogel is the world’s most advanced insulating material. Our company, PolarWrap, uses aerogel in our line of Toasty Feet insoles.

You can read more about aerogel and its use in our products at http://www.toastyfeet.com.

[Tony Francis]

Concerning LES's question: it appears to be expensive, really boring, and not of much use at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PfelqRpOQk&mode=related&research=
This has to be the most boring video, ever! (Actually, the other video on frozen smoke is worse.) This is more interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNpOB5-KxV0&feature=dir
or this:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/568872/amazing_sand_sculptures_winning_entries_of_national_competitio/

[Tony Francis]

Judith: Concerning my weight; I am heavier than some; lighter than some others. If you need a visual: think George Peppard in the "Blue Max" mixed with Robert Redford in "The Sting". Only about 10 years older. (i.e. "What Celebrity Do You Most Closely Resemble?")

[LeS]

When is someone going to ask a
and answer the obvious question about how much energy this stuff takes to make? I suspect it is huge and disproportionate to its benefits.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

*Splurrrrtttt!*

And, *I* would like an AeroGel Knife
To Carve up the Frozen Smoke of Life

[Dion Per Sona]

Aerogel tennis raquets are already for sale on eBay, as are jars of aerogel fragments suitable for jewellery. A 16mm sheet of aerogel A4 size costs £2,000.00.

I would like an AeroGel hat
And an AeroGel bed for my kitty cat.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Hrm. IIRC, the line occurs in a Lorca poem (in literal-translation terms). I dunno. Rupert Brooke seems, in comparison with Eliot, Jones, Elytis, Hopkins, Dickinson, et. ilk. . . . well . . . acceptable. Would I buy a book by the guy? Nope. That's how I decide whether we're talking the Book of Eternity or what . . .

IOW, no Rupertsified crackers in my boudoir, unless the nut's a wonderful cook since that's what I rally need, not some poem about frozen flippin' smoke :) . . .

You know, it may just be me; but, no way no how can I imagine having fun and panting (nor de-skirting) for a guy named Rupert. It's just not a good orgasmic kind of name, if you know what I mean . . .

Oh, yeah: No macrobioticians nor scientifictioneers need apply.

[Tony Francis]

Speaking of Frozen Smoke, look at this reporter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04i8RO-P7qg&mode=reated&search=
At least he can claim he was standing down wind from the smoke. What is this German Schatzi's excuse?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siJuRjzxMVc

[Tony Francis]

Sir Peter, Frozen Smoke would appear to be similar to spun glass, sort of like Angel-Hair Christmas decoration. Only this substance is much more useful: Lighter, stronger, keeps us warm, keeps us cold, cleans the earth of pollutants bold; truly a miracle to behold. There are many references to frozen smoke, the substance on the 'net. They have all been neatly listed by The London Times writer. So there is no reason to go elsewhere to learn about it. It has been known to exist since 1931. But it was a government agency's (NASA) interest which has brought it to the fore. Socialism working for the betterment of mankind.
Frozen Smoke, the poetic accessory is also ubiquitous. The original poem by Rupert Brooke is found (your link isn't working for me):
http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=poem&poem=144
It is worth reading in its entirety. A haunting vignette of some lost age. There is another newer poem entitled "Frozen Smoke":
http://cafephilos.blogspot.com/2007/08/frozen-smoke.html
To be honset, I didn't get a lot from this newer frozen smoke poem. Two commentators liked it. Paul commented he likes more every time he reads it. Amurin liked it so much, he/she was afraid to read it again. As I said, it didn't do much for me.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

Wordsworth thought that a time would come when the language of science would enter naturally into the language of poetry. Shelley kept abreast of the scientific developments of his time. I do not know if there is a causal relation but Rupert Brooke had been at Cambridge in a period of scientific efflorescence.