air

[micky]

If the helicopter on Mars goes up, does it go up in the air? Is the stuff near the surface of Mars "air". Or is "air" limited to earth.

[rbowman]

CO2. The long range plan is to sequester the Earth's CO2 on Mars and send the Democrats there to monitor the concentrations.

[angelica...]

Is the word "atmosphere" in your vocabulary?

Cindy Hamilton

[Pinocchio Psaki]

Definition of air

 (Entry 1 of 2) 1a : the mixture of invisible odorless tasteless gases (such as nitrogen and oxygen) that surrounds the earth also : the equivalent mix of gases on another planet ? the thin, frigid air of Mars. ? Stefano S. Coledan

[micky]

Sure. I thought of that. I didn't look it up until now.

Dictionary.com lists both meanings (but separately):

1) the gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; the air: a weather balloon rising high into the atmosphere.

3) Astronomy. the gaseous envelope surrounding a heavenly body: The white ovals seen in Saturn's atmosphere could be intense storms.

From atmo-, a combining form meaning ?air,? used in the formation of compound words: atmosphere. < Greek, combining form of atmós vapor, smoke

OTOH, for "air" the only relevant meaning it has is "a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and minute amounts of other gases that surrounds the earth and forms its atmosphere."

So, as I suspected, at least acc. to dictionary.com, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021, "air" is the atmosphere of the Earth, but the atmosphere of Mars is not called air.

That didn't used to matter much, but now it seems more important.

[trader_4]

Yes, I'm very concerned about it's importance now.

[gfretwell]

That was my thought. In that regard "air" is an earthly thing.

[Wade Garrett]

Why does anyone respond to "Micky" who plays the AHR Newsgroup Nitwit? His posts are as dumb as can be. How can anyone take them seriously and respond...

[Tekkie©]

On Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:40:20 -0400, [e-mail] posted for all of us to digest...

I like air. I can only do one thing at at a time; breathe.

[Tekkie©]

On Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:56:16 -0400, Wade Garrett posted for all of us to digest...

It's fun. Along with air I like fun. I try to stay respectful but there are limits. Better than politics.

[Opinicus]

And I think that we'll eventually come around to calling it "air" at some point, if only because it's inconvenient to have to have a separate word for every each planet's atmosphere. I suspect it'll be kind of like what's happened to "geology" as in "The Geology of the Terrestrial Planets". That title surprised me the first time I saw it.

[micky]

You're probably right, but I have to hold out as long as I can. It's all I've got to separate myself from the savages.

It surprises me, too. I didn't think they even had GM Geo's any place but Earth.

[Anton Shepelev]

micky:

Or have you just exhausted your daily allotment of question marks?

I think `air' is a legitimate and in the long term unavoid- able word for the substance of Martial (or Martian?) atmo- sphere. Mars already has moons, and other worlds already have their own suns. Storms have eyes, as rivers do mouths. Boats have noses, saws have teeth, caves have lips, wheat has ears. Economy of vocabulary by means of metaphorical reuse of existng words is a major force behind the adapta- tion of language to the ever-changing world.

[Jim Joyce]

I would have used corn for that last example, versus wheat.

[Opinicus]

Good point. Seeing it, I realize that it was the direction I was going with "Geology of the Terrestrial Planets" but didn't follow it through. "Martian geology" already turns up 28 thousand Google hits and "Martian geography" fetches up over 10 thousand. (Alas poor Areography I knew thee not so well as I thought.) At just 509 hits, "Martian geophysics" is a real newcomer to the herd. Nobody seems to fancy "Martian geomancy" just yet; however we've already got "Default history file on front below the permafrost martian? Geomancy is a kaffir lime leaf?", "Personally thats not martian? Geomancy is a draw!", and "Nomad almost got blown out vein? unvariably Marty the martian! Geomancy is a biologically healthy garden." so it can't be far off.

[phil]

Not to mention walls.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]

In a different field there is a word that has acquired a meaning way beyond its original sense and usage:

"vaccine"

noun 1 A substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease. ?there is no vaccine against the virus? Origin Late 18th century from Latin vaccinus, from vacca ?cow? (because of the early use of the cowpox virus against smallpox).

As far as I know there are no cows involved in the inoculants, "vaccines", used to trigger immunity agaist Covid-19, influenza, etc.

[micky]

What kind of anti-cow prejudice does this represent.

As spokesman for the CLM (the Cow Liberation Movement) I protest.

We will be demonstrating every Friday until this outrage has ended.

Friday represents another Anti-Cow practice, part of the Catholic Church's long-term goal to end eating meat all the time. They started with Friday but that one day is not their long term goal. The cows I represent feel they are entitled to be eaten 7 days a week.

[Opinicus]

Fat and docile, big and dumb / They look so stupid, they aren't much fun / Cows aren't fun