Road Trip Pic of the Day, 7/5: What is this?
Here's the BMW 650i Coupe that CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman is driving on Road Trip 2012. But what's it parked in front of? If you know, you could win a prize in the Picture of the Day contest.
Update (Friday, 12:46 a.m. PT): The answer to Thursday's challenge -- which 17 people got right -- is Abengoa Solar's Solana solar power plant, a 280-megawatt parabolic trough plant currently under construction in Gila Bend, Ariz., that may end up as the world's largest such facility.
Under normal circumstances, all I do is post the day's answer, but Thursday's responses merit a special note. Usually, a large majority of the people who respond to the Picture of the Day challenge get the answer right. But on Thursday, just 15 percent were correct -- and 97 people got it wrong, probably a record for the four years I've been conducting this daily contest. There were lots of different wrong answers, but the two most popular were the solar plants in Blythe, Calif., and Kramer Junction, Calif. Another was one in Boulder City, Nev. This very odd situation told me two things: (1) That there are more huge solar plants in the West's deserts than I realized when I took the photograph and then posted it as a Picture of the Day; and (2) That the image of the Gila Bend, Ariz. plant as I presented it didn't contain enough distinguishing elements to significantly differentiate it from the plants in California and Nevada I listed above.
Except: The people who got it right appeared to pick up on exactly the clues that I included in the picture that I thought would lead to the proper response, those being the construction fence (indicating that the project was yet to be finished), and the mountains in the background. I just didn't realize that there were other plants that seemed to have such similar features.
For what it's worth then, thanks to everyone of you who put in time and effort on this one. It was hard. But a big kudos to those that got it. To all, please come back for Friday's challenge.
Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.
Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using any means at your disposal. Throughout Road Trip 2012, which will take me through California, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, there will be a new challenge each day, and the opportunity to win some great prizes. I will update each day's post with the answer sometime after the entry deadline -- usually the same evening, although occasionally the next day or shortly afterwards -- so please come back later if you'd like to know the correct answer.
Now, on to today's challenge.
More from Road Trip 2012: Tech out West
Check out the latest from Daniel's tour of all things geeky in the Golden State, with jaunts into Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon, as well.
For the almost three weeks of Road Trip 2012, I've been driving a BMW 650i Coupe (in today's picture) around the American West. If you know what it's parked in front of, and where that's located, please send me an e-mail with both pieces of information (to daniel*dot*terdiman--at--cbs*dot*com) by 6 p.m. Pacific time today.
Please note: To be considered, you must include the phrase "Picture of the Day challenge" in the subject line of your e-mail. No other methods of entering are guaranteed to be considered.
And please forgive me if you don't hear from me if you're not the winner. I get dozens of responses each day. Also, I've turned off comments because otherwise people will post the correct answers there. I hate to shut down discussion, but I want you to figure out the answer on your own.
The giveaways
This year, I'll be giving both a weekly prize and one grand prize at the end of my Road Trip project. Here's how it will work:
For the weekly prize, I'll pick a winner at random from among all those who correctly identified one of that week's daily challenges. You get one entry into this drawing for each correct entry you submitted that week.
For the grand prize, which is a complete set of GoPro camera gear, the winner will be the person who answers the most daily challenges correctly during the entire project. So there's definitely an incentive to play every day and to answer correctly as often as possible. Be warned: last year, the winner got 67 out of 70 possible correct answers, and several others got more than 60 right, so the competition for the grand prize will be stiff.
Given the constraints of the work I'll be doing on Road Trip, I have to minimize the complexity of the Picture of the Day challenge, so if you want to accumulate right answers and compete for the grand prize, you must use the same e-mail address and name each time. If you use a different name or e-mail address, your answers won't be counted together.
For complete information and rules about the Picture of the Day challenge, please click here.
Good luck today, and throughout the summer.
The disclaimer: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. MUST BE A LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD AND AGE OF MAJORITY OR OLDER IN STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. SWEEPSTAKES ENDS 11:59:59 PM PT ON 8/10/12. SEE OFFICIAL RULES FOR DETAILS.