NOT
AT THE
POSTED COORDINATES
Geocaching is as American as mom, apple pie, and baseball. Not
only was it invented here in America, by an American (Dave Ulmer),
but so was all the infrastructure it depends on. The GPS satellites
were designed, launched, and paid for by Americans. Geocaching.com
is a US company, started by Americans. The major GPS manufacturers
are all American companies (except Magellan, which explains why
they are always 30 feet off).
The only thing un-American about geocaching is the outdated
coordinate system we use. To locate caches, we measure the angular
distance to references such as the North Pole, equator, and Prime
Meridian. But the North Pole isn't in America. And what is the
equator but an imaginary line drawn through a bunch of countries
that hate us?
To fix this, I propose a new coordinate system. It's similar to
the old one, except the North Pole is located at the Washington
Monument, and the Prime Meridian is drawn through Lincoln's head on
Mount Rushmore. To give you practice with the new system, I've
hidden a cache. It's an Altoids tin. The coordinates are:
N
76° 29.682
W 09°
01.282
Stealth needed!! It is not inside any buildings or in kids' play
areas.