User:Tongs

A field ploughed with straw...

The Tongs is a name for a group of friends who go geohashing in the Cambridge (UK) graticule, but who might stray into the Northampton graticule sometimes.

We usually aim to visit hashpoints nearish us at 4pm local time, if it looks like there's something interesting in the area or if people want to meet up (we monitor our talk page, so leave us a message if you do).

We announce all our expeditions (and sometimes other fun) on the Twitter account 52n0e

Expeditions

The Tongs are at Level 2.

#	log₂#	Date	Who	Grat	Where	Result
1	0.000	Sunday, 17th August 2014	F T B	52,0	A ploughed field just south of the A14.	Success
2	1.000	Saturday, 23rd August 2014	F M T B	52,0	A field on a hillside near the village of Shaftenhoe End.	Success
3	1.585	Saturday, 23rd August 2014	F M T B	52,-0	Just off a track by the side of a field near Therfield.	Success
4	2.000	Sunday, 28th September 2014	F M T B	52,0	In a field near Vestey Wood, near the Gog Magog Hills.	Success
5	2.322	Sunday, 30th August 2015	F M T B	52,0	In the northeastern corner of the grounds of Oxbrough Hall.	Success
6	2.585	Sunday, 27th September 2015	F M T B	52,0	In a field between Haddenham and Wilburton.	Success
7	2.807	Tuesday, 29th September 2015	F M T B	52,0	Six metres off a footpath between Newton and Foxton, south of Cambridge.	Success
8	3.000	Wednesday, 30th September 2015	M B	52,0	A field just outside Ely.	Unknown

Counting things

Distinct graticules: 2.
Total hashpoints bagged: 7.
Hashpoints until we level up to Level 3: 1.
Saturday meetups we've made: 1.
People we've ever met doing geohashing: 0.

Map

Visited graticules are shown in pale green. This was stolen from the United Kingdom page. Gibraltar is not shown.

	-8	-7	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1	-0	+0	+1
60							60,-2	60,-1	60,-0
59						59,-3	59,-2	59,-1
58		58,-7	58,-6	58,-5	58,-4	58,-3	58,-2
57	57,-8	57,-7	57,-6	57,-5	57,-4	57,-3	57,-2	57,-1
56		56,-7	56,-6	56,-5	56,-4	56,-3	56,-2
55		55,-7	55,-6	55,-5	55,-4	55,-3	55,-2	55,-1
54	54,-8	54,-7	54,-6	54,-5	54,-4	54,-3	54,-2	54,-1	54,-0
53					53,-4	53,-3	53,-2	53,-1	53,-0	53,0
52				52,-5	52,-4	52,-3	52,-2	52,-1	52,-0	52,0	52,1
51				51,-5	51,-4	51,-3	51,-2	51,-1	51,-0	51,0	51,1
50				50,-5	50,-4	50,-3	50,-2	50,-1	50,-0	50,0
49			49,-6	49,-5			49,-2

Notes and plans

The tongs are just over six years late to this particular party, and often hope to meet someone at a hashpoint. Often we have a good adventure anyway.
We'd like to try to do a hash with only a map and compass, not even using a car GPS to get us there. We later found out that this is called no batteries geohash.
M suggested a birthday expedition and doing a geohash on holiday.
We'd like Cambridge to be the UK's most active graticule.
We'd like to have some kind of recognisable tshirt or something so T doesn't need to ask strangers 'Are you geohashing?'. Reflective vests work for this.
We carry an Emergency Fun Box.
If ever the hashpoint fell in any of our back garden, there'll be a barbecue, and you're on the list.

Things we never remember to do

To remember to wear long trousers (and maybe wellies) when we go hashing.
To remember to mark the GPS coordinates of the car when we leave it.
To remember to put a working torch in the Emergency Fun Box.
To remind ourselves that The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives the general public the conditional right to walk in certain areas of the English and Welsh countryside: principally downland, moorland, heathland and coastal land. Instead we feel usually feel very naughty and invariably later find out what we were walking on was a public footpath.
To take the picture proving that we were at the hashpoint sufficiently close to the GPS receiver so that the viewer can actually read what it displayed upon it.
To remember to not plan and let the day happen as aimlessly as possible. Visiting the hashpoint is hardly the true point of all this, let's be honest.

Other geofun

We once let off a helium balloon with a message on it and it was found 85 miles away. We couldn't contain our excitement when we got that email. We're likely to do it again with the left-over helium. We found out since buying the helium that it's not good for the environment (and nor are the balloons for that matter).
We're sort of interested in orienteering and Ingress too, but haven't done much about it. Update: B went through an Ingress phase, got to Level 5, and is now over it. Geohashing is more fun.
Now that it's summer, F and B have started going for walks on some Friday nights. Right now we're walking up the Cam away from Cambridge, and will start the next segment of the walk from Upware.
~~Now that it's summer, we've been going wild swimming~~.

Variants of geohashing

Tongs like playing with the idea of randomly-generated plans for fun. Here are some variants of geohashing.

F suggested we could do decihashing, where we just shift the decimal point across one place to give us a set of possible points within roughly a five mile square around Cambridge. We thought it might be just as fun.
Douglas Adams wrote in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: "The History of every major Galactic Civilisation tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterised by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?". Geohashing can help. F and B suggested devising a list of pubs, restaurants, cafés, picnic spots, places we'd like to go for lunch in Cambridge of length 2ⁿ for some positive integer n. Assign a unique number between 0 and 2ⁿ-1 to each, and use the first n bits of that day's hash to decide where to go for lunch. If it's 20 miles away and you only have an hour for lunch, go anyway.
F suggested a subset of points of the local area consisting of those found on interesting National Trust properties. Projecting this set onto a unit square in the 'best' way is left as a future task. The Tongs suspect we need someone good at making patchwork quilts.
The achievement of inverse geohashing involves computing a future hashpoint based on a hypothetical movement of the Dow Jones. To get the hash, you have to correctly predict the movement and visit the hashpoint. For a better chance of achieving this, go to as many of the hypothetical hashpoints as possible.
The achievement of geosplashing has two possible definitions. The first is that the hashpoint is in a toilet. The second is that it is used as a toilet. Some of us thing the whole thing is disgusting, but we include it here for completeness.