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EESTI ELU reedel, 30. septembril 2022 — Friday, September 30, 2022
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Geocaching: the contemporary treasure hunt Vincent Teetsov A hunt for treasure is, in many ways, more about the hunt itself than what exactly you find. Think about all of the kids who’ve gone out with their phones looking for a Gyarados or a Snorlax in Pokémon GO. It’s only a digi tal creature, but the pursuit is irresistible. Just like if you bring a metal detector to the beach. It’s the act of patrolling the sands, with the wind fluttering against your jacket, and the salty ocean spray. The dopamine kick of a high pitched beep, the sound of valuable metal, and then sifting out the sand with a scoop. These are tangible hobbies. Physical games. And if you get a curio or souvenir out of it, all the better. Imagine searching for lost treasure in between the walls of St. Catherine’s Passage, Tallinn. Or around the Kaali meteorite craters on Saaremaa. You could search high and low near the spooky, abandoned Rummu quarry, or on the trails through Suitsna bog in southeast Estonia. These places are all host to one of the latest iterations of scavenger hunting, called “Geocaching”, which has a bur geoning community in Estonia, Canada, and elsewhere. These “geocachers” go out of their way to add a challenge to a trip
in the outdoors. Considering the activity’s connection to both the outdoors and tech, in the form of GPS navigation, it’s a perfect fit for the Estonian way of life! In essence, a search starts with a geocacher hiding a sealed container somewhere. They will put a log book or paper for geocachers to write down their name and the date of discovery when they success fully find the geocache. Some times geocachers will leave “swag”, which are tradeable items, like an action figure or other trinkets, that you can re place with your own contribu tion. Though, national parks and conservation areas can dis allow leaving items inside the cache, leaving a cache off-trail, or leaving one that stands out too much, as it can attract wild life. “Waymarking” is another type of geocaching, where the geocacher makes note of a place of interest. In each of these instances, the coordinates of the place are identified and then shared with the rest of the world. One popu lar place to share geocache de tails, and therefore to look for geocaches, is within the official Geocaching mobile application, which works with a smart phone’s own GPS technology. After you write your name in a log book, you’re encouraged to add info about your discovery to the app. Other sites and apps out there include Opencaching
Geocachers on the island of Naissaar.
Photo: geocaching.com
and Munzee. The very first geocache was a bucket in Oregon, placed by computer consultant Dave Ulmer in May 2000. Inside was “Delorme Topo USA software, videos, books, food, money, and a slingshot!” as he announced in an email to his peers. Today, there are millions of geocaches placed all over the world. Readers can find the “Geocaching Capital of Cana da” in a collection of seven scenic hamlets near Algonquin Park. There’s even a geocache on the International Space Station that was placed by Richard Garriott, a British video game developer and space tourist. And there’s nothing stopping
treasure hunters from looking for geocaches through clues left on forum sites like Reddit, or through friends if you set up a geocaching club of your own. It gets especially fun when a cache’s coordinates are con cealed by a puzzle, or when you’re tracking down a “multi cache”, which is a geocache that’s broken up into several parts. People will fit these caches in all kinds of different contain ers. Sometimes it’s tupperware. Sometimes it’s a micro or nano cache that takes nimble fingers to retrieve. Others are tucked away in a tight crevice. When placing your own caches, it’s necessary that they’re water tight, and an added pencil is a
thoughtful touch in case those looking for it forgot their own.
Russia could employ terrorism against the West
colorfully but equally fantasti cally in a recent address where he declared a partial mobiliza tion. His message was also that Russia is a victim of the “collective West” and NATO aggression. That it is our aim, that of Western countries, to destroy Russia. That we are threatening the use of nuclear weapons, not Russia. Putin suggested that the West has told Ukraine not to make peace. And that Russia is only using force in self-defense. There are enough people who have been utterly brain washed by Russia’s war propa ganda both in Russia and be yond its borders. Russia could, without a doubt, try and inspire more radical supporters to take physical action using more covert means, such as the dark web. To perpetrate attacks in the West, Russian special services could work with existing terrorist organizations by enabling, sup porting and directing them, while they might simply take advantage of mentally unstable people for their purposes. IEDs, firearms or any other tools that terrorist find handy can be used for these purposes. Following the example of Islamic terrorists, it is possible to drive a vehicle into a crowd or use other improvised weapons to attack people in public places. If this seems hard to believe, it pays to recall that Russia is
already perpetrating just such cyberattacks against Western IT infrastructure by itself and by encouraging pro-Russian indi viduals in the West to do the same. And some of these at tacks have penetrated our walls. We must also keep in mind that Russia retains some capa city to use social media against us, which it has proved not only by meddling in U.S. elections but since then. For example, by fueling antivaccination moods, supporting the radical right etc. It is also clear beyond any doubt that there are those among the Western political elite willing to create cover for Russian special operations. Unfortunately, they can also be found in Estonia. All of it amounts to just one conclusion. Europe and Estonia simply have no other choice but to bolster national defense in the broadest possible sense. This stands for preparedness to defend the population and offer vital services in crisis situations but also giving our security ser vices additional resources and, if necessary, additional rights. The Estonian government’s fiscal strategy decisions are an important step in that direction, boosting our resilience to the Russian threat. But security in general, one part of which is non-military national defense, requires long-term agreements between parties and steady funding.
The Buk missile system used to down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine came from the Russian armed forces. It was an act of terror with direct Russian involvement in which 298 people, most of them Dutch Russia could react to Western citizens, lost their lives. State-sanctioned terrorism countries’ support for Ukraine asymmetrically by against other countries would, inciting or using its security unfortunately, not be anything services to help orchestrate new or unwitnessed. explosions, killings and other Hezbollah has received sup terrorist crimes in countries port from Iran and Syria both of that support Ukraine, includ which maintain good relations ing Estonia. That is why it is with Russia. Afghanistan under important to also ramp up the Taliban was supportive of non-military resistance, Rai al-Qaeda activities in its territory, mond Kaljulaid says. knowing the organization had There would hardly be any orchestrated and planned to or thing new in Russian state- chestrate new attacks against sanctioned terrorism. Russian and in the territory of the U.S. special services have killed or Former Libyan dictator tried to kill undesirable persons Muammar Gaddafi and Libyan for decades, both in Europe special services have been asso (Berlin, Salisbury) and else ciated with several acts of terror where (Dubai). In Berlin, the in the West. Gaddafi’s security killer traveled using a tourism services had a hand in an explo visa. sion on board an American It is beyond doubt that commercial airliner in 1988 in Russian special services were which 243 passengers and crew behind the assassination attempt were killed and a further 11 of opposition politician Alexei people died on the ground when Navalny and it was coordinated the plane crashed down in the on the highest political level. A small Scottish town of former source from the Russian Lockerbie. president’s close circle has told By the way, after Gaddafi Western intelligence that Putin was beaten to death by a mob personally ordered the killing of during the uprising in Libya, Aleksandr Litvinenko. Putin allegedly kept a video
Raimond Kaljulaid, chairman of the Riigikogu National Defense Committee, ERR, September 2022
recording of the dictator’s kill ing in his office for a time. In some cases, Russian special services might not even get their hands dirty. Islamic terrorist organizations have successfully radicalized and re cruited perpetrators online. The activities of Russia’s state media since the start of the war but especially in recent weeks cannot be described as anything other than an attempt to com pletely radicalize the Russian population. I caught an overview of Russian propaganda programs a few days ago. People are told that the we, NATO and the collective West (including Esto nia), are the aggressor in the war in Ukraine. It is explained that anti-Rus sian forces want to implement Adolf Hitler’s vision of subju gating the eastern peoples. That if Russia loses the war, they will be subjected to subhuman treatment, robbed of their lan guage and will communicate using various sounds. These sick fantasies are aired on major Russian networks during prime time, they are re counted with a stern expression, and people believe them. They believe them in Russia and elsewhere. President Putin described the situation perhaps not quite as
When you’re out searching, you’ll need a solid pair of shoes and a phone or other GPS device. If you’re an old pro at navigation, it is possible to track down caches with a com pass and local map; though, it may be difficult to see in enough detail on a printed map and you’ll have to account for magnetic declination: the angle between true north and mag netic north. Before you get started, be sure to get acquainted with the geocaching guidelines (www. geocaching.com/play/guide lines) and other tips. Happy searching, and jõudu tööle!
