I was bicycling home when it happened… I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, I was just out for a ride. But somewhere along the way I got a terrible earworm–you know, one of those catchy songs that gets stuck in your head, and wo…
We’ve talked about Search-by-Image before, but here’s a nuance we haven’t mentioned… When you do a Search-By-Image, you upload an image to Google so it can find similar kinds of images. To do an SBI search, just click on the camera i…
You think a decent-sized island wouldn’t get lost… And yet, somehow, Google Maps seems to have lost an island off the coast of Taveuni, in northern Fiji. To remind you of the Challenge: I was diving in the Somosomo Strait, betwe…
For me, one of the joys of travel… … is learning something unexpected, something I didn’t expect, something that makes me wonder at the world, and how/why things are the way they are. Not long ago, I was in Fiji, diving in the Somosomo St…
You’d think this is easy.. . But in fact, answering a simple question like “What are those light patches on the ground?” turns out to open up a huge can of worms. I spent waaaay too long on this (but had a lot of fun in the process). &n…
Flying is a curious thing to do. Not only is it miraculous (humans moving through the air at 10km in an aluminum tube), but it gives one a very different perspective on the land below. When I fly, I’m constantly looking out the window at the…
Surprise! That crazy instrument is a real thing, albeit a bit odd. From last week, our Challenge was to figure out if this illustration (from a concert program) was a real instrument, or just someone’s fancy. The Cha…
I went to a concert the other evening… … full of Baroque and Renaissance music, held in a lovely chapel late in the evening–the performers played shawms, traditional bagpipes, recorders, sackbutts, and a stray hurdy-gurdy. &n…
This past week we had a harvest-time Challenge. It’s Thanksgiving in the US, so our questions about sudden increases in pine cone production (and therefore, the production of pine nuts, which are just about my favorite tree product ever)&nbs…
There is a tide in the affairs of men,Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat…This is from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, at the moment …
As you probably noticed… … I’ve been traveling a bit–hence the slightly erratic SRS posts over the past month. This will probably continue for a bit more time as I keep moving around the planet. Taveuni, FijiBoth the sp…
How many and how people die,.. it’s complicated. More to the point, just figuring out which data sources you can trust for this kind of information is trickier than I would have thought. I asked you about your intuitions, and befo…
As you probably noticed… … I’m slow in answering the last Challenge. This time, I’m not in Fiji (alas), but I’m flying all around the east coast of the US. I left the Googleplex last Thursday, and will be in motion for 15 days, giv…
A couple of weeks ago… I posted a few fishy pictures with the cryptic question “Have any ideas where these are, or where I am?” The SearchResearchers rose to the Challenge and were able to identify my location pretty well! Regular Rea…
I don’t mean to be macabre,..but it’s nearly both Halloween and the Día de los muertos. They’re coming up fast during this time of the year. Naturally, that makes me think about those souls that have passed on before us, and being a naturall…