An Insight Into Geocaching
Geocaching probably gets its idea from letter boxing. In letter boxing clues and references to landmarks were embedded in stories. In geocaching a geocacher puts a log book with pen or pencil and a trinket or treasure in the cache.
On the Internet there are many web sites promoting the sport. The web sites contain such things as cache of the month, tips on hiding a cache, events, photo albums, members and where they are from as well as the posted coordinates for caches.
To obtain the data the geocacher can upload data, also called way points, from different web sites in various formats, usually as a GPX file. GPX files use XML. There is plenty of geocaching software available for the avid geocacher to filter search and cache types that are based on certain criteria.
Geocaching is an outdoor sport that uses a GPS receiver to find treasures that have been hidden in places around the world. It is a treasure hunting game. The geocache is a small waterproof container that holds a treasure of some nature that someone has placed in it, and a log book. The treasure is usually a small toy with little worth, or a little trinket, maybe a coin. The treasure could also be an item for trading as you find the caches. Geocachers are allowed to take an item from the caches and leave something of equal value in its place.
Geocaching is available on all seven continents including antarctica. There are 800,000 plus geocaches registered on web sites across the web. The cache’s coordinates are noted by means of their GPS receiver and then posted on a web site. Other geocachers choose to be the hunter and view the coordinates on the geocaching web site that have been posted by various geocachers. They then proceed to look for the geocache by using their handheld GPS receivers. When they find the cache they record the adventure in the log book in the geocache and also online at the geocaching web site.
The geocaches come in many sizes. Some are harder to locate than others for reasons such as location or visibility. An easy to find cache could be called a drive-by, a park ‘n’ grab (PNGs), or cache and dash. The cache hunt can be made more difficult as well. The hunt might include long searches or traveling a long distance. A geocacher may stage multi-caches, underwater caches, so many feet up a tree, on a mountain peak or even above the Arctic Circle.
A traditional cache hunt includes a log book, and is always found exactly at the coordinates recorded on the geocachers web site where the geocacher got the coordinates from. An event for caching has geocaches placed at the event’s location only for the duration of the event. The letterbox hybrid variation of geocaching includes a geocache and a letterbox in the container. The letterbox holds a rubber stamp and a logbook. A letter boxer has their own stamp with them, they use this to stamp the logbook in the cache they find and then take the stamp from that cache’s letterbox and stamp their personal log book with that. A multi-cache uses multiple discoveries of intermediate points that each contain the coordinates for the next stage, there can be one or more intermediate points, at the end the cache contains the log book and the treasure. Geocaching is also done by use of web cams.
Geocaching is certain to be a fun sport to try if you haven’t done so already.
To watch a film on Geocaching, visit the wonderful VideoJug website – and learn more about it all.
An Insight Into Geocaching / Author: jdobson
Why Does Golf Swing Improvement Have Many Plateaus?
Superior athletes who never make it big are seen in ALL sports. We all have heard countless stories about gifted athletes who never made it big because they weren’t willing to put the time in needed to reach their innate potential.
I learned an astounding golf secret about golf swing improvement from a zen master. Zen Master Dogen Zenji frequently spoke about the “four horses,” which is a metaphor used by the Buddha in the Samyuta-Agama sutra. The path to golf swing improvement is described most eloquently by the metaphor of the four horses.
The horse that runs fastest by only seeing the whip’s shadow is the first horse – or the superior class. The second horse, the good class, runs fastest when the whip brushes its hair, the hair of its mane. The horse that runs fastest when the whip touches its body is the third class of horse – or the poor class. And the fourth, the lowest kind of horse, is the one who runs fastest only when the whip can be felt to the marrow of its bones.
At first glance we all want to be like the first horse in the superior class. These are the fast learners – the ones who seem to be a natural. Dogen Zenji says this may not be so desirable. A study of master golfers has shown that it is not the students with innate natural abilities who have achieved golf mastery. The golfers who have achieved mastery are mostly the students with average to below average natural abilities – the ones who have practiced their craft diligently. This is very interesting – why is this so?
Many plateaus in golf skill levels accompanied with short bursts of golf swing improvement is the path to golf swing mastery for all students.
When the first class of student takes up golf they see an immediate spike in golf swing improvement and are very motivated. When they reach that ultimate first plateau where their golf swing does not improve despite hard practice, most gifted students get discouraged.
Gifted students are used to seeing fast progress, so they may blame the golf instructor or something else just so they don’t have to put in the hard work that is needed to continue along the path to golf swing improvement – and the ultimate goal – golf swing mastery!
Many superior students will then give up the game of golf due to frustration.
Superior athletes who never make it big are seen in ALL sports. We all have heard countless stories about gifted athletes who never made it big because they weren’t willing to put the time in needed to reach their innate potential.
The fourth class of student will see a slower rate of golf swing improvement, much time spent on plateaus in their golf swing skill level. If the fourth class of golf student stays with it and practices hard they will learn the golf swing to the marrow of their bones, like the fourth horse.
Before you can master the golf swing, you need to learn the golf swing to the marrow of your bones. To learn the golf swing to the marrow of your bones you need to stay at each skill level for however long it takes. Most first class students never learn the golf swing to the marrow of their bones because it comes easy to them. The time spent on plateaus for golfers who learn fast are shorter than the ones who learn slower.
The enigma of the parable of the four horses is we must learn the golf swing like the fourth class of horse to become like the first class of horse – or the superior class – to become a master golfer!
Hit ‘em Long and Straight!
John Lynch
To learn the four magic moves to winning golf and travel down the path to golf swing mastery, John recommends you visit: FourMagicMovesGolf
Why Does Golf Swing Improvement Have Many Plateaus? / Author: John Lynch