Why go geohashing
From Geohashing
Revision as of 14:40, 23 May 2016 by imported>Sourcerer (→Celebrate special days)
Please add new headings and reasons or extend the ones already in this A to Z. This is to prove we are not insane (maybe) ...
The list is somewhat alphabetically sorted by heading and bullet point.
Contents
- 1 Adventure
- 2 Astronomy
- 3 Bake and Share Cookies
- 4 Be outstanding
- 5 Celebrate special days
- 6 Epic fail
- 7 Get scared
- 8 Hunter gatherer
- 9 International
- 10 Learn new things
- 11 Party time
- 12 Set world records
- 13 Science
- 14 Social
- 15 Spot spotters
- 16 Take your clothes off
- 17 Weather
- 18 Weirdness
- 19 Wildlife
Adventure
- Fall down a rabbit hole but fail to find a bottle labeled "drink me".
- Get disoriented on foot, at midnight in extremely thick fog away from any visible landmark.
Astronomy
- See meteor trails.
Be outstanding
- Be out standing in your field! And out-pun this!
Celebrate special days
- Geohashing Day - May 21 - Bake and share Google pin cookies on the anniversary of the xkcd geohashing cartoon.
- Mouse Over Day - The first Saturday after May 21 - Bake and share Google pin cookies.
- Pi Day - March 14 - Celebrate mathematics with pie.
- More Mathematical Party Days - Multiple mathematical party days.
- Talk Like a Pirate Day - September 19.
- Towel Day - May 25th - Bring your hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy and boil up your towel for soup.
Epic fail
- Report on your epic failure and give everyone a good laugh - or perhaps get some sympathy.
Get scared
- Visit a graveyard as the bells toll midnight.
Hunter gatherer
- Find and eat wild food, blackberries, mushrooms.
International
Learn new things
- After reading expedition reports from unfamiliar places you have to search the web to learn new things. For example what's sarsaparilla? A boring expedition for the geohasher could be fascinating for someone on the other side of the world. National stereotypes can be debunked or sometimes comically reinforced.
Party time
- Do a double hash spanning the midnight of Christmas eve and Christmas day - fail to spot Santa, see red deer instead.
- Do a double hash spanning the midnight of new year's eve and new years day. Watch the candle powered hot air balloons.
Set world records
Have your name in the records FOREVER!
- Be the first to reach a hash in a Graticule no one has ever been to before.
- Go Higher, Further (N, S, E, W) or Stronger (hottest, coldest).
- Visit more hashpoints than anyone else in a day, a month, a year or since time began.
Science
- At the start of an expedition, you have two eigenstates in a quantum superposition (reachable and unreachable). Only when you observe the hashpoint can you collapse the wave function and find out which. No cats are harmed though. Some hashpoints may cause entanglement depending on the terrain and vegetation.
Social
- Meet another geohasher (and get biscuits).
- Read expedition reports from other geohashers who have done even cooler things.
Spot spotters
This is a tribute to spotters. Some specialise in trains. Others collect post boxes. Buses and electricity pylons have their fans. Even drain covers attract attention. Geohashers collect any and all of these!
Take your clothes off
- Strip off to ford a creek.
- Wade out to sea in underpants.
Weather
- Get cold, wet, wind-swept, sun-burned and exfoliated by wind-blown sand (not all on one day).
Weirdness
- Find a hash-circle of trodden down vegetation at the hashpoint, even when you know you are the first to arrive because it's midnight.
- Visit so many hashpoints that you start accidentally re-visiting while aiming for new points.
Wildlife
- Spot a badger, deer, glow worm, hare, hedgehog, owl, rabbit, seal, alligator.
