14 October 2013 (Monday) - Earthcache

It has been said that cats and dogs are often regarded by many as "furry children". It has also been said that whilst cats are akin to teenagers, dogs are more like toddlers. I was certainly reminded of the nocturnal activities of the most recent fruit of my loin as a toddler this morning. At 2am Fudge jumped on the bed next to me, and pushed and pushed until I was hanging out of the bed. It was at this point that he started snoring. Much as the most recent fruit of my loin used to do when she was two years old.

Over brekkie I watched two more episodes of "Early Doors". Quality television(!) And then I set off to work. I left a few minutes earlier than I had on Friday as I found I had run short of time then. Today the roads were really busy; I could see no reason why.
As I drove I listened to the news, as always. I don't think anything had happened recently. All of the news was of events and happenings from long ago. A whistleblower in America was telling tales of when a mishap on an American Air Force bomber in the 1960s which resulted in a nuclear bomb being accidentally dropped on Carolina; and only a faulty switch stopped the thing detonating.
I think that justifies my membership of C.N.D. in my youth.

Spanish victims of the drug thalidomide were taking the manufacturers to court to claim compensation. And doing this some forty years after their UK counterparts. I couldn't help but wonder why they had waited so long. No one on the radio seemed to feel this delay was in any way significant. I did. Surely these people would have wanted compensation forty years ago?

I got an email. I've been working on an Earthcache recently. An Earthcache is a virtual thing in which people visit a place of special geological significance and answer some questions about what they see. I've set one up on the Downs at Wye at the Devil's Kneading Trough. After quite a lot of work on my part I managed to get the thing accepted. I'm quite pleased about that - on my geo-profile I now own seven different cache types. (lame!)
Anyway - the idea behind my latest brainchild is that people park up at the car park at Wye Downs, answer a few questions, walk down to the bottom of the slope and then answer some more. And then email the answers to me in order to claim a find. The concept isn't difficult.
Someone logged this Earthcache within an hour or so of it going live, but with no email coming from them someone else got the official First to Find three hours later. The one claiming to get there first sent their email during the early evening.
So far no one has quibbled about "official FTF" but I suspect this trivial little episode will generate a serious squabble in the fullness of time. There are those who can get quite defensive and aggressive about First to Finding. It's the sort of petty triviality that on occasion gets blown out of all proportion.

And so to work where I did my thing. Bearing in mind the dreadful weather yesterday I sulked quite a bit today as I kept looking out the window at the wonderful sunshine until it got dark.
I came home to find that my laptop's playing up again...


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