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The town is also less than 18 km away from a Degree Confluence Point (45 Degrees North, 78 Degrees West) - a 'natural' geocache.

It might be a bit over enthusiastic on trying to be helpful, but do note that I asked for the distance. It understood my question, and gave me the correct answer, first. I never even scrolled down.

The reason for my question: Degree Confluence Project

The Confluence Project http://confluence.org/ is an international effort to perform a systematic sampling of the Earth's surface, i.e. all those locations where both longitude and latitude has integer values.

So far more than 10,000 visitors have documented more than 5,000 of these points.

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006/2006GL027768.shtml is a link to a paper by a Japanese researcher (Koki Iwao) and his associates: They have used the DCP information to check/verify the quality of the various land cover databases:

Which parts of the Earth is mountains/lakes/forests/rice fields/grassland/etc.?

What they found is that the best of these databases have a hit ratio of just 60% or less.

Terje
(Scandinavian DCP coordinator)

I just turned 50 this summer, and I've never felt more appreciated as an engineer than the last couple of years.

As other people here have commented, the real secret is to simply be _very_ good at what you do: Keep up your old skills, and make sure you learn (i.e. teach yourself) something brand new every year or two.

Over the last 5+ years I've been the "IT Fire Brigade Chief" in the Fortune 500 company I work for, i.e. I get all the really interesting problems, all the cases that none of the others can figure out, and all the bleeding edge stuff that doesn't fit nicely into one of the existing departments.

I also get to spend discretionary time writing and optimizing system code, so I really don't see any reason to complain. (I've worked on one of AES contenders http://www.adastral.ucl.ac.uk/~helger/research/aes/, the windows port of NTP http://ntp.org/, HD-DVD decoding, Ogg Vorbis optimization as well as lots of other kinds of code. I am also the Scandinavian coordinator of the Confluence Project http://confluence.org/.)

My role model within the company retired a few years ago, 67 years old, and he's still enthusiastic about brand new technology.

OTOH, living in Norway I also know that it would be effectively impossible to fire me, unless I completely stopped coming into work, and started doing drugs instead.

Terje

Stellarium doesn't integrate with maps of the world, that's why. With Stellarium, you specify your location in Lat./Lon. or you specify the location of a known observatory.

At the moment I'm spending a year going through Asia and a few other countries around the globe. I carry with me:

Garmin 72 GPS Device: If doing any trekking into remote jungle areas or mountains, geocaching, confluence hunting, etc, get one of these. They're waterproof, rugged as hell, some models have backlit screens, and so forth. Check Garmin's website for model information.

Water Purification Devices: I carry multiple systems. Firstly I carry an electronic pen-shaped device that purifies water using a concoction created using rock salt and some electronic process which you then dump into your water container/nalgene bottle.

Hands down the best water purification gadget is the standard pump filter. They're fairly compact, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive at around $100 for a good one. They're especially handy since they're simple to use, require very little setup, and provide instant clean water from any source. Iodine drops and other purification methods usually require you to wait around 30+ minutes before drinking your treated water.

Carry iodine or some other tablets as a backup.

Lockpicks: I also carry a set of lockpicks. I've had to hotwire a motorbike so far, unlock half a dozen guesthouse rooms for myself or others due to misplaced keys (usually following a night of heavy drinking). These things maybe aren't technically "gadgets," but they're handy.

Universal Electric Conversion Kits: You can find these at Brookstone or wherever. Great for plugging in your devices for charging anywhere in any outlet. The little cases are fairly compact as well. Make sure you get one that also does voltage/power conversions since not all countries provide the same amounts of electricity out of their sockets and might fry your electronics.

Space blankets: Not technically a "gadget," but MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST ONE SPACE BLANKET in your backpack. You know... those highly reflective little bundles of silvery stuff that repel heat in case of fires and such? They're also great in intense cold by retaining body heat around you. I've literally had my life saved by one once a few months ago when I got trapped in a cave in Tibet up around 4000m in elevation. I would have frozen to death without it.

I also built a shelter out of it when I camped on the Great Wall of China because it was pouring rain and I was miles away from anywhere. They're very versatile, and quite large.

That's about it beyond ipods and other less useful gadgets that I carry more out of choice than any sort of necessity. Obviously don't neglect essentials like bug-spray and rope... but that's it off the top of my head as far as electronics go.

Been there, Done that.

Before taking a one-year sabbathical (91-92) which I spent in the US, writing networking code, I had a company that sold terminal emulation/file transfer software. I sold enough licenses to make it one of the top 5 bestselling norwegian programs. During the last year the norwegian IRS grabbed 83% of every Krone I invoiced my customers.

At that point I realized that I'd much rather work less and spend more time with my wife & kids, so I closed the company.

I still write/optimize code, but always because I enjoy it, not to make money. (Sometimes I do get paid as well (in addition to my regular salary), but that's not the important part.)

Re. "know this (crypto) technology": I want to know a lot more than just crypto, and the job I have, which is a sort of IT Fire Brigade Chief, means that I get to work on all sorts of interesting technology, including everything that's new, as well as everything that doesn't perform as well as it has to. The Full Disk Encryption requirements I mentioned in my first post were obvious to me at the time, but not to most of the vendors unfortunately.

I spend my leisure time on orienteering http://orienteering.org/, which is the perfect thinking person's sport.

I'm also the Scandinavian coordinator of the Confluence project http://confluence.org/

Check google for my other interests!

Terje

Svalbard, including Spitzbergen which is the largest island, is recognized by UN as a Norwegian territory.

It does exist in a sort of legal limbo though, in that any country which signs the Svalbard treaty can go in and look for natural resources. Russia and its Soviet precursor have had a fairly large city (Barentsburg) there for decades, supporting a coal mine which is now running out.

The chief authority on Svalbard is the office of 'Sysselmannen', which is located in the main Norwegian settlement, Longyearbyen.

A few hours south (by snowmobile) of Longyearbyen is the site of the Svea mine, which is sitting on a very rich coal seam, it is currently one of the most productive (per employee) mines in the world.

Svalbard also contains the big international research station at Ny Ålesund, which is operated by the Kings Bay Company.
http://www.kingsbay.no/

Visiting Svalbard in March a couple of years ago was one of my most memorable trips ever:

http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=8138

Terje

Someone should upload all the images from the the degree confluence project to get them started.

-metric

Confluence Has a Link to this location. It appears to be in the middle of north Chad. The Cia world factbook doesn't show a big lake there, though it does show other lakes in Chad. Multimap says there is water in that location though. Maybe this is some kind of gigantic bog?

I agree completely. I'd much rather go here any time over some crowded city.

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=19.5& lon=-155 Hmm, looks like Hawii to me.

Would be helpful for this http://www.confluence.org/

The project is over 8 years old -- it may be a bit late to "wake up the next morning and sober up"...

And yes, this means that the Degree Confluence Project (February 1996) is older than Slashdot (September 1997)... :)

Eric Lincoln
Degree Confluence Project

The confluence with the most visits is in a golf course in California, USA. It has been visited 15 times in 5 years. At this rate, 1000 visits would take about 333 years. The average visited confluence has been visited about 1.3 times.

Eric Lincoln
Degree Confluence Project

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

As you can see, almost all of the area has been covered, in fact most of the points which haven't are in ocean or the Great Lakes (which was once not considered targets, then the parameters were redefined to be within sight of land.)

I think there are five spots on land which have not been visited- out of approximately a thousand. Of these:

One has been visited, but is listed as incomplete, possibly because the visit may not have been done legally;
One is in an Indian reservation which now has permission granted for visit planned within a month
One is in a large private ranch for which permission to go has not been granted and
and Two are on federal government land used for nuclear-related purposes.

Somewhat higher of a proportion of government land than I'd've expected, and no confluence which hasn't been visited because of terrain, which was quite surprising to me.

This has gone on long enough that some places which are legally difficult to get to have been visited, such as this one on a federally protected watershed which was visited by a local water quality official who'd read about the site.

Surprisingly few confluences are actually in cites. My personal favorite confluence is this one, which is in the middle of Washington State but happens to be in the middle of the Columbia River, more than 100m from either shore! (100m is the maximum distance for a visit to be considered successful.) The first attempt failed for lack of a boat, in the middle of a very dry region. I've most likely visited that confluence unknowingly- as a teenager I used to go waterskiing in that area.

ah yes, I meant "whom", not "which", my fault.

These are the five confluences I visited in Australia when I was biking around the continent. You'll have to look at the lunky.com site to find the girl pictures..

any idea what this is? Is that a buoy?

Many contributors do this already. A few times they'll just submit all the individual images, and one of the coordinators will assemble them into a panorama.

I've posted panos from most of the confluences I've personally visited: http://www.confluence.org/visitor.php?id=157

Terje Mathisen
Scandinavian Coordinator The Degree Confluence Project

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=-41&l on=147

"We got within 1.5 km of this confluence before being asked to leave by the Army. As it turns out, the confluence is in the middle of a live firing range and it is not safe or legal to visit it without assistance from the Army."

I took pictures of 19N69W.

I think it's also a chance for those of us who really don't get out as much and visit new places near home.

What's the big deal, isn't the world full of other less meaningful projects? (http://www.uglypeople.com/, for example).

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=19&lo n=-69

Heres the only one in Nevada listed as unvisited, although there is a picture and a story...

I would hike there, but the path was already beaten, apparently into submission.

Yeah. You can find 2 visited, 2 incompleted spot over Xizang (Tibet).... The problem is a lot of places are not really accessible geologically. Even helicopter have difficulty to reach....

I've done one confluence (http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=46&l on=-79) in Ontario now, and attempted a few more. My brother-in-law and I like them because they give us somewhere to go and a reason to go there.

In fact, I spent a week at the beginning of July trying to get some in Northern Ontario, but gave up. I never realized how swampy and densely tree'd the north is. It was really great to get out and see part of my country, as well as giving us a great appreciation for the people who first settled up there and the hardships they faced.

I highly reccomend everyone pick a confluence and go for it, even if it's done. It's a great excuse to get out and see your country and meet people. All you need is a GPS and some boots. For even more fun, pick somewhere where you get to canoe or kayak, or ski or mountain bike. It's great exercise and can mesh nicely with Geocaching.

Go, get some, and stop being so negative people ... people are saying it's a waste of time, that this isn't a good project. Whos to say that programming whatever application you're working on isn't the same waste because who cares, theres already 15 other mail clients out there, or 27 other people who have already ported X to Y system .. thats not the point. Stop being so narrow minded.

That why they have, on the project's website, letters to landowners, in Bahsa Indonesian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
And, yes, someone even managed to get here...

That why they have, on the project's website, letters to landowners, in Bahsa Indonesian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
And, yes, someone even managed to get here...

37N 116W

Good luck, you'll need it!

Heh - looks like someone has already taken that dare.

06-Jan-2004 -- Up front, I must admit that I did not visit this confluence personally. However, the friend of a friend of a ... who did visit asked me not to use his name.

37N 116W

Good luck, you'll need it!

Heh - looks like someone has already taken that dare.

06-Jan-2004 -- Up front, I must admit that I did not visit this confluence personally. However, the friend of a friend of a ... who did visit asked me not to use his name.

Believe it or not, they do have an "incomplete" visit to the site here. The only reason that it's incomplete is that the visitor didn't take the requisite 6 photographs. He did include a picture of his GPS at that location, though. Another person has asked for permission to visit, which seems like a reasonable approach to the problem.

Believe it or not, they do have an "incomplete" visit to the site here. The only reason that it's incomplete is that the visitor didn't take the requisite 6 photographs. He did include a picture of his GPS at that location, though. Another person has asked for permission to visit, which seems like a reasonable approach to the problem.

I once worked with a fellow who wrote software for ICBM's and he commented that one of the worst places to be in the event of a nuclear exchange was at Lat 0, Long 0 because there where several possible failure modes where the missiles would try to find their way here

Someone is one step ahead of you:

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=37&lo n=-116/

Speed over water and air is still measured in knots.

There is a navigational reason to use knots on water (for us who navigate and not just stare on chart on GPS). And it is trivial to convert knots to m/s with 3% accuracy just by dividing by 2.

BTW. There are advantages in navigating around 60th latitude.

I once worked with a guy who wrote the O/S for a MilSpec computer (Rolm 64) that was used in ICBM's.

He commented that the worst place to be in the event of a nuclear exchange was at Lat 0, Long 0 because if something went wrong the memory overlays (kludge for keeping code within a 64k addressable space) the missles would try to find their way here and activities such as this would not be recommended.

I once worked with a guy who wrote the O/S for a MilSpec computer (Rolm 64) that was used in ICBM's.

He commented that the worst place to be in the event of a nuclear exchange was at Lat 0, Long 0 because if something went wrong the memory overlays (kludge for keeping code within a 64k addressable space) the missles would try to find their way here and activities such as this would not be recommended.

... the Degree Confluence Project.

Well, there already is a site which does just that. The spacing between point coordinates is currently one degree. which is still too coarse for a detailed map. Also, many points haven't been visited and documented yet. Volunteers are welcome!

Check out The Degree Confluence Project for a more independent and manual approach. It's surprising how widely this project has covered already.

It is arround here:

Latitude N:53d 27.67m
Longitude W: 10d4.20m

To give you a clue where this is:

here

See the photo here. (No joke.)

It's populated, but not verifiably so. I triple-dog dare someone to get a legitimate claim on this one.

What are you talking about?? Here there are, in the middle of the ocean, and it is just full of people swimming around! Just imagine what that the areas with land must be like.