Yo, Flipper, how's it goin', mammal?

I wonder if the name Flipper for a dolphin is like Rover for a dog. Cliche.

Anyhow, fun article by Alexis Madrigal in Next Gov magazine, Nov 21, 2013.

Apparently there is a rumor going around that Google is working on man-dolphin communication (I assume to get more users).

She says interest in this waxes and wanes.

A guy named Doug Michels lobbied for years to build a dolphin embassy under the sea to communicate with sea mammals. That's an artist's rendition in the picture. Never built.

There was also a push for a water-filled space station with a supercomputer and a dolphin crew.

Never built. And the guy was asked to step away from the vodka very slowly.

Now the Google X-dolphin thing. In a New Yorker story on Google's research arm, Google X, reference was made to cybernetic dolphins.

The author of the Next Gov piece wrote to Google, but some buzzkill there said sarcastically that she hadn't seen any dolphin tanks out back.

Well, there is a Google Glass guy from Georgia Tech who is working on some communication deal with dolphins. Apparently a diver outfitted with a complete acoustic system and a keypad on his forearm tries to see if dolphins are using "words" they taught them.

The dolphins probably think it's a giggle not a Google.