Wednesday, May 31, 2017

SearchResearch Challenge (9/31/17): Nautical mysteries?


Every so often you hear a few stories that just seem to go together.  

This week, even though I'm teaching in Switzerland (maybe because I'm in Switzerland), I hear three stories that seem a bit too odd to be true.  Can you help me figure out if these are real stories or not?  

Here they are.  In each case, what's going on?  True.... or not? 

1.  I keep reading about people going whale watching in Lake Superior.  Can I really see whales in Superior??  (It is, after all, a great lake.  Could whales possibly live there?) 
2.  I was reading a bit o' Irish history and happened to read about a place called Clonmacnoise, where, once upon a time, a few of the monks apparently saw a sailing ship fly past in the air.  How would such a thing be possible?  Can you figure out any plausible way that people could see ships in mid-air?   




3.  Since I'm in landlocked Switzerland, someone happen to mention that Switzerland has a navy.  I've only ever heard that term used perjoratively, so I wonder: Really?  Does Switzerland really have a navy?  If so, where is it?  

I don't think these are really hard, but they're questions that all came up for me this week.  What's your advice?  Should I trust these statements? Or are they... fake stories?   

Search on! 


19 comments:

  1. Good night, Dr. Russell and everyone.

    Very interesting questions. I hope you having great time in Switzerland. I'm sure you enjoying chocolate, fondue, and beautiful scenery.

    For some reason Q2 sounds familiar. At the moment don't know why. So I did a quick search. [Clonmacnoise monks ships] and reading https://journeytowardseaster.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/seamus-heaney-and-the-monks-of-clonmacnoise/

    I need to find more and then the Whales and Navy.

    Out of Topic: I like a lot the new Personal Tab on Google Search. And the the Mission Solar Parker -to study the Sun- announced today is also something amazing, that I now enjoy more thanks to SRS about comet that Dr. Russell shared in past years.

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    1. Hello Dr. Russell and everyone

      1. I keep reading about people going whale watching in Lake Superior. Can I really see whales in Superior?? (It is, after all, a great lake. Could whales possibly live there?)

      [whales lake superior]

      Answer:
      No. There are no whales in Lake Superior, big or small.
      And tells how this rumor began.

      For the second part of the question:
      whales cannot live in freshwater environments, at least not for long periods of time. There also mentioned porpoise and that is the second time I saw the same animal on less than 2 weeks
      1st time: That Time Dick Van Dyke was Saved by Porpoises While Lost at Sea.

      So, this time I searched [define porpoise] to know more and also know how they are called in Spanish. Answer: Marsopa

      [Marsopa]
      Las marsopas son Phocoenidae y los delfines son Dolphinae Also learned that Vaquita Marina is a Marsopa (Porpoise) wich is almost extincted

      La vaquita marina (Phocoena sinus)

      Los expertos proponen mantenerlas en cautiverio para prevenir su extinción, pero podría no ser suficiente.”...El plan involucraría delfines entrenados que son parte de la Marina de Estados Unidos, los cuales localizarían a las vaquitas marinas para capturarlas, transferirlas a un estanque temporal y, después, colocarlas en un corral marino que sería construido dentro de su hábitat a lo largo de la costa del golfo de California. La mayoría de las vaquitas marinas permanecerían en libertad….”

      Answer No whales in Lake Superior and no, they can’t live in freshwater.

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    2. 2. I was reading a bit o' Irish history and happened to read about a place called Clonmacnoise, where, once upon a time, a few of the monks apparently saw a sailing ship fly past in the air. How would such a thing be possible? Can you figure out any plausible way that people could see ships in mid-air?

      [Clonmacnoise monks ships] in YouTube to know the site.

      Clonmacnoise and Shannonbridge

      Clonmacnoise Monastic Settlement - Ireland

      As Remmij already posted some data in English. I tried in Spanish

      [Clonmacnoise monjes barco flotante]

      Conversación con Seamus Heaney: la conciencia poética. Seamus Heaney in Mexico”...En inglés, los dos significados de lightening son iluminación y aligeramiento. El barco en el aire escapa a la gravedad y, de alguna forma, ilumina a los monjes…”


      Monasterio de Clonmacnoise (History and data) [Book of the Dun Cow] From Wikipedia: “ is an Irish vellum manuscript dating to the 12th century. It is the oldest extant manuscript in Irish.”


      Speculum Regale, elaborada hacia 1250 Ctrl- F “Clonmacnoise”... primera vez en los Anales del Ulster. Allí se dice muy escuetamente que, el año 749, “barcos con sus tripulaciones fueron vistos en el aires sobre Clonmacnoise”.

      And searching in English

      [Clonmacnoise monks floating ship meaning

      Seamus Heaney, and Ships that Sail the Air
      Seamus Heaney and the Monks of Clonmacnoise

      When you go to Clonmacnoise, you can see at least one of the reasons why this legend makes sense. The water reflects the sky in such a way that they blend together like a watercolor, it is difficult to distinguish between the two.

      The Phenomenon of Ships in the Sky in Medieval Ireland and Beyond.


      3. Since I'm in landlocked Switzerland, someone happen to mention that Switzerland has a navy. I've only ever heard that term used perjoratively, so I wonder: Really? Does Switzerland really have a navy? If so, where is it?

      [Switzerland navy]

      Swiss Armed Forces

      Switzerland has no navy; however, on lakes bordering neighbouring countries, armed military patrol boats are used. Swiss citizens are prohibited from serving in foreign armies, except for the Swiss Guards of the Vatican, or if they are dual citizens of a foreign country and reside there. Now I understand Remmij’s photo

      I tried different queries with terms like army, navy and others and results not showing good results for this challenge only, clocks (watches)and other kind of products mentioned.

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  2. Anne and I were really excited about the challenge this week because we do a whole unit on fake news and whale sightings in the Great Lakes is always a favorite of librarians to use! When we did a search on -Whales lake Superior - the first result brings us to North Shore Visitor activities whale watching http://www.northshorevisitor.com/activities/whale-watching/ We know this isn't a definitive source but could see how students or others could just read this and assume it is true. But the 3rd result is a snopes article that says this is false; further down in the results is an article from GreenPeace which talks about this not being true. We also looked up if whales could live in freshwater and the answer is no. So no there are no whales in the Great Lakes.
    Skipping #2 for now
    3) There is no Swiss Navy. Did a search for Swiss Navy and found many products with the name swiss navy in them. We got a link to the wikipedia site for the Swiss Armed Services and found that there is no swiss navy however, there is a maritime branch of the army which patrols the many lakes in Switzerland also performs search and rescue missions. The term the admiral of the Swiss Navy is used as a joke.

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  3. PatentYogi is getting chills — Google Navy… wha?
    off topic, but seemed interesting & tangentially related to your current location
    the prepared Swiss…
    Swiss flying ships shooting the Alps…
    Axalp
    2015
    Swiss flying ship
    in traffic
    J5020
    more J5020
    which led to Meiringen Air Base -
    no floaty ships in sight…
    they do like graphic design

    is this what happens when the Navy is waterless? twitter
    there's almost always a list
    the Swiss Merchant Navy @ 76 (On 9 April 1941, the Swiss maritime flag was created)
    "The customer then asked: Well it works for Switzerland, but how do Swiss pilots manage the orientation abroad?
    Yves “Jetman” Rossy:
    We do not invade, so why do pilots have to manage navigation abroad?"

    the attitude… a bit insular.
    patrol boats/budget considerations
    fwiw: advertising complexity…
    debunking
    and when search has become overwhelming & you need a break…
    nearby, in Serbia - side trip?

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    1. Hi Remmij! Thanks for the links. How did you find the Swiss Merchant and the other Swiss links? I, like Anne and Debra, couldn't find more links related.

      I am thinking what words could work and try that tomorrow

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    2. With [Swiss naval army] found Remmij's link : Switzerland to renew its patrol boat fleet and the Swiss Merchant, among others.

      [Swiss river naval security]

      Wikipedia: A landlocked navy is a naval force operated by a country which does not have a coastline."...Switzerland – The Swiss Armed Forces operate Aquarius-class patrol boats on Lake Geneva, Lake Maggiore, Lake Lucerne, Lake Lugano and Lake Constance. The small vessels are manned by the 10th Motorboat Company of the Engineers Corps...River-based forces are often referred to as brown-water navies,...."

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    3. Thanks Remmij. I did a search and find some, as you can read on my post. I'll try your query to see what else I can find. The new links are interesting (reading them now)

      I hope John the Unknown is doing Ok and he shares more data about ships as you mention.

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  4. Replies
    1. The Andrew Cusack commentary on the Swiss guard is pretty funny. Excellent LOL moment! Thanks.

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  5. 1. No, not possible. A quick search for [ whale lake superior ] will pull this up, but if you modify the search with [freshwater] you can confirm the intuitive sense that there are no whales in the lake.

    2. At first, my strategy was to find sources about the folklore. I began with a basic search [Clonmacnoise folklore ship/crew]. This pulled up a few different articles talking about myths in Irish culture. In one in particular, an explanation is given that what the people of this folklore are observing is really just a cloud
    (https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17808/22180). I thought that ended my search, but since I was curious to see picture of the phenomenon I look at Google Images for [ship sailing sky Clonmacnoise] and found some strange pictures that led me to another explanation. It’s possible that they were seeing is the Fata Morgana mirage.

    An interesting thought occurred to me while searching. Perhaps the best strategy for questions like these is to anticipate what the answer might be. I might have gotten to this answer quicker had I first ask a question to myself: Clearly this is not possible, what do you think could have caused this? Then use the answer to that question as my keywords.


    3. Maritime Navigation Office which are a fleet of privately owned ships that are used for the country’s economic needs in time of crisis or war. The Swiss maritime office is located in Basel, but the ships could be roaming anywhere on the sea. Shipowners are required to communicate their location to the Swiss government on a weekly basis. To find this information, a search for [ swiss navy ] pulled up a promising page that cited the branch of the Swiss government responsible for the Merchant Navy.

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