Search Challenge (2/18/15): A couple of odd questions....

Every so often you see something and just stop to wonder about it.  This happened to me twice this past week, and in finding the answers, I realized they'd make good Challenges for you to consider.  

I stayed at home this past week with a truly annoying case of bronchitis.  I was functional--barely--but rather than go into work, I stayed at home the entire week, working via email, Google Hangouts, and shared Docs.  It's not a bad way to work, truthfully (although I did miss the Google cafeteria).  

But as I sat at home I noticed two things that piqued my curiosity.  Can you figure out the answers to these questions?  

While listening to an album by the cowboy group, Riders in the Sky, I picked up the CD case (from which I'd ripped the tracks) and spotted something that stood out.  As you know, the Riders in the Sky group play in the style of the classic cowboy and Western songs from the 1930s--it's a celebration of the mythical cowpoke songs that were popular back then (think of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter--the guys in white hats with guitars).  

Looking at the picture of "Woody Paul," I spotted something on his shirt that seemed a bit out-of-place.  As you know, singing cowboy shirts are colorful affairs, usually with western motifs and decorations.  But this was different.  Here's an excerpt from his picture: 

Woody Paul's awesome shirt.
Image excerpted from Riders in the Sky website.

See his collar and over the left side of his chest?  Those are some kind of mathematics equations.  Really?  On a cowboy shirt?  

1.  Those equations are really interesting, but WHAT do they mean?  And why would Woody Paul put them on his concert performance gear?  (For extra points: Where did Woody go to college?)  

While working from home, I had the chance to sit outside in the backyard, laptop in lap, enjoying the warm sunshine and drinking lemonade.  The backyard has a fair number of trees, and over the years I've enjoyed watching the birds come and go with the seasons.  

Some bird species never really leave, they just hang around all year.  Some kinds of hummingbirds (Anna's, for instance), mourning doves, and crows are resident--they're here spring, summer, fall, winter.  

But oddly enough, I seem to be seeing a LOT more crows this year than in years past.  Now that I think about it, I used to rarely see them when I first moved to the San Francisco Bay area in the 1980s, then they seemed to have become more and more common over the years.  If I were to guess, I'd say that the past decade seems to have been a huge expansion period for crows here.  Is this true?

2.  Have crows become suddenly much more common in the Bay Area?  Is it just crows, or have ravens also turned into frequent guests?  

I'm really interested here in HOW you find out the answers to these questions.  It's not immediately obvious how to search for Woody's shirt equation, nor is it immediately obvious how to find the data for crow population growth.  So please be sure to let us know how you did your search!  

My answer on Friday!  

Search on.