How Does GPS Work?

A lot of Geocachers ask; "How does GPS work"? We found a pretty cool video on the NASA Sci Files site. The video is intended for kids, but is a good explanation of the technology. If you get asked this question you might want to point the person to The NASA Sci Files movie titled - How Does GPS Work.

Rehiding geocaches

On Saturday we did cache maintenance on several of our caches. We found both stages of a multicache missing and another hidden about 100 feet from the original area. On Sunday we went geocaching. We found two geocaches out in the open. This seems to be a common occurance these days. There are three possiblities. One is of course, muggles. Another is an animal or some other fluke in nature moving the caches. The third answer is a disturbing possibility. Geocachers. We are not accusing anyone, and hopefully we are wrong, but we suspect that some geocachers seem to think that geocaching is a race for smiley faces and do not rehide the caches properly. Although geocaches are officially owned by the hider, we as a community should have some pride in ownership of each geocache we find. When finding and rehiding geocaches we should use some logic and consideration to protect the caches for future finders.

1. Please rehide caches so that they will not be seen by muggles.

2. When hunting for a cache beware of muggles and wait until they are out of sight.

3. If you are hunting caches as a group the person that extracts the cache should rehide it as they are the only person that really knows how it was originally hidden.

A little extra care by all of us will make for fewer missing and archived geocaches making it more fun for all of us.

Yamji

Need a break from geocaching? Like movies?

If so, you should check out Yamji a new social networking site devoted to cinema. It is truly in its infancy, but looks like it will be a great place to check out movies that you have seen, want to see, or to find movies to add to your Netflix queue. After registering you can submit movies to the database, write reviews or studies on movies and start a list of your favorites in your own folder. I added The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. That should make for some fun comments!

So if it is a rainy day, or you just need a break from geocaching you go on over to Yamji and get in on the ground floor of a cool new site.

West Nile Virus

Here in New England several cases of West Nile Virus have been reported in the past few weeks. Mosquitoes in 17 towns in Connecticut have tested positive for the virus. Although some communities are spraying to kill mosquitoes you should be ever vigilant to prevent contracting the disease. West Nile Virus can be serious, but you can minimize your risk if you take precautions. Avoid wet and swampy areas at dusk and dawn. Dress appropriately. This means long pants and long sleeve shirts. Spray yourself with a product that contains Deet when leaving the car and before setting foot on the hunt for the geocache. If you have been bitten by a mosquito and are curious as to the symptoms you can visit the the CDC website.