A blog about search, search skills, teaching search, learning how to search, learning how to use Google effectively, learning how to do research. It also covers a good deal of sensemaking and information foraging.
... is the chance to see the world in new ways. Every time I travel, I always see anew and come across wondrous things that rattle around in my brainpan for months afterward.
As one might say, in a turn of phrase widely attributed to Issac Asimov,
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny…”
As you know, I've just returned to Silicon Valley from my sojourn in Zürich. It was a wonderful time, full of fascinating places, cultural traditions, and an immersion in a culture that is not my own, but marvelous to behold.
But, as you might expect, I noticed a few funny things that drew my attention--things that I need to share with you as SRS Challenges.
Can you figure these out? (I don't think they're that hard, but they ARE incredibly interesting.)
1. In the picture of St. Peterskirche (above) there's something about the clock tower that struck my eye and made me say, "That's funny..." Does it strike your eye too? Can you find an explanation for it? (No, it's not leaning.)
2. All around Zürich I kept running across places that had this logo (below). They always seem to be centered around a coffee shop / diner of some kind, but they seem to be much more than just another coffee shop. What are these places? Why would one go there?
3. I was lucky enough to see one of these wee beasties flying over a clump of flowers and sipping nectar, looking for all the world like a hummingbird. But it's NOT a hummingbird! What is it? (I wish this image was mine, but none of my shots turned out. This is from Wikipedia.)
A mysterious flying critter. What is it? P/C Wikimedia
4. You know the quote above that's reputedly by Asimov? I have my doubts. Can you figure out where it actually comes from?
As always, please tell us your findings in the comments below. BE SURE to tell us what you did to find your answers.
{ Preface: Sorry about the long delay in posting this Answer. It was finals week here in Zürich, and I got rather busy with end-of-term stuff. I'm also planning on returning to Silicon Valley--my home-home--next week, so I won't be posting this coming week either. See you in 2 weeks! }
The lake bed very, very, very flat--exceedingly dry, and not much goes on there.
The point of this particular post is to show you how to approach this kind of geographic question.
So... what would be interesting about Rosamond Lake? Let's find out, and test my theory that nothing is boring... you just haven't done enough research yet.
1. What is the story (stories?) with Rosamond Lake? What makes it particularly interesting?
When dealing with a geographic place like Rosamond, I'll first search for some aerial views, just so I can see what the place is and to get a sense of context. A great starting point is to review the SRS post from a while ago about access to different Earth images. (What are some good (almost) real-time satellite image sources?)
Here are a few images I found (remember that you can click on each to get the full-size image):
The first thing that strikes me is the presence of a large X-shaped marks. If you look closely at the Bing and Google images, you can see the double line heading to the upper right. Here's a side-by-side of the images. Note that all of the images vary slightly--difference in time of day, day of the year, the imaging system used... they all make differences in the final images.
Interestingly, the line shown on the Wikimapia image runs from upper left to lower right. In some of the photos, it's really hard to see. I could only spot it on the WeGo image (below, click to enlarge):
Interesting that it's so hard to see, but clearly there. Is it just a faded road, or what?
This is a job for Google Earth's "Historical Imagery" feature. I brought up Google Earth and pulled the time slider back to 1985 and discovered this very clear X shape on the lake bed:
Rosamond Lake, 1985. P/C Google Earth
Those marks are pretty clearly graded emergency landing strips to serve as backup landing sites for the nearby Edwards Air Force Base, located just to the east of Rosamond Lake. It has its own dry lake bed, Rogers Lake, which as you can see, has a bunch of backup landing strips. (Intriguingly, it also has a compass rose marked in the lake bed as well. See the Wikipedia article about this feature, painted on Rogers Lake in 1985, and a high-res image of the rose.)
Rogers Lake, with Edwards AFB on the left. Note all of the graded paths that act as emergency landing zones. Very similar to Rosamond Lake. P/C Google Earth (1995)
Now we know about the mysterious X on the lake bed--what other stories might we find? More importantly, what's our strategy for finding them?
Here are my search strategies:
#1. Check news. Current news is worth checking, but more importantly check newspaper back issues using either Newspapers.com (or similar) or the Google News Archive (Note, however, that the Google News Archive has a problem actually locating the item you're looking for... you have to scroll around a bit to find the target! It's also not being updated, so it's growing increasingly elderly.)
#2. Search regular search for [ stories "Rosamond Lake" ] -- that will sometimes get you interesting hits.
#3. Check Google Books for "Rosamond Lake."
#4. Check YouTube videos. (You never know what will be in there!)
#5. Check various AIs. I like to use a prompt like this:
[ I am a news reporter who writes about history and science. What stories might I write about the Rosamond Lake in California? Give story ideas along with references to the information behind those story ideas. ]
Note that I'm giving the AI a bit of context ("I am a...") and asking for references. If you have access to Deep Research models, use them to scan a LOT of web pages. As always, check the results.
Using these methods, I found several stories of interest. Many of them having to do with setting endurance records (by both car and plane), with new stories telling of ever newer records year after year.
A. Hard landing: An X-15 landed very hard on Rosamond Lake after engine failure. Unable to dump its load of fuel, it had to land on the dry lakebed, breaking its back in the process. (See: NASA's telling of the story.)
X-15 with broken back after landing hard with full load of fuel on Rosamond Lake. (1959) P/C NASA
After checking YouTube for this, I found this amazing footage of the X-15 coming in on this hard landing:
Link to video. Note that the narrator tells us that "Crossfield jettisons the rocket fuel..." Although apparently he wasn't able to get rid of all of it, leading to a heavy / hard landing.
B. Piute Ponds. If you look at the images above in the lower left corner, you'll see a place that looks like it's covered in water... and it is! Those are Piute Ponds:
The story is that they were formed when Los Angeles County Sanitation District 14 created a dike keep its effluent from reaching Rosamond dry lakebed. (If you look at the image above, you can see it wasn't always successful.) The ponds continue to be sustained with input from the District 14 Wastewater treatment plant.
The manmade ponds are the largest freshwater wetlands in Los Angeles County and has become an important bird area in California with over 200 species of migratory birds such as the Great Blue Heron, the Great Horned Owl, the Black Crowned Night Heron and the Western Snowy Plover. (Desert News; Edwards AFB news; Edwards AFB public info site; Museum of Art and History article)
C. Gold mining. If you look around Rosamond Lake, you'll find several gold mines with intriguing stories. The Tropico Hill mine used to be a clay mine, until someone tested the clay and found substantial gold in it! That's just a few miles west of Rosamond Lake. Looking a bit northward, you'll find Soledad Mountain, a gold mine that's been in service since 1835, and is STILL in use today. (Mojave Desert news)
Soledad Mountain with the Golden Queen Mine (other mines have been incorporated into this one). P/C Google Maps
D. Energy production. If you cast your aerial map gaze just slightly north you'll see vast rows of solar panels and wind mills. This area is actually one of the largest green energy sites in California.
Energy production near Rosamond Lake P/C Google Maps
As I said earlier, there are always stories if you dig deep enough. This is just the beginning!
Our Regular Searchresearchers had a few other insights worth sharing...
Krossbow pointed out how sometimes asking a real person can give you an insight that you might not have otherwise discovered.
And remmij found that the rock start Madonna used a the lake as filming/backdrop location. It's an interesting video because you can see a very evocative version of the lake.
I don't know if you found these stories "exciting" enough to move your needle towards "Deep Interest," but I hope these methods are all part of your portfolio of SearchResearch techniques.
