GeoVenture Survival Test #01 Traditional Cache
MarvinCandle: This one has run the course. #2 becomes the new #1.
GeoVenture Survival Test #01
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This geocache was part of the GeoVenture Challenge: The Survival Test on August 25, 2012. The weekend event was hosted by the Manitoba Geocaching association. Most of the 35 Geocaches placed during this challenge featured a survival type question. An example of that question and the information that inspired that question may be below.
The entire series was designed to be a park and grab power series to be published after the event. Enjoy!
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According to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
In addition to your towel and a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, what other two essential items virtually ensure your survival as you Hitch your way around the universe?
A. A toothbrush and a digital watch?
B. A Babel Fish and a toothbrush?
C. A Babel Fish and an Electronic Thumb
D. An Electronic Thumb and a digital watch?
Answer: C. A Babel Fish and an Electronic Thumb
A digital watch is a neat little item, but definitely not an essential tool for survival.
A toothbrush is a nice item to have, but it's only essential if you plan on doing any kissing. Unfortunately, the most common traveller in the Universe is a Vogon and you're more likely to experience brain hemmoraging from Vogon Poetry than you are to be kissing a Vogon. Besides, kissing a Vogon has been compared to kissing your sister, kind of wet and slimy and not altogether pleasant.
The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brain wave energy, absorbing all unconscious frequencies and then excreting telepathically a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain, the practical upshot of which is that if you stick one in your ear, you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language: the speech you hear decodes the brain wave matrix."
It is a universal translator which simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another. It takes the brainwaves of the other body and what they are thinking then transmits the thoughts to the speech centres of the host's brain, the speech heard by the ear decodes the brainwave matrix. When inserted into the ear, its nutrition processes convert unconscious sound waves into conscious brain waves, neatly crossing the language divide between any species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_fish_(The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy)#Babel_fish
The Electronic Thumb
A short squat black rod, smooth and matte with a couple of flat switches and dials at one end. It allows Hitch Hikers to flag down passing spacecraft to hitch a lift. The signal is akin to an emergency signal in that it is omni-directional and limited in range. The success one achieves in attracting a passing spacecraft depends on two things; the proximity, sensitivity, and active mode of the spacecraft's receiver, and the desire / willingness of the craft's occupants to put up with a hitchhiker for the next leg of their journey.
If one is fortunate, the craft will drop you off at your desired destination, or at least the port of call on their route that you prefer. If one is not fortunate, but still lucky, the occupants may choose to ignore your signal altogether. If one is just not fortunate, you will be picked up only to suffer a fate worse than if you had not signalled at all.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
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