Mark 42

The Pirate thread got locked up, and I was wondering why. It seemed like it was still pretty civil. I think it'd be nice to see a short message as to why a topic gets locked up. Maybe an area for off topic discussions... Maximum-Suzuki has one called the "Romper Room" for political and other topics which tend to stir controversy. It gets cleaned out occasionally (annoying). Perhaps an area where posts that see no activity for more than a month get deleted, with some loose guidelines? On Maximum-Suzuki there was some skepticism, but it was tried out anyway, and many were surprised how well it has worked out. It was a way around having to cleanse all political comments from posts. When they started to drift, somebody would just suggest "Maybe that part of this thread should move to the Romper Room, okay guys." Anyway, maybe something like that would be good here. It's sort of a community, and people enjoy discussing things like politics with people who aren't so consumed with it that they hang out on political forums. Sort of an electronic front porch. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

Amateur Rocketry is fun. I've built a few, but never find time to launch the. Soon, my kids will be old enough for the hobby, and things may change. I even designed and began building a very nice launch controller. Ah, to have time. It wasn't that long ago you could buy dynamite in a hardware store w/o special permits. (in Alabama and most other "farm country"). No one said that the Pirate should get locked up... but he should get a stiff fine for stealing. Maybe just start with a policeman asking him a few questions, and letting him know that it is other people's property, and if he continues to steal it he may end up getting arrested and fined. I didn't say I would do nothing if someone stole a happy meal toy off of my lawn, just that I probably wouldn't lose my temper. But when people start deliberately being malicious towards others just for their own entertainment, that really makes me angry in a hurry. I was trying to point out that, IMO, a person who is doing something for the pleasure of hurting &/or agravating others is worse than an ordinary thief. It's not Litter when someone has deliberately placed it, and it has value to someone.

DEET = Bug Repellent "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

quote:Originally posted by wimseyguy: quote: Troll: A person who posts inflammatory remarks specifically to elicit heated replies. I have often wondered about this one. Is the troll the poster or the post? Does 'troll' derive from an ugly creature under a bridge or the act of pulling bait through the water to induce a bite? "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

It really exists... http://www.stupid.com/ (Look at the Chicken in a Toaster version of the "Billy Bass" idea) "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

I'm not much of a fisherman, but... "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

quote:Originally posted by BassoonPilot:Are you suggesting that in addition to TPTB that the initiator of a thread should also be able to close it down? Works for me. Go easy on me, I'm only half way through my first cup of coffee, and it's a vacation day... What does TPTB stand for? "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

BTW, I have the original website on my computer at work. Not sure how to make it accessible, and I won't be there tomorrow anyway. But, I might try to reconstruct it as jpegs or something. quote:Originally posted by seneca:I think that if word was out that there is no chance of finding anything but useless trinkets in any given cache - the cache pirates would evaporate. They aren't in it for the toys and items in the cache, they are in it solely to ruin someone else's way of having fun. That's why I get so upset. It's not a few $6 TBs and $15 worth of small toys and the logbook, it's the pleasure they get from causing others misery that gets me wanting to see them suffer. I wouldn't beat someone up for stealing a happy meal toy off of my front lawn... but if he took it out of my 4 year old's hands and stomped it to pieces, I might just lose my composure. In some ways it is like other bullys... nameless faceless people with limited ability to defend themselves who present an easy target for malice. One of my goals is to not be an easy target, even if it's costly in the short term. If I can make him pay, I'll do it. If nobody ever stands up for what's right, then we will just become a group of defensless victims. It's not like anyone got shot, but the principle that we don't have to take abuse from a-holes who get pleasure out of hurting & angering others and hiding behind some sort of anonymity, or other form of unfair advantage (like cops who abuse authority, bullies who abuse their strength (e.g. spousal abuse), and people who strike when they think no one can see. It starts small, but the thrill always needs to get bigger for many of these people. Some of the serial murderers start out torturing animals. If we can show abusive types early on that we as a society are willing to fight them to protect those who are not able to protect themselves. There is nothing funny about damaging other people's property for entertainment. This week it's harmless vandalism like plundering caches by finding them from the coordinates. When that gets boring, will it be dropping brick off of a freeway overpass? "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it" [This message was edited by Mark 42 on August 20, 2003 at 07:10 PM.] [This message was edited by Mark 42 on August 20, 2003 at 07:12 PM.]

It might be faster to just walk back and forth until you find it! But, you can put the three known points on a map, draw circles from each of them representing the given distances, if they were given as single distance radii rather than as North/South & East/West distances... still can, but now pythagoras comes into the equation. Anyway, where the three circle intersect will give you the area to look in. If they weren't given as just a distance, thake the N/S distance and square it. Take the E/W and square it. Add the two squred quantites, and take the square root of that number. That is the radial distance from the known point. Now do it for the other points. the equation looks like this: sqrt[(ns)^2 + (ew)^2] = Radial distance (hypoteneuse of the tringle formed by going north or south, then east or west, then directy back to the starting point.) "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

Am I supposed to capitalize "Sock Puppet"? Mr Pirate is going to be awfully surprised when my friends show up at his door with handcuffs... I once had a friend "arrest" my boss as a joke. We were in a restaraunt, and I saw a friend of mine (police afficer) sitting at a table as a group of coworkers and I walked in. When I got up to go to the restroom, I went and asked my friend to give my Boss (also a friend) a minor scare. "Are you Scott Lewis?"... "Yes..." "Keep you hands where we can see them..." "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

Unless DutchDuane is the pirates Sock Puppet... "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it" [This message was edited by Mark 42 on August 20, 2003 at 02:30 PM.]

"I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

quote: I find that the "foil wrapped cucumber" gag doesn't go over as well. [reference to Spinal Tap] You're supposed to put the cucumber in the front.

Actually, it looks like he's making a game of it, and is trying to make it a bit more palatable to those who own the travel bugs. Still, if I had a TB, I wouldn't appreciate seeing it sit idly in the hands of someone who is deliberately delaying its movement. Illegal... no. Impolite... yup. We'll see where he goes from here. Maybe he didn't understand that the caches are considered property. Too bad his parents didn't teach hime the golden rule. The ability to consider how someone else will feel about your actions is worth teacing kids... and before you say it, I'm still mad at the French... I have to use CATIA, and that in itself is reason to despise everything French! "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

quote:Originally posted by Pluckers: ...You guys win. Good for you. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it" [This message was edited by Mark 42 on August 20, 2003 at 12:58 PM.]

"Not that I condone his/her/their actions, but tit-for-tat will only escalate. At lesst with the web page up, there was a way to track what happened to the plundered caches. You have lost that tool." That's the old "Don't make the criminals mad, or they'll be even meaner" thinking. I understand, but it has an intrinsic risk unto itself. He's not doing it for what's in the cache, it's the attention. If he has to do it anonymously, it won't be worth the effort. He'll go back to some other "harmless" activity like writing computer viruses. "And I'm sick of self-appointed auxiliary police types thinking they can step in and make rules with no authority. ...don't you DARE trample on my rights." You see, ther is such a thing as right and wrong. It is wrong to steal. It is right to punish those who do. I went to the proper authorities, and was ridiculed. Now, even going to authorities makes me some sort of fascist. People who continually defend wrongdoers are the reason we have so many laws inhibitting the freedom of decent people. If we went after those who do wrong in National Parks (like litterers) and if people pitched in to report it when they saw laws broken, there wouldn't be a need to ban everyone from all activities except for a few pre-approved ones. Your freedom without responsibility is going to ultimately result in a loss of freedom. With freedom comes responsibiliy and consequences. The guy vandalized our caches. He should be made to pay for that malicious behavior. Would I beat him up? No, that's illegal, and not the right way to handle it. I'd be tempted, but he wouldn't be worth the associated trouble. To me, it is wort the trouble. If you want to place yourself outside the group I represent, fine. The we I referred to is, first, a group that identified a person stealing. The second "we", is a group who likes to play a game called caching. If you don't belong to either group, that's fine. I can speak for the group when it comes to stating FACTS. They are facts. Wrong is wrong. You can call wrong "right" as often as you wish, but it remains wrong. There are a number of people who recognize that, and they are not fascists for doing so. Abiding by laws and ethics, and expecting others to, is not fascism. Expecting others to respect you as a person, is not fascism. If people would live by those tennets, maybe we wouldn't need over a million laws. If people would teach their kids "The guy who took the stuff out of this cache is a scumbag, and is inconsiderate. Now we won't get to exchange treasures in this cache." and then letting them know that you hope they will be decent, and not be that kind of useless (yes, I mean it... society could do without the people who, by choice, only take from it) person. I gues the Pirate can serve as an example of what we don't need in our society, if nothing else. Those who refuse to stand up for what's right deserve to be despised, right along with the perpetrators. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

It may not do any good... it all depends on which cop you happen to talk to. Some will look at the situation and say "I am not going to waste my time on this." Others will look at it and say "I really hate tese types of little SOB's... I think maybe we should talk to him." The cops see the graffitti, and the "Harmless prank" type of shoplifting, and they know what those kids end up like if they don't get some "guidance". The sad thing is that 30 years ago, in most cases if a kid got a visit from a cop to ask some questions, it'd scare the crap out of him and he'd straighten out (and his parents would ask what is going on). These days, there are only a few kids that will wise up and realize that what they are doing is not helping them in life. It's funny how a person who just wants to cause trouble shouldn't be called a moron, but a policeman who would go have a word with him is a Nazi. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

Should we give him your address so he can come over to your house and do a little cleaning up, and perhaps some repainting while he's there? It's about intent, and respecting other peoples' rights and property. He has a site where he intends to show other plunder besisdes TBs, but it is apparrantly under construction. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

quote:Originally posted by mckee:Haven't the French suffered enough? No. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

I guess, had you made your point w/o trying to make me look silly for wanting to go after the guy, we could have had a civil discussion. But, the tone of negativity was not initiated by me. That said... I do understand your point, but there is nothing disrespectable about Geocaching, and it shouldn't be forced into some sort of underground status. A lot of law enforcement people (and I do happen to know quite a few) would recognize what type of character we are dealing with, and may very well enjoy making his life a bit difficult by paying him a visit to ask a few questions. Comcast will have no desire to pu itself in the middle of such a controversy, and would not want to be implicated as an accessory to theft. There are reasonable expectations that if I place something for others, it is not to be maliciously tampered with. When the Boy Scouts put mile posts in Banner Forest, they were placed there for others. If I go in there and deface them, you can bet I would get attention from the police if they found out i did it. The persons intent is malicious. He obviously is doing it as a form of vandalism. Police don't particularly like vandals. They may not like us in some areas, but I doubt that is generally the case. I know LEO's who would enjoy paying "Mr Pirate" a visit to discuss the matter. I know LEO's who also would not have any problem with geocaching occurring in their area, as long as the rules (as given in the gudielaines on this site) are followed. They might even join in. I don't agree with your supposition that "Mr Pirate" has already won by default. Remember, the squeaky wheel often gets the grease. If local police are receiving a lot of emails and phone calls asking (politely) for their help, or even whether anything can be done, they may decide that it makes sense to lend a hand to the rather large group of people who are upset by the actions (of, at a minimum, questionable legality) of one individual with malicious intent. So, I wouldn't go writing off the efforts of those who are willing to go to some trouble to try to guard the caches they enjoy from the plunder of some immature moron who just wants to cause trouble. If no one is willing to even try, then it becomes just one more example where we have let the dregs of society set the rules we will live by. All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to stand idly by. (That's not my quote) I maintain that it starts in small ways, and creeps in if we let it. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

I'm ambivalent on the "Let's go Geocaching" part. Today I don't like it, in agreement with Sam Lowery. Maybe "Got GPS?" or something to give a hint on what it is about? Or, maybe not. Maybe a poll once serious momentum towards making it happen develops. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

Honestly, I found it insulting when people began deriding my effort to stop a person from maliciously vandalising other people's property. It's not his. Just as someone pointed out, a tree stand, a tent, or a campsite is still the property of the person wh placed it when he leaves the site. I also get sick of people who are prone to apathy whenever someone does something to trample on their right & property. Then to deride me for my lack of apathy was pushing me to comment. Here are a few quotes (directed at me), and you can decide where the insults began... "Can you make your case on this a little more clear. I would love to hear the rationale. Pretty please?" "I beg of you to tape your conversation with the local police. I would love to hear it..." "LOL...I can hear the police..." "..evidence that comcast is in violation of several laws for pulling it?" Rather than be constructive, some have decided to just belittle anyone who would actually try to make it hard for people to destroy others' property. Some of it was presented as valid questions, but a lot was just meant to ridicule anyone who would contact authorities for help. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

I lost track of which thread was which & didn't realize I had already posted it. Someone mentioned copyright and all, and then I saw Rothstafari's post (Didn't realize he was part of Groundspeak) and thought... the guidelines say it's okay as long as it's for non commercial use. That, combined with the fact that it'd be hard to copyright the four colored square background w/o the other icons in it, made me think that he hadn't read the guidelines, which made me think I hadn't posted the link yet. I didn't realize he was part of the group that wrote the guidelines. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

It's sad to see how many people here are not only too farging pathetic to stand up for what's right, but they are so idiotic as to ridicule those who will do what they haven't got the guts to do. I don't care if I get banned from this site for saying it, but you naysayers are a bunch of absolute LOSERS. Why don't you move somewhere like France where they have a tradition of collapsing into a pathetic whimper whenever defending themselves seems too tough to do. Intent has a lot to do with punishment. If it can be shown that his intent was malicious, it is nothing more than theft and vandalism. But, people who won't stand up for what's right are the reason this country has crime problems everywhere. Thanks for nothing. "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"

The email address of the Bellingham PD is: crimeprevention@cob.org Here is the email I sent to them: There is a person who in a form of malicious vandalism is stealing contents of our "Treasure Hunts" and then bragging about it on his website. He knows that the contents belong The URL below is a message forum that probably explains it best. Essentially, we are a group which plays a treasure hunting game. One person places a container of small toys and a logbook & pencil in a location, semi hidden, then gives GPS coordinates so that other players in the game can engage in a sort of GPS treasure hunt. The name of the activity is "Geocaching" and the group's website is http://www.geocaching.com/ The first URL below is of the message thread, which talks about an individual who has made a point of stealing our property and posting his thefts on his website. His website is the second one, below that. http://ubbx.Groundspeak.com/6/ubb.x?q=Y&a=tpc&s=5726007311&f=4016058331&m=26360987&p=1 http://home.comcast.net/~piratecaching/index.html We, as a group, would appreciate if the local police department would consider helping us out in this matter. It would be nice to see a person who seeks pleasure from damaging the ability of others who enjoy themselves be brought to justice. Thank you, Mark Kanzler "I'm not Responsible... just ask my wife, She'll confirm it"