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Comment by Thomashuet | Hacker News Reader

The title should be 'Hovering ship', as it is in the BBC article. There is nothing special about a floating ship.

The 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.

For future reference, the current title on HN is:

> 'Floating ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

https://archive.is/JcBUY

And the current title on BBC is:

> 'Hovering ship' photographed off Cornish coast by walker

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.

BBC article at the time of posting was indeed 'Floating ship'

For reference: https://twitter.com/KeirGiles/status/1367742771017224196

I might even go so far as to say that that is their desirable default state.

As long as the front doesn’t fall off.

If anyone doesn’t get the reference, this is required viewing. It’s gold. https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker) for the real life ship that inspired that piece of comedy.

under the related articles is the 1990 spill of the tanker "Mega Borg". After reading the first time about "the front fell off", I am given to think that the earlier comedic opportunity has gone sadly missed. [Ed. but I don't know if Scorpio Tankers Inc took the ticker STNG for related reasons...]

Marvellous; I'd never seen this.

The format and humour remind me very strongly of the Bird & Fortune (aka The Long Johns) skits here in the UK:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bird+%26+fortun...

You should watch more of these two, Clark and Dawe on YouTube. Behind the humor is biting commentary but a lot of education, I learned a lot through their humorous and pretend political interviews as an American about the Australian government and even the European debt crisis.

John Clark (the one who kept insisting the front fell off) passed away a few years ago.

I can honestly say I laughed until I cried the first time I saw that. Possibly the most hilarious thing I've ever seen in my life.

> their desirable default state.

Who would have guessed...

When I read the title I assumed it meant something like a hovercraft.

I 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) and maybe provide some explanation for why people been seeing it as flying

In this case, being off the coast of Falmouth, the ship is more than likely standing still.

It is more than likely not moving anywhere.

The 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-dutch...

Especially if you can see big sails flapping or moving with the wind.

Or if it's got a hydrofoil. Those are also flying, just in water

Title should be ‘Fata Morgana sighted off Cornish Coast.’

No, 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)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage

The requirement for multiple distorted images is ... in dispute.

Another 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

I’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

Actually, 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-mi...

Hm. But is there anything particularly special about a hovering ship... a hovering... craft? :)

Yes, because it's full of eels.

I will not buy this record, it is scratched

This is a tobacconist's.

It would be very special if it were built by aliens

It likely was- but probably the terrestrial, non-xenobiological kind.

the use of this term in this manner has been deprecated

By whom?

current US Pres Admin. there was a memo. did you not get it?

No, I don't get US Presidential memos. Also, last I checked, the US President was not in charge of how words are allowed to be used on HN.

Like there's really a memo. It's been in so many different news outlets. The current admin is trying to distance from previous use of the word. And if you think I was being serious, then you must not have gotten the memo on sarcasm. You should really declutter your inbox. You seem to be missing a lot of memos.

Perhaps you didn't get the memo - about charity, about not replying with snark or sneering, and about sarcasm often not coming across well in a text-only medium. All have been said here, by dang, frequently.

I’m guessing the (current) HN title was the original BBC title, and someone figured this out and changed it (after it was posted here).

To be fair, there's nothing particularly special about hovering ships either given the invention of the hovercraft...

Sigur 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_cov...

Hey don't diminish human prowess.

Yes, we’ve had hovering craft for a while; they typically appear to be closer to the water, though.

While not special, it is accurate!

The original title may have changed in response to similar comments.

BBC article names change very frequently, often multiple times in only a few hours.

reassuring to know i'm not the only one we [edit:who] (the irony) edits my post:)

Just for fun, you can track title edits happening on HN as well! https://hackernewstitles.netlify.app/

thanks.

Probably A/B testing through social media clicks.

Le 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.

Since, as you say, one expects a ship to float, I assumed "hover" was intended and the title to be deliberately jocular.

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