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The title should be 'Hovering ship', as it is in the BBC article. There is nothing special about a floating ship.
by Thomashuet 6y ago
The title should be 'Hovering ship', as it is in the BBC article. There is nothing special about a floating ship.
- mannykannot 6y agoThe original title may have changed in response to similar comments.
- dustinmoris 6y agoBBC article names change very frequently, often multiple times in only a few hours.
- marshmallow_12 6y agoreassuring to know i'm not the only one we [edit:who] (the irony) edits my post:)
- petercooper 6y agoJust for fun, you can track title edits happening on HN as well! https://hackernewstitles.netlify.app/ https://hackernewstitles.netlify.app/
- marshmallow_12 6y agothanks.
- itcrowd 6y agoProbably A/B testing through social media clicks.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tasogare 6y agoLe Monde in France do that too. They even go as far as rewriting portions of their articles after publishing, and partially re-using them under different title(s). Hard to take them seriously when they cry about fake news when their own articles are so malleable.
- mdeck_ 6y agoHm. But is there anything particularly special about a hovering ship... a hovering... craft? :)
- theandrewbailey 6y agoYes, because it's full of eels.
- dylan604 6y agoIt would be very special if it were built by aliens
- klingon79 6y agoIt likely was- but probably the terrestrial, non-xenobiological kind.
- dylan604 6y agothe use of this term in this manner has been deprecated
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoBy whom?
- dylan604 6y ago
- capableweb 6y agoI think "Flying" would be even better, as the ship is most likely moving somewhere, not just standing still. Would also tie the story into the story of the Flying Dutchman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Dutchman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Dutchman) and maybe provide some explanation for why people been seeing it as flying
- jarmitage 6y agoIn this case, being off the coast of Falmouth, the ship is more than likely standing still.
- tendencydriven 6y agoIt is more than likely not moving anywhere.
- vidarh 6y agoThe first time I read about optical illusions like these as a kid was this Uncle Scrooge story referencing the Flying Dutchman: http://duckcomicsrevue.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-flying-dutchman.html http://duckcomicsrevue.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-flying-dutch...
- throwawayForMe2 6y agoEspecially if you can see big sails flapping or moving with the wind.
- 8note 6y agoOr if it's got a hydrofoil. Those are also flying, just in water
- mc32 6y agoTitle should be ‘Fata Morgana sighted off Cornish Coast.’
- danbruc 6y agoNo, it is not a Fata Morgana [1] but a superior mirage [2] as the article says. A Fata Morgana is a subclass of superior mirage that has multiple distorted images. Just learned this because of another comment. Whether calling it a Fata Morgana would be appropriate because it is the common laymen term for mirages in English I can not tell as non-native speaker. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage
- wnoise 6y agoThe requirement for multiple distorted images is ... in dispute.
- rapnie 6y agoAnother form of mirage are the Marfa Lights on Route 67, where (of course) UFO's were quickly in the picture. Most probably headlights, campfires. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights
- quickthrowman 6y agoI’ve seen one similar to the Marfa Lights, Paulding Light in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Paulding Light is caused by car headlights. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulding_Light https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulding_Light
- pavon 6y agoActually, in this case, I don't think it is any type of mirage. Rather it is a false horizon [1] caused by reflection of fog. [1] https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-fata-morgana-or-mirage-hovering-boat-images-false-horizon.9112/ https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-fata-morgana-or-mi...
- gumby 6y agoSince, as you say, one expects a ship to float, I assumed "hover" was intended and the title to be deliberately jocular.
- whateveryoua381 6y agoWhile not special, it is accurate!
- jader201 6y agoI’m guessing the (current) HN title was the original BBC title, and someone figured this out and changed it (after it was posted here).
- agumonkey 6y agoHey don't diminish human prowess.
- klingon79 6y agoYes, we’ve had hovering craft for a while; they typically appear to be closer to the water, though.
- codetrotter 6y agoFor future reference, the current title on HN is: > 'Floating ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/JcBUY https://archive.is/JcBUY And the current title on BBC is: > 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker https://archive.is/AyAK4 https://archive.is/AyAK4 Interestingly though, because of the quotation marks I understood “floating” to mean, as intended, that it looked like the ship was in the air and didn’t even think about the possible ambiguity until I read your comment about it.
- jmkd 6y agoBBC article at the time of posting was indeed 'Floating ship'
- judge2020 6y agoFor reference: https://twitter.com/KeirGiles/status/1367742771017224196 https://twitter.com/KeirGiles/status/1367742771017224196
- dvtrn 6y agoI might even go so far as to say that that is their desirable default state. As long as the front doesn’t fall off.
- lostlogin 6y agoIf anyone doesn’t get the reference, this is required viewing. It’s gold. https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM
- btilly 6y agoSee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker) for the real life ship that inspired that piece of comedy.
- balabaster 6y agoTo be fair, there's nothing particularly special about hovering ships either given the invention of the hovercraft...
- HenryBemis 6y agoSigur Ros - Valtari (2012) Imho it s a great album. It also has a 'hovering ship' on its cover: http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/1566/cover_5759162792016_r.jpg http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_cov...
- dang 6y agoThe submitter posted the title that the article had at the time. Then the BBC changed it there. Then a moderator changed it here. And then a moderator (this one!) marked this subthread—which was stuck to the top of the page, gathering mass and choking out anything interesting—off topic. I don't fault the comment for that so much as the upvotes, but downweighting top subthreads that are off-topic and/or generic in uninteresting ways is probably the highest-leverage intervention that moderators do here. Unfortunately it requires human intervention, and we don't see all the threads, so if anyone notices an off-topic or generic top subthread before we do, letting us know at hn@ycombinator.com is super helpful.