Wednesday, March 14, 2018

SearchResearch Challenge (3/14/18): How to find dimly remembered things?


We forget, of course


... and that's part of the reason we have search tools--to help us find and recover what we've forgotten.  

I don't know about you, but I'm constantly re-searching for things I only vaguely remember, and I need all the help I can get.  

This week's Challenge comes in three parts.  

First, a question of something I once heard about, but have forgotten.  

Second, a question of something we have collectively forgotten (or somehow misplaced) in our cultural memory.  

And third, a question to you of what tools you use to help find things forgotten or misplaced in memory.  

1.  I remember visiting a bunch of colleges in the Eastern US with my daughter (who was checking out different institutions as a prospective student) and hearing a remarkable story at one of them.  The story was that this concert hall was the one that staged a concert of a piece of music by a slightly crazed but rather famous composer who wrote a piece for orchestra and a complicated color-light display keyboard.  The thing is, his vision exceeded the ability of the tech at the time.  So, roughly a century later, this institution was able to ACTUALLY perform the piece as written--orchestra, light-show performance, and all of the special effects.  Questions:  What was that piece?  Who was the composer?  And what university concert hall held this event? 
2.  You probably remember that childhood song about "Four and twenty blackbirds, baked into a pie."  Question:  Was that for real?  Or is it a corruption of some other song / phrase from the older parts of our culture?  (I mean...  blackbirds?  Really?)  

3.  I have a couple of tools that I use every day to help me find things, particularly when I'm searching through my personal content. What tools do you use to search your personal content?  (Of course, we all use the search engines of the world--Google, Bing, Baidu, Wolfram Alpha, etc.)  But if you're looking through YOUR stuff, what tools do you use to search through that?  


I managed to find the answer to Challenge 1 already.  I think I have an answer for Challenge 2.  And I know what I do for my personal search.  But tell us what you found in the comments.  Be sure to tell us HOW you found it (what path led you to the answer).  

And I'll give you my answers next week.  

Search on! 



37 comments:

  1. Not the most sophisticated search working on my own as Anne is out today. Put in these search terms -composer symphony color light display keyboard college- first result was to this article https://news.yale.edu/2010/01/15/scriabin-s-prometheus-be-performed-yale-living-color The composer was Alexander Scriaben. The piece was first performed in Russia but think you and your daughter were visiting Yale. The article describes how in 2010 the Yale Orchestra was able to put this piece on with the lighting from notes that were found from the composer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1, Questions: What was that piece? Who was the composer? And what university concert hall held this event?

    [United states colleges famous composer concert halls]
    [United states college famous composer orchestra light]
    [famous composer wrote orchestra light not played until years later]

    Wikipedia:”Light music is a generic term applied to "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and continues until the present day. Its heyday occurred during the mid‑20th century” Ctrl-F “United States”

    [famous composer wrote orchestra light college intext:"concert hall"]

    Then tried searching for Concert Halls older than 100 years.

    No answers found yet,

    2. You probably remember that childhood song about "Four and twenty blackbirds, baked into a pie." Question: Was that for real? Or is it a corruption of some other song / phrase from the older parts of our culture? (I mean... blackbirds? Really?)

    ["Four and twenty blackbirds, baked into a pie."]

    Wikipedia Original and modern lyrics

    [four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie song history]

    The Real Meaning of Nursery Rhymes

    The nursery rhyme ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’ originated as a coded message used to recruit crew members for pirate ships.

    Answer: "Sing a Song of Sixpence" changed with time and culture.

    3. If you're looking through YOUR stuff, what tools do you use to search through that?

    I use laptop search tool to find what is kept there. I use Google Search with “Personal” search in more options Google Search, for my stuff kept online.

    ReplyDelete
  3. looked at the image you used - constructed?
    SERP for the image you used - The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
    the MSO at work on a project
    interesting how 'search Google for image' strips off the colored circles…

    knows nose
    a more sophisticated version
    from "Sing a Song of Sixpence":
    "The final line of the fourth verse is sometimes slightly varied, with nose pecked or nipped off. One of the following additional verses is often added to moderate the ending:

    They sent for the king's doctor,
    who sewed it on again;
    He sewed it on so neatly,
    the seam was never seen.[1]
    or:

    There was such a commotion,
    that little Jenny wren
    Flew down into the garden,
    and put it back again"


    Jenny Wren
    Paul & Blackbird
    a Yankee cover

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. …failed to turn up yesterday —
      Romantic and Modern Music Channel
      uses translation
      "Record of the world premiere of the concert "Prometheus" on February 19, 2009 in the Ice Palace of St. Petersburg.
      The light party was made according to V. Afanasyev's system (http://afanasieff.ru), author I. Polekh, art programmer B. Bokatovich.
      The concert includes A. Anikhanov, P. Osetinskaya, M. Izotov and others."

      Ice Palace
      from the comments:
      "The myth of Prometheus, which gave people fire (not fire, which fry food, and another fire - the fire of struggle), did not give rest to Scriabin. This fire today is almost everywhere extinct, but how powerful it was during Christ's time. How it burned in the days of the Enlightenment and the Great October Revolution. It burned in the hearts during the Great Patriotic War. This fire has cooled down and now we see people who walk the earth like the shadows of great ancestors. Scriabin wanted this fire to burn and not to cool."
      fwiw
      the Winter Garden, NYC - prior to 9/11 damage
      & (…could only take so much "Mysterium", without a break)
      some scenery in jtU's neck of the woods - Abbotsford, BC

      Delete
  5. Romantic and Modern Music Channel
    uses translation
    "Record of the world premiere of the concert "Prometheus" on February 19, 2009 in the Ice Palace of St. Petersburg.
    The light party was made according to V. Afanasyev's system (http://afanasieff.ru), author I. Polekh, art programmer B. Bokatovich.
    The concert includes A. Anikhanov, P. Osetinskaya, M. Izotov and others."

    Ice Palace
    from the comments:
    "The myth of Prometheus, which gave people fire (not fire, which fry food, and another fire - the fire of struggle), did not give rest to Scriabin. This fire today is almost everywhere extinct, but how powerful it was during Christ's time. How it burned in the days of the Enlightenment and the Great October Revolution. It burned in the hearts during the Great Patriotic War. This fire has cooled down and now we see people who walk the earth like the shadows of great ancestors. Scriabin wanted this fire to burn and not to cool."
    fwiw
    the Winter Garden, NYC - prior to 9/11 damage
    & (…could only take so much "Mysterium", without a break)
    some scenery in jtU's neck of the woods - Abbotsford, BC

    ReplyDelete
  6. for the librarians – related: searching for something vaguely recalled… was that the book Dan?
    as I was wandering - the NYPL piece(s) (3rd&4th links) are right up the sRs alley…
    "A book about oranges by a Scottish author" - ⌘F - DMR studying remembering 6 years ago
    Snowball Oranges: One Mallorcan Winter - 2000
    Finding a Book When You've Forgotten Its Title - by Gwen Glazer, Librarian, Readers Services
    November 22, 2017

    the previous article
    THE SNOWBALL ORANGES SERIES
    review
    fwiw -
    "Try Google! Type in everything you can remember about the book — as in, “picture book rabbi animals advice yiddish” — and scroll through the results. (That’s a real-life example of a book a patron was asking for: It Could Always Be Worse by Margot Zemach.)"
    title mentioned in first NYPL link - video reading
    "You can also try googling one key detail you remember from a book. One of our librarians solved a book mystery by searching “USS You-Know-Who” — the name of a boat in the story that the patron happened to remember. (Another real-life example: She Flew No Flags by Joan Manley.)"
    the 2nd example

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remmij thanks and one trick we learned is searching by color. If you have some details about the book you can search by color to find it. You'd be surprised how many people will come in and say they want to borrow the blue book. Or when asked what was the title the response is I don't remember but I remember the cover was blue!

      Delete
    2. Debra, seems librarians need to be detectives too – interesting to search by appearance - seems iffy though given how often book designs change…
      the older New York Public Library post appears to confirm your "trick" though –
      'I Remember It Had a Blue Cover and... Finding Books by Their Plot Lines, by Sharon Rickson, June 28, 2012'
      'Lost Ball' example
      by covers
      the look of a library - NYPL/instagram

      from the NYPL blog - the 2017 post, 'Finding a Book When You've Forgotten Its Title' has 430 comments - BIG response comparatively speaking
      apparently there are many folks searching for books partially recalled…

      …it could be intriguing… or maddening: "…I'm looking for a book I borrowed from a friend or library - some time ago – it was a book about a book and the author
      or main character didn't remember why they couldn't remember where they lived or what they were doing before they forgot… oh, and the colophon page was at the back of
      the book and the dedication page mentioned someone named Jane and Polly… or Constance and the cover may have been dog eared and it might have been Spring when I checked it out…
      it might have been by a foreign author named Jürgen?… not sure if that was the first or last… and I just moved here, so it wasn't from this library… and it was missing page 32…
      and the jacket color may have been Labrador or Nattier…
      have you found it yet? "


      "You'd be surprised how many people will come in and say they want to borrow the blue book." — maybe they are just interested in selling/buying a car…?
      KBB ;-)

      Delete
  7. [concert orchestra light show century old] finds eventually In Books LIFE 16 Oct 1970 an article about SCRIABIN "Blended Lights and ORchestra 60 years ago" Well, that makes it 1910. He was peculiar all right.

    The piece mentioned is Prometheus. In this article from 1970 it says his Prometheus with its Lightshow has been performed dozens of times already and Yale last year (1969) was also with incense.

    Following up is a dandy Youtube from Feb 2010 at Yale explaing how it all came about via Yale Symphony

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3B7uQ5K0IU

    https://news.yale.edu/2010/01/15/scriabin-s-prometheus-be-performed-yale-living-color finds exactly what you require: The complete “Prometheus: The Poem of Fire” will be performed at 8 p.m. February 13th in Yale’s Woolsey Hall

    This is something I knew nothing about. Most curious.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Q2) Found several explanations for the poem. First did a search -baking live birds in a pie- and found out that yes birds were baked in a pie as well as other small animals. There were even some accounts of midgets being placed in a pie shell and then when it was cut they would pop out and start reciting poetry. So this part is real. But the song has several meanings. Found several sources which claim it has to do with Blackbeard the Pirate. Snopes even claims that this is true. The poem dates from the 1700's so that makes this theory plausible. The Snopes site does a pretty thorough analysis https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pirates-sing-song-sixpence/ But NPR did an interview with author Chris Roberts who wrote a book about the origins of nursery rhymes. He claims that the poem is actually about Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4933345 The article on the nursery rhyme in wikipedia doesn't offer an more helpful information.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Did a little more research. Felt this was a topic that would be addressed in a book. Found on Google books Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes and sure enough Sing a Song of Sixpence was reviewed. And author goes over the 2 theories I mention and states that the pirate story is more plausible. https://books.google.com/books?id=CbY8f-mAs3AC&lpg=PP1&dq=nursery%20rhymes%20background%20sing%20a%20song%20of%20sixpence&pg=PT135#v=onepage&q=sing%20a%20song%20of%20sixpence&f=false

    ReplyDelete
  10. 20 Blackbirds

    Wikipedia suggests avery old form of dinner entertainment: he "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie", in the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence", has its genesis in an entremet presented to amuse banquet guests in the 14th century. This extravaganza of hospitality was related by an Italian cook of the era.[10] “Live birds were slipped into a baked pie shell through a hole cut in its bottom.” The unwary guest would release the flapping birds once the upper crust was cut into

    However, have you eve rheard a blackbird sing? Not pretty. So what else?

    Wikipedia again Sing a song of sixpence: n their 1951 The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie write that the rhyme has been tied to a variety of historical events or folklorish symbols such as the queen symbolizing the moon, the king the sun, and the blackbirds the number of hours in a day; or, as the authors indicate, the blackbirds have been seen as an allusion to monks during the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII,

    There is lots of conjecture about these ancient rhymes it seems

    ReplyDelete
  11. 2) Again. http://tailsofbirding.blogspot.ca/2010/02/blackbirds-baked-in-pie.html

    The European black bird that got baked in the pie was the Common Blackbird. That was, and is, its name. When you see a picture of the Common Blackbird you might think you are seeing an American Robin that has been spray painted black. Our robin is in the Genus, Turdus. The Common Blackbird is also in the Genus, Turdus. Both are in the thrush family, Turdidae, which also includes such North American songsters as the Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, and Veery of our woodlands, and the Eastern Bluebird.

    Here is the description of the Common Blackbird’s song in Birds of Europe: “Song well known for its melodic, mellow tone, a clear and loud fluting (almost in major key) at slow tempo and on wide, often sliding scale, with soft twitter appended; verses rather short ...”

    So, the European blackbird could sing; but could it sing "Naughty Boys" as the older versions had it?

    ReplyDelete
  12. 1. Scriabin's "Prometheus: The Poem of Fire", Woolsey Hall, Yale. Search for "music composer color keyboard" got stuff within which I recognized Scriabin. (Trying without "music" buried me in ads for color keyboards.) The looked for Scriabin concerts.
    2. Controversial, according to Wikipedia. Earliest known version had "naughty boys". Added "Opie" to search for "four and twenty blackbirds", since I figured the Opies wrote about this. This just took me to Wikipedia, where I could have gone without Opie.
    3. This drives me nuts. I don't have any real tools, and don't even use Spotlight to search contents of things (I'm not sure why not; maybe because of too many returns.) I try to make use of date information, but my memory is so bad that this hurts as often as it helps. I also use email when, as is often the case, I've sent or received something to somebody connected with what I'm looking for. In the end I'm usually successful, because I'm fairly good about grouping things in folders, but the process is quite inefficient.

    ReplyDelete
  13. ► FIND MY STUFF
    _We are in control of our folders and labels; but we are not in control of names and content of emails, documents, pictures, events, or whatever sent to us. The solution to search will always start with having a single good folder naming system. But the task is complicated by sharing of folders, files, photos, and the like with family, teams, and other collaborators._
    The task is to *Create an agreed keyword folder naming system and apply it to all apps.*
    The solution is to have an agreed function based hierarchy:
    … [Function][Region][Topics][Years]
    Apply the system to every tool — Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Keep, etc.
    Place every item in appropriate folders, or attach appropriate labels.
    Recover items by tracing folders, or searching keywords.
    Learn how to use GSuite’s CloudSearch, and also each product’s search and folders system.
    ► Sample:
    An email arrives from a collaborator with a range of attachments — reports, photos, maps, etc. I need to share with my staff. But my collaborator has used terms like:
    … ‘Spread of Nassella trichotoma resistant to flupropanate herbicide in the southern tablelands over past two years’
    In our organisation, we would prefer:
    … ‘Surveillance of Group J resistance of serrated tussock in South East NSW 2016 and 2017.’
    I apply gmail labels, drive folders and descriptions, photo albums that meet our corporate filing needs:
    … Surveillance; South East; serrated tussock; Group J; 2016, 2017.
    This is consistent with the general form:
    … [Function][Region][Topics][Years]

    ► Leading conventions:
    Folder names should be meaningful to anyone, but should aid search and indexing ... they should help 'find my stuff' ... the only reason to name something is to find it again.
    Name initial folders with intended use or purpose, then subfolders with more specific project names, region/town/client, project stage, roles, or whatever. Typically avoid lists longer than about seven folders, and also try not to go deeper than three or four levels; but it should always be meaningful.
    If the organisation, or a project manager, uses some standard terms, then support their leadership and use their folder names. But add more search system terms to detail descriptions of folders if necessary.
    For each major project, create its own folder in Drive and Gmail, its own calendar, its own contact group, its own bookmarks folder. Each project is allocated the same colour for each application, if reasonably possible.
    Create a document, email, calendar event, Keep note, then always place it in the folder. As some things could be catalogued in several places, then add to alternative folders (or add alternative keyword and folder names in the description to aid search).
    Documents, emails, photos, events, and other things will be sent in by people who do not know or follow the naming conventions. We cannot get to rename emails or every document. So, all things get put into named folders; named folders are the key.
    Learn to use '/' search for folders if you have many projects; or track down your documents and stuff by the folder hierarchy.
    For general working, use folders only 2 to 3 levels deep. Create temporary level 4 folders only for drafts, staging posts, copies. Archive the folder as soon as finished.
    Avoid clutter in searches by archiving closed files.
    → References
    SearchResearch March 2016 Are we making personal search WORSE?
    SearchResearch March 2018 How to find dimly remembered things?
    Simpletivity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAAuxHSl6ak [ridiculous]
    https://www.dataone.org/best-practices/choose-and-use-standard-terminology-enable-discovery

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One collaborator repeatedly sends in emails with subject= 'Meeting', and attachments title= 'Notice of meeting', 'Agenda', 'Actions', 'Minutes'
      I could spend my life renaming everything, or I could just create a folder in our Team Drive:
      LIAISON\RWC-Macquarie\2018April05-Teleconference
      ... named folders are the key

      Delete
    2. ► Create a library rapid link system.
      → Conduct some favourite searches in Drive, Gmail,etc; then copy the URL of the searches to a document:
      TeamFiles
      Plans: Shared on google Drive - https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=before:2017-12-31%20after:2017-01-01%20Management%20plan
      Emailed: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#advanced-search/subset=all&has=management+plans&within=6m

      Share the document with your team. Copy and email to the team.
      To find files or emails, first search for TeamFiles, then click on the search that you had created previously.

      Delete
    3. ► Sundry conventions:
      Use stars for current priorities; remove stars when the topic is not current or is not a priority.

      Use singular, not plural; strategy, not strategies.

      GDrive Folder descriptions may include notes that are searched; 'Strategy includes strategies, strategic plans'. Folder descriptions are shared. Folder colours are not shared.

      Spell out the full term in folder descriptions and also suggest abbreviations.

      → Sundry notes
      The GTD — Getting Things Done — system has many useful ideas for workflow.
      #HashTags do not work in some products. Just like #HashTags, use an obscure combination (#+TagTerm) to force a private search or sort:
      1) name every instruction 'JobCard' instead of 'job card' then all tasks can be easily displayed;
      2) name cardinals 1North 2East 3South 4West to force a natural sort order.

      Change folder, label, and keywords through time as appropriate: planning, current, concluded.

      Nearly every topic should have a References folder, and it is good to set up an Archive folder too.

      Different apps have different methods for archive or the bin. A more universal archive method is to rename the folder with an initial 'zzz'. It contains drafts, backups, and duplicates. I clear the zzz folder a year after the project has concluded. [‘z’ forces this folder to the bottom of the stack]

      Folder and file names around 30 characters max. Avoid long folder and file names. —
      - List names in Drive on the web are right truncated at 32 characters; but are mid truncated on iPad 15...15; phone 8...8; so use important leading and trailing terms
      - Tile names in Drive are right truncated at 15; but are mid truncated on iPad 5...5; phone 4...4; so use important leading and trailing terms

      Folder '2016' is in folder hierarchy 'Audit » South » 2016; it has detail description'. In early 2018 it is renamed 'zzz Audit South 2016' and moved to folder 'zzz'. This is repeated in Drive, Gmail, Bookmarks, whatever. It will still show in a search and can be discovered by indexing. It can be excluded from search with '-zzz'.

      Consider the intended use e.g. “Training Material”, “Sales Enablement”, “Handover Pack”
      status e.g. “Approved”, “Quarantine”, “Obsolete”, “Archive”

      No abbrevs … use “Terms and Conditions”. Do not use “Terms & Conditions”, “Ts and Cs”, “Ts&Cs”

      Be instructive to those who follow — #WatchThis (for videos and movies), #HearThis (for songs and music), #ReadThis (for articles and books), #ReadMe (for instructions)

      Delete
    4. When I tab from Google Drive, to Gmail, to bookmarks, I see the same file structure and same colours.
      I look at my paper files, and they also have the same file structure and same colours.
      Our corporate file system, also has the same file structure.

      It's easy to know where the principal place a file or group of files ought to be placed.
      ... [Function]\[Region]\[Topics]\[Years]

      The only recurring purpose for keeping a file is to find it again.
      The purpose of a file or folder name is for it to be meaningful for those who follow.
      We should try to make this as easy as possible.

      Google search for Internet pages seems to be fully developed --- it knows that some terms kind of mean the same thing: plan, strategy, outline.
      GDrive, Gmail, and Windows searches are not yet fully developed. As such, we still need to set ourselves up for success.

      Delete
    5. Michael -- It's been a while since you posted this, but I wanted to say thanks! I'll be expanding on these topics in the not-too-distant future. You've got a lot of great ideas in here that deserve a broader discussion.,

      Delete
  14. Q3)This is a great question because there have been times that I know I have saved something and can't find it! So what do I do? Like Michael I save things in folders. I have hundreds of folders but usually if I search in mail can find what I'm looking for. But again like Michael it drives me nuts when I send an email out about some topic - let's say library curriculum and then someone responds with a completely new topic. GRR! Not emailing my husband on library issues but nevertheless he is famous for responding to an email on a completely unrelated topic. Usually I don't need to save his emails (don't tell him that though).
    I also use bookmarks to save links I want to read in the Chrome browser. I have folder there as well.
    Then there are social bookmarking sites like diigo. Use to use a lot especially for school and library related topics. But I have it linked to my twitter account so my tweets are saved. Since my kidney surgery 2 yrs ago many if not most of my tweets are now more related to urology topics so would need to go in and really clean it up. For the school, library topics it was very effective because of the tagging features.
    And finally sometimes I do just have to use my memory; wanted to reference a talk and thought I'd bookmarked it. I hadn't. Knew it was in email tried searching by topic no go. But remembered who it was emailed from and did a search for that sender. Then I was able to search through just the emails from that one entity. Found the talk I wanted.
    And finally, if I can't remember and can't find it (actually happening right now) I reach out to a friend or someone I think may have info. In this case it was in a tweet. Reached out to the person who I thought had tweeted out the information. He doesn't remember but now have him looking for said info!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Not only is the fish robotic, so is the article https://weekfacts.com/2018/03/first-robotic-fish-open-the-secret-of-sea-life-says-mit/ Is it possible that Amy Stone is also a robot? If not, the ability to write a couple of sentences that read “With an instrument that does not affect the Marine Life, that isn’t terrifying or unfamiliar to marine life, who recognizes what sort of otherworldly and extraordinary minutes we can catch?” said Daniela Rus, executive of CSAIL, who took a Shot at the venture. “[It] will give us a superior comprehension of submerged marvels.” is in itself terrifying and unworldly. Looking at the other articles by the "author" have similarly weird phrasing and expression. Maybe this could be another search research challenge to detect text written by a robot (or perhaps badly translated by a robot from another language??)

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    Replies
    1. I noticed that too. It is a bit odd, isn't it? To be sure, there ARE robots writing text for us. See: AI-powered Journalism.

      Delete
    2. my apologies for the exposure… should have noticed it was "WEAK FACTS"
      "About Us
      Week Facts has its roots in bringing to the fore absolute facts about trending news and analysis on the web including Social Media platforms. We bring to you news reports, analysis and Opinion on trending issues, journalistic Investigations, Social media chatter and a lot more.

      Week Facts though part of a larger corporation is an independent online publication with its own editorial team and staff members. Further, Week Facts is not associated with any Law Enforcement Agency or Government organization."

      humble:
      "Founded on August 8, 2017 Mission:To give people all around the world News, discuss, and share in their passion for our organization."


      …all prefessionals and collegians of a highest order — like them alles on THE former facebooq.
      Rony, Lora, Ginny, Amy, Amanda(m?), in addition Amanda(f?) are all of us be shackled by your questioning of the physical presence of our writing qualifications…
      example: "Amanda Keough – Amanda focuses much of his writing career on genres like Entertainment, Technology, andSports instead. Now She contributes stories in these fields as a means to give that World new life."

      aMY Stoned on twittery

      the parent company fb page… hmmmm…

      Delete