mortiz080

Details. Details. Details.     Often, as we do research (especially of the SearchResearch kind), the little details of the Challenge turn out to be important.  This is especially the case when you're trying to figure out where a particular picture has been taken.   Remember back in 2012 when we did the SearchResearch Challenge with this picture ?   The key there was to do a search with the logo atop the building, and then the rest is  pretty straightforward.  That logo is a small, relevant detail (and the flag in the lower left is an irrelevant detail)--you have to do the search to actually figure this out.   Or, remember this location search Challenge to find what was important beneath the feet at the location of the photographer?   In this case, once you identified the Coliseum, you had to use the details of the topographic map of the area nearby to figure out where this location is... and find out what's below the photographer's feet....

Flies, bees, and golf tees...    It's a surprise to things where you don't expect them.  This is always the case, although sometimes you need to know a bit about the context to see the thing "out of place."  For instance, here's a fairly famous painting by Tiepolo (the 18th century Venetian artist) showing Cleopatra about to drop a pearl into a glass of vinegar to prove how vastly wealthy she was.  The vinegar, you see, would dissolve the pearl, and she purported drank it just because.. you know.. ostentatious consumption (literally).   It's a wonderful painting, but the clothing is NOT of Cleopatra's era, but Tiepolo's.  It's something way out of place.   Likewise, the image of a bee in a urinal comes as something of a surprise--it too is the wrong thing in the wrong place.   Or a golf tee,  in the bottom of this:    And so...  1.   Why are those little images in the bottom of the urinals?  What were the bowl d...

Every so often you pause and say "What??"   This happens to me fairly often, perhaps more often than you'd think.  One of those times was a couple of week ago when I was using the "facilities" and saw this in my field of view:  "That's odd..." I thought, "why is there a bee in my urinal?"   Here's the stepped-back view.   This is the kind of unusual, a bit odd, and definitely strange thing one needs to memorialize in a picture.  A quick glance around, and I got the shot.   Then just a few days later, I found THIS:  in the bottom of this:  As I said in an earlier post, travel is broadening...   We run across mysteries on a daily basis, and our curiosity drives us to ask questions... Such as this week's set of questions that came up while travelling.   1.   Why are those little images in the bottom of the urinals?  What were the bowl designers thinking?  (Just contemplate that for a moment:  Somewhere there is a de...

Travel is broadening.  That's what they say...  And I think they're right. Although, as Dave Barry says:  “The major advantage of domestic travel is that, with a few exceptions such as Miami, most domestic locations are conveniently situated right here in the United States.”   (Dave Barry, The only travel guide you'll ever need .)  That's not true for international travel, of course, and it's travel outside of your normal scope that gives us our SearchResearch Challenges for this week.  Did you figure these out?  1.  Okay, which is it?  Was I in Scandinavia or in the Nordic countries?   What's the difference between  Scandinavia  and the  Nordic countries ?      This isn't hard--but there are two approaches here.  (A) Compare the definitions, (B) Ask the question and hope for a QA match.  Here's what I mean.   (A) Comparing the definitions.  Here they are for easy comparison.   "Sca...

Travel is a great source of puzzlements.  Everytime I travel somewhere (and I get to travel fairly often for my job), I come across things that surprise and amaze me. Recently I had the chance to travel to northwestern Europe on business, but I was confused about where I was geographically.  Yes, I visited Sweden, Norway, and Finland... but is that Scandinavia or the Nordic countries?  I would see both terms used apparently interchangably, and just from everyday usage, I couldn't quite figure out the difference.   But as I walked along the streets I also saw a few things that I cannot (and have not yet!) figured out.   This gives us our SearchResearch Challenges for this week.  Can you help me figure out what's going on here?   1.  Okay, which is it?  Was I in Scandinavia or in the Nordic countries?   What's the difference between Scandinavia  and the  Nordic countries ?      2.  This is a real puzzle. ...

Face it: Tracking down quotes was never easy...  As I said last week, it  used  to be that when you heard a quote you liked, you looked for it in one of those big books of quotations (such as  Bartlett's Familiar Quotations  or the  Yale Book of Quotations ).   But, if it wasn't in there, then most people just up because the searching got to be a LOT harder.  In the days B.G. (that is, "Before Google") finding the correct attribution for quotations required lots of contacts, a  lot  of reading, and dedicated time.   Searching is very different now.  But still tricky, especially when you find things like this in the search results (try searching for  ["quotes on the internet"]   and you'll see what I mean).       So... what DO we do now to track down quotes?  Let's look at the quotes for this week.    1.  Did Tom Peters, the guru of excellence, really say  "The best search o...