Cloud gazing

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The beauty of the sky can really draw one in.

Cloud gazing is a study that can be practiced by amateurs or professionals. It is increasingly being offered as a course for credit at the university level. The value of cloud gazing as an academic subject is increasingly accpeted.

[edit] Practice

Cloud Gazing can be practiced by anyone, given sufficient clouds. It can be done indoors, though more commonly practiced outside. Reading the clouds for amusement is not a new past-time, and engaged by many as a hobby, but professional cloud reading is a very serious business, with stronger academic roots than ever before, and providing lucrative opportunities after study. The cloud gazing business in the US generates approximately 15% of the gross national product.

An intense and rigorous pursuit of study in school cloud gazers have to hone a variety of skills and talents. Some suggest that cloud gazers are born, not made. It does require prodigous demands on the faculties of the cloud gazer to pursue gazing as a career choice. Cloud gazers who wish to go professional after school will have to be versed in all the major cloud forms, not only in identification but reading and predictive morphology, as well as being able to demonstrate a clear understanding of the portents the clouds forewarn. Generally practitioners don't travel far from their universities or colleges where they got their degree, since climate patterns in other areas may prove obstacles to what they're familiar with, while for others this is a reason to voyage out.

Of course Masters and PhDs are also offered at some schools, and are generally better paid after school, as their advanced studies will often specialize in particular concentrations, such as Pileus or Cumulus. Very specialized fields, like Altostratus Undulatus and Cumulonimbus Calvus are offered at fewer universities, and often students must go to specialty cloud gazing and reading schools for their degree.

[edit] Cloud Gazing for those of use with no time

[edit] The debate over usefulness

Starting in the 1980s the debate as to the practicality and utility of cloud gazing being offered in schools was seriously challenged. It was listed, along with egg nog smithery, tree refueling, and conversational binary as one of the courses proposed to be axed under the Regean administration. In the proposal drafted by the 1986 Congress these courses were cited to 'have no friggin purpose' and 'be a total waste of time'. Many public university systems scaled back or eliminated their programs in cloud gazing, including Rhode Island, Kentuckistan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Some universities defended their rights to offer cloud gazing, especially outspoken defenders were California's UC system and the SUNY system in New York, both of which have kept their cloud gazing programs and degrees. Many private institutions, and most liberal arts colleges, offer cloud gazing.