Do not go to the coordinates above!! This offset multi-cache is the second of four caches based on information gleamed from the Pulitzer prize winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (1997, ISBN 0-393-31755-2). The first three caches are independent of one another and can be done singly, however completing the fourth cache requires that you complete the first three.
You don’t need to buy the book if you don’t want to, just get it from your local library or pick up the travel bug I’ve started (see notes below). I would love for you to read the book from cover to cover, but that certainly isn’t necessary, an index in the back may be very helpful (although you may want to read a few paragraphs before and after the bit of trivia I ask, I think you will find this information quite intriguing. And I promise you the whole book is just as interesting as the sections about which I ask.) Since you’ll be doing research at home this should be an easy cache even if you are planning on visiting from out of town.
This is an offset Multi-Cache. The trivia you answer below gives you the coordinates to a tag, which gives you the coordinates to the final cache location.
M: Figure 4.1. "Schematic overview of the chains of causation leading up to proximate factors... enabling some peoples to conquer other peoples, from ultimate factors..." Count the number of rectangles containing the aforementioned factors and add 1. (( x + 1 = M ))
N: "Of the 200,000 wild plant species, only a few thousand are eaten by humans... A mere ______ species account for over 80 percent of the modern world’s annual tonnage of all crops." Take the number of species and divide by three, then subtract 4. (( [x ÷ 3] -4 = N ))
O: "A quick survey of current diseases lets us trace out _____ stages in the evolution of a specialized human disease from an animal precursor." Take the number of stages and subtract 4. (( x - 4 = O ))
P: "New Guinea has by far the highest concentration of languages in the world: ______ out of the world’s 6,000 languages, crammed into an area only slightly larger than Texas, and divided into dozens of language families and isolated languages as different from each other as English is from Chinese." Take the number of languages in New Guinea divide by 100 and then subtract four. (( [ x ÷ 100 ] - 4 = P ))
Q: "The last phases of the expansion, during the millennium after A.D. _______, resulted in the colonization of every Polynesian and Micronesian island capable if supporting humans. Astonishingly, is also swept westward across the Indian Ocean to the east coast of Africa, resulting in the colonization of the island of Madagascar." Take ten minus the year. (( 10 - x = Q ))
R: Links between environmental degradation and the decline of civilization in Greece by Tjeerd van Andel et al., "Five thousand years of land use and abuse in the southern Argolid." ______ 55:103-28 (1986). Count the number of letters in the name of the journal, then add 1. (( x + 1 = R ))
Check sum is 32.
The coordinates to the tag are:
N 38o 56.MNO
W 092o 19.PQR
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Additional notes:
1. The MU library has available three copies of GG&S. The Daniel Boone Regional Library has one copy available. Additionally I’ve started a copy of the book as a travel bug. Its kind of oversized, so good luck stuffing it into caches!
2. The final cache is an over sized ammo box full of books. Each of the books has been registered with www.Bookcrossing.com. I ask that if you take a book, please go to the above website and tell that it has been caught. You may pass it on or keep it as you wish. Please feel free to bring a book to trade, but please register the book with bookcrossing.com first, if you plan to trade. However, you need not leave any items in the final cache. I’ll try to keep the cache stocked with books as long as I can.