Wednesday, March 22, 2017

SearchResearch Challenge (3/22/2017): There's a fly in my...

Every so often you pause and say "What??"  

This happens to me fairly often, perhaps more often than you'd think.  One of those times was a couple of week ago when I was using the "facilities" and saw this in my field of view: 

"That's odd..." I thought, "why is there a bee in my urinal?"  

Here's the stepped-back view.  

This is the kind of unusual, a bit odd, and definitely strange thing one needs to memorialize in a picture.  A quick glance around, and I got the shot.  

Then just a few days later, I found THIS: 

in the bottom of this: 

As I said in an earlier post, travel is broadening...  

We run across mysteries on a daily basis, and our curiosity drives us to ask questions... Such as this week's set of questions that came up while travelling.  

1.  Why are those little images in the bottom of the urinals?  What were the bowl designers thinking?  (Just contemplate that for a moment:  Somewhere there is a designer who designed this.  What's their motivation?)  

2.  On a different note, I got this two scary looking screens (below) popping up on my Nexus 5 Android phone not long after taking these photos.  Should I be worried?  What (if any) action should I take? (I'm already suspicious because I don't recall visiting any "adult sites.")  

3.  While traveling in Norway, I found the sign below on a tram.  What's this sign all about?  (I don't read enough Norwegian to figure it out.  Can you?)  Remember that you can click on the image to see it at full-resolution.

Be sure to tell us HOW you figured out these answers.  (These should be pretty quick and fun.) 


Search on!  


  1. 1. Guys aim better with a target to hit.

    2. Don't click on anything. Get help.

    3. Swix ski wax Lubricate first for more action ( a double entendre, methinks)

    1. How do you know? Did you get this from the interior regions of your skull, or do you have a way to search for it? (I can believe you just know the answer.. but if you didn't, how would you discover it?)

    2. Well I figured out the same answers as i was reading the questions. This week it is fairly easy to get the answers from the interior regions of my skull.
      I have to admit tough that a) i am a guy so the aiming sign was clear b) the virus wants you to install something, we all know that trick (i hope) and c) the picture is selfexplaining for everyone who goes skiing ^^

    3. I realised too late that I had omitted the How factor.
      3. I used Google Translate on part of it and got enough to guess what it actually meant. I know what Swix is and what ski gear looks like.
      1. I have just known for years. I guess I would search for bug in urinal toilet
      2. Too late to Search for anything except using another device: Search for some of the phrases in it is what I would do.

      HTH jon tU

    4. alt Bee/Fly
      …alas, again have a missing? comment * see below…
      btw, LMAOROTFBTCSTCNDBFOOTWIFOAGWLLBGWTHROOTSAIAKBAYB (sorry to hear about Bill… or maybe it was Erna Solberg - might have been this one…)

      *with additions:
      jon is concise, witty & succinct… right on target.
      bee pee putter/flagstick… it is almost Master's time
      earlier version, 2009
      I was stopped in my tracks when I got off the "lube tram"…
      "Norwegian Wood" insight into the mindset
      Norway has much in the + column…

      searching an image
      brain/skull 'adult site' - "I don't understand ski wax yet…"
      [from the interior regions of your skull searchresearch (notice the difference if 'searchresearch' is entered as two words)]

      SWIX BD
      Swix 70år 1946-2016
      R&D english

  2. Good day, Dr. Russell and everyone.


    [bee sign on urinal] I noticed is a fly not a bee later.

    to aim at targets

    Aiming To Reduce Cleaning Costs Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport...Sphinx, the urinal manufacturer that provides the toilets for Schiphol, says that having the fly in the toilet represents savings in cleaning costs of 20% or more...

    Answer: To reduce cleaning costs. Flies and other animals and stuff have been used to reduce time, cost and have cleaner bathrooms


    A. Not searching but looking photo. I think is just spam url looks totally fake. Then tried [.top domain] shows is mostly for scammers. [the url] zero results.


    a. We can use Google translate app
    a1. Google translate [først smøre så kjøre]
    b. Search for a tool [photo translator online] [norwegian translator]
    C. Ask Ruter (Norwegian transport)
    D. [først smøre - så kjøre først av så på norwegian tram]

    Answer: Nothing yet

    Mapping:Gall-Peters Projection Related to previous SRS on maps and mapping

    1. [urinals drawings statistics]

      No flies: coat the surface with something soft. (Nov 2016)

      [today i found out fly on urinal] mentions article from WSJ

      [Schiphol fly urinal WSJ ]

      process control

      [fly-in-urinal trials]

      the flies are example of a “nudge”

      The Amsterdam urinals Comment mentions in Germany an audio ask males to sit down. I wonder if this is true

      [Germany bathroom audio asks men to sit down]

      In some German homes, little notices are tacked to the underside of the toilet seat so that seat-raising males are reminded to consider their options. Or with little gadget called a Spuk (2010)

      [German toilet spuk] images are funny

      A Ghost for German Toilets (2004) After conquering the German market, Spuk has already taken over toilets in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Canada.

      About Q3 went to Google translate and simply wrote [Noen ting gjør seg best i riktig rekkefølge. Slipper du folk av før du går på, får alle en hyggeligere reise] "Some things do their best in order. Release people before going on, everyone gets a nicer trip"

  3. … while I was facing the wall, working on aim protocols,
    this former challenge popped into my head…
    a little ""The Chutes" history - fills in a bit of previous sRs exploration…
    see starting ~ 6:30 & 21:23
    soggy SERP
    "Paul Boyton opened Paul Boyton's Water Chute, America's first modern amusement park, at 63rd and Drexel in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1894. Captain Boyton's was the first amusement park to rely solely on mechanical attractions—specifically, America's first major Shoot the Chute ride.Paul Boyton and Thomas Polk built another example in 1895 for Sea Lion Park at Coney Island. The ride was widely copied and "Chute" rides were found at many amusement parks throughout the United States,[3] and even became the name of several amusement parks. While the original form of the ride is largely obsolete, modern log flume rides work on similar principles." source: wikipedia
    near Dan

  4. Anne and Deb here. We had fun with this challenge (and happy to be back we have been so busy at work). For challenge #1 we used search terms:
    and got these 2 very interesting results that explained what is going on here.

    Turns out that there can be a lot of clean up involved when aim is off target. So companies have devised ways to prevent the splashback. One of the articles mentions that targets worked better when they weren't of things men didn't want to pee on like flowers and butterflies, but yet if it was something too scary like spiders that didn't work either. Flies seemed to be the optimal target. But according to the first article there are very old urinals in England which use a bee. And according to the article "The bee was put on as an unusually vulgar Victorian joke,’ he says. ‘The Latin for bee is apis. Victorian gentlemen would have been schooled in Latin and would have got this joke, which would be lost on us now. It’s quite rare for any humour to be applied to sanitary manufacturing, so I rather like this.’ Have to admit it took me a minute to get it!
    And if you'd like your very own stickers to adorn your home toilet you can purchase them here and there is quite a variety!

    Question 2:
    Did search using terms -
    and used this result although all of the first page results were similar
    According to the community answers not a concern but did give directions for getting rid of the annoying pop-up
    Next we did the following search -

    And got the following result which again says that it isn't a concern but gave directions for what to do.

    Question 3:
    Did the following search after putting words in google translate - didn't really make sense to saw the word swix on the jar in the ad so did this search:

    Result was Ski magazine Dec. 90 with an article which mentions Swix brand ski wax.

    Now that we knew what swix was did the following search:

    Which brought us to the company page -

    Swix is a Norwegian company which makes ski wax. With the popularity of skiing in Norway, especially cross-country, ski wax would be a very important product hence it's ads appearing on trams.

  5. And the golf flag urinal is in the Netherlands -

    1. So just realized our search terms didn't show
      For 1) used Bees in urinals
      2) started with: android antivirus center and then did android antivirus center us.yvn5btos
      3) ad in norway tram swix
      and then used: norway swix

  6. nice solutions Deb & Anne… much of search seems to be about defining the seemingly indescribable or unfamiliar & finding context… then Dan tosses in a foreign language or idiom.
    using language to describe things and/or concepts can be like a fish riding a bicycle or a fly needing a chardonnay… ironic
    in Germany… Muggeseggele
    WotD - 0.22 millimetres (0.0087 in) flies/bees - see Australia colloquial reference
    which led to this:
    list 2 too also II
    is it all getting too complicated, too early? spinning target…
    fwiw, golf flag was picked up by reddit