Answer: What are these three things?
This was supposed to be simple...
... but as we know, even simple Research Questions can sometimes be more complicated than you'd think.
Here's what I did in each case...
So... what IS this creature?
The pin is about 1 inch long (2.5 cm) and the "collar" clearly snaps into a groove around the center. (It's also a bit more circular than my sketch, but you get the idea.)
What IS this gizmo? How do you search for something like this?
[ piano covers for sale ]
and found a number of sites that sell piano covers (including ones that are designed and cut for exactly THIS piano, a Kimball baby grand). Reading through the descriptions I found they're made of either Mackintosh fabric (a kind of rubberized fabric that's made of multiple layers--read the fascinating backstory of how this fabric was invented) OR a kind of multi-layer fabric with a vinyl layer. All of the covers come in either flat (i.e., one layer) or quilted (multiple layers of fabric, stitched in a protective quilted style).
1. Sometimes, just sometimes, using another search engine actually improves your search! In this case, Yandex' search-by-image gave us exactly the right result. Big lesson here--if one doesn't work, try another one (Bing, Baidu, and Yandex all have good search-by-image functions).
2. Often a near-miss can give you clues about how to improve your search. In this case, I learned the word "clevis" from a SERP that wasn't great. But when I search for that term, all my results were excellent. Learn from your near-misses!
3. Consider the value of searching for a product that covers what you're seeking. If you're searching for something that someone might sell (like a piano cover), you can search for it and learn a lot by reading the descriptions.
Search on!
... but as we know, even simple Research Questions can sometimes be more complicated than you'd think.
Here's what I did in each case...
1. I've got a BIG (4 meters tall!) trellis of green beans growing in my garden. On Monday, I found this growing on stalks. Do I need to worry about them? Will they eat up all my beans? What should I do?
So... what IS this creature?
Here it is on my thumb for scale:
And a fairly in-focus closeup. The colors are even more striking in real life!
I first did what many of you did... Search-by-Image. Here's what I found. Looks plausible, yes?
But as I worked my way through the images, there are lots of SIMILAR bugs, but nothing quite right. The dots aren't in the right place, and none of them had the orange-colored epaulettes at the shoulder.
So I modified the query and tried again--but no dice.
I thought that there MUST be other images of this fairly dramatic bug on the web, so I changed my search tactic and went to Yandex's search-by-image tool. Lo and behold, this is what I found:
That's impressively good. My uploaded image matches pictures 1, 2, and 4 really well. The first two organic results (from iNaturalist) look like the perfect match.
Even better is the next result (just below the screencap) from Wikipedia identifying this bug as a Nezara viridula. Specifically, this is the third instar nymph of this bug, known colloquially as a southern green stink bug (in the USA), southern green shield bug (UK) or green vegetable bug (Australia and New Zealand). It's a plant-feeding stink bug that goes through a number of developmental stages (known as instars). This developmental sequence from the Nezara viridula article shows the various stages really well. Take note of the 3rd instar--that's our bug. Same shape, same yellow dots, same orange dots on the shoulders. (Click on the image to see it full-size.) And that explains why I don't see them any more--they've all moved on to the 4th instar and are full adults (by now).
For those of you who thought it was a kind of ladybug (aka a "ladybird beetle"), you assumed too much. If you search for a [ ladybug with yellow dots ] you find something that looks a lot like this, but you've led the witness (i.e., the search engine). Careful!
2. This is a diagram of an important part of a 3-hole punch that's currently broken. It's an aluminum metal pin with a collar-like-thing around the middle. That's the part that is missing, so the pin keeps slipping out onto the floor when I use it. I want to buy a new one… but... What do I call this? How can I find this online?
I tried to get a good picture of this part, but could never get a good enough photo to use. Here's my sketch.
My first inclination was to search for:
[ pin and clip ]
but that ended up showing my lots of pins that had a hole in them and a cotter pin. That's close, but not quite right. This is what I saw:
And that's not bad! In the first row, 4th from the left, it's described as a "pin and E-clip." Which is a good answer. But when I looked at the site, it's clear that this is because the clip is shaped like an E. You can't see it in my drawing, but it's actually shaped more like a "C."
So...
I modified my query to be:
[ pin c clip ]
and got these results...
Look at the first result in the second row: That's called a clevis Pin/C clip. Useful! This is close, but I'm looking for exactly what I drew.
Finally, I decided to be specific, adding in terms that described the exactly what was special about my goals... and did a search for [ clevis pin groove clip ] and found this!
See that sketch in the upper left? THAT's what I was trying to draw!
And now I know what it is.
3. I just got a new piano. Hurrah! I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. But the place where it will sit in the house is fairly sunny. What should I use to cover it to protect from sun damage? What material should it be made of? (Keep in mind that this instrument has a new finish.)
[ piano covers for sale ]
and found a number of sites that sell piano covers (including ones that are designed and cut for exactly THIS piano, a Kimball baby grand). Reading through the descriptions I found they're made of either Mackintosh fabric (a kind of rubberized fabric that's made of multiple layers--read the fascinating backstory of how this fabric was invented) OR a kind of multi-layer fabric with a vinyl layer. All of the covers come in either flat (i.e., one layer) or quilted (multiple layers of fabric, stitched in a protective quilted style).
Search Lessons
1. Sometimes, just sometimes, using another search engine actually improves your search! In this case, Yandex' search-by-image gave us exactly the right result. Big lesson here--if one doesn't work, try another one (Bing, Baidu, and Yandex all have good search-by-image functions).
2. Often a near-miss can give you clues about how to improve your search. In this case, I learned the word "clevis" from a SERP that wasn't great. But when I search for that term, all my results were excellent. Learn from your near-misses!
3. Consider the value of searching for a product that covers what you're seeking. If you're searching for something that someone might sell (like a piano cover), you can search for it and learn a lot by reading the descriptions.
Search on!
