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October 6, 2010 + Over the Edge

Geocaching Club Forms at UNBC

The Geobats are the first club to bring Geocaching to UNBC

HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR

On September 15% UNBC acquired its first ever
geocaching club with the formation of the Geobats. For
those who are not aware of what exactly geocaching is,
just imagine finding a treasure, or a giant game of ‘hide
and seek’ with a GPS. To be more specific, geocaching
is an outdoor activity where people use a GPS to track
down containers called “geocaches” that others have
hid. It's a game that mixes the childish pleasure of
finding something with the technology and expertise of
a GPS. One of the intriguing things about geocaching
is that it takes place between people from all over the
world.

Club founder Darryl Triebner was only recently introduced
to geocaching. “It’s still making its way out. People
practice geocaching in a relatively stealthy manner,”
he said of the sport. Even though many people don’t
know what exactly
geocaching is, the
club is already up to
30 plus members.
“The most exciting
thing about
geocaching is that
GPS __ technology
is more widely
available,” stated
Triebner. While GPS technology was only introduced to
the public ten years ago, it’s now not a very difficult task
to find someone who has a GPS device or even a GPS
mobile app.

How it works: a geocacher will place a container which
includes a log book and sometimes small items to trade
in a hidden location and then upload the latitude and
longitude onto a listing site. Other geocachers then
obtain the coordinates from the site and then try and
find the cache with their GPS. Once they find the cache,
they record their find in the logbook and are able to trade
for any of the items included in the cache.

The largestlisting site is geocaching.com. The site allows
users to enter their postal code and connects them with
possible geocaches in and around their area. There
are approximately around 1,196,854 active geocaches
around the world. It appears then that a geocaching club
at UNBC is long overdue. As most people know, the best

“UNBC'’s Geobats' central goal is to encourage an
active lifestyle anda stronger connection to nature,
history, and the community through the worldwide
pursuit of geocaching.”

and sometimes the only things to do in Prince George
are outside so geocaching seems to be a perfect fit.

“There are between four and five hundred geocaching
in PG,” said Triebner, “there are at least ten available
around campus.” While geocaching seems like a fun
activity, it can also have a huge impact on tourism for
the region. “Geocaching is starting to make its way into
adventure tourism,” said Triebner who is also planning
on putting a presentation together for Tourism P.G. and
B.C. Parks. “The benefits are just being led to that exact
spot... whether it’s a good view point or a historical fact
that they wouldn’t have known,” continued Triebner.
“Area’s such as gold country, Kamloops, and Cache
Creek, have successful geocaching programs that draw
tourists in for geocaches.”

However, as geocaching has quietly taken over the
entire world, there has been a small level of controversy.
Some geocachers have been approached by police or
other authorities because neighbours or residents in the
cache areas have reported suspicious behaviour. For
these reasons,
geocachers are
urged not to hide
geocaches near
playgrounds,
schools, banks,
government
buildings or any
place where their
tracking could be confused for suspicious behaviour.

The UNBC Geobats practice within the official
boundaries and guidelines of geocaching according
to Groundspeak’s Cache Listings Requirements and
Guidelines. The club also follows a charter which states:
“UNBC’s Geobats’ central goal is to encourage an active
lifestyle and a stronger connection to nature, history,
and the community through the worldwide pursuit of
geocaching.”

“If you are interested in taking part it is not only exciting,
it’s a great way to learn mapping skills and about your
community at the same time,” said Triebner, “most
importantly it’s free and it’s available to everyone who
has a GPS.” While the geocaching phenomenon has
been kept relatively quiet until now, the abundance of
GPS technology together with the success of UNBC’s
Geobats will definitely make the sport well known in and
around Prince George.

Letter to the Editor

Do you have an opinion on a current issue? Well, let us know - Over the Edge would be happy to run your article

MELISSA DILLMAN
CONTRIBUTER

This letter was written
in response to an

: ) ’ Dear Editor,
article which ran in the

RE: Death Penalty for Sociopaths and Psychopaths

ONLINE SOURCE

‘The availability of GPS technology has made geocaching all the more popular

SAG SAE tO

| was horrified by Arthur Williams’ column “Death Penalty for Psychopaths.”
He compared mentally ill inmates to “rabid dogs” and suggested they be
destroyed rather than imprisoned to eliminate the allocation of tax dollars to
their accomodation in prisons that are “nicer than [his] house.”

Prince George Free
Press on September
14, 2010. Over the
Edge was contacted
after the Free Press
refused to run the
letter. All opinions and
comments represented
in the article are those
of the author and do
not necessarily reflect
those of Over the
Edge.

lam disgusted by these remarks and frankly shocked that this piece managed
to make it to print. Even as an arts major, it is obvious to me that Williams has
absolutely no education in psychiatry, or for that matter, fundamental human
rights. His shallow Wikipedia-esque research only serves to undermine the
intregrity of him and your newspaper, and to reflect poorly on our community
as a whole.

The single correct statement that Williams made was that “antisocial
personality disorder [is] a mental illness....” That’s right, it is a disease, and
every case provides an opportunity for modern medicine to develop treatment
and possibly a cure, affording these human beings a chance at rehabilitation
and a better quality of life. If he is ready to sentence the mentally ill to death
for want of “public dollars,” why stop there? According to his logic, wouldn’t
other chronic diseases such as obesity, cancer, and diabetes also qualify
their unfortunate victims for lethal injection? We could save many more of
his hard earned tax dollars if we didn’t allocate them to health care.

ONLINE SOURCE

Williams’ opinion is by no means a novelty in Western society; Hitler gassed
the mentally ill and physically disabled right beside the Jews during the
Holocaust. Perhaps a little education could go a long way to enlighten our
ignorant journalist's perspective. Crack a history text and you will discover
that reducing human life to its value in dollars and cents leads to genocide.
Who’s the psychopath now?

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor
send it to over-the-edge@unbc.ca before
October 18, 2010