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The Winter Party usually features some sort of map-oriented puzzle for people to ponder to when not eating or socializing. This year's involved matching portions of orienteering maps to a list of location in the U.S. and abroad. Three of 17 entrants got perfect scores: Alex Jospe, Ethan Childs and the Jeff Saeger/Judy Karpinski team.
For those interested in statistics, a list of places and number of correct answers is shown below. As might be predicted, the two NEOC maps used (Nobscot and Noon Hill) got the highest number of correct answers, with UNO's Burnt Mountain just behind.
Map Location | Number Correct |
Medfield, MA | 15 |
Sudbury, MA | 15 |
Hanover, NH | 14 |
California | 11 |
Maryland | 11 |
Wisconsin | 9 |
Eastern Washington State | 5 |
Sweden | 4 |
Western Washington State | 3 |
Italy | 3 |
Noted by Hans Bengtsson:
MapAnt generated an O-map of almost all of Finland, about 340,000 square kilometers, with 2.5m contours. The project used about 100 computers working in parallel to produce the map in three weeks.
As part of the recent North American Championships in Hanover, NH, NEOC's first President, Hans Bengtsson, presented his overview of the beginning of orienteering in North America. Hans generously shared his slides with us.
In the Links menu there is an entry for Orienteering Vendors. Many of them sell finger-sticks through their websites. The capabilities of the various SPORTident "cards" (finger-sticks) are detailed at sportident.com.
NEOC does not sell finger-sticks, compasses, or other merchandise in order to spare our Treasurer the task of dealing with state sales tax.
Orienteers at NEOC events this fall will see bright, sturdy control flags in the woods. We are the beneficiaries of a matching donation from Michael Commons, and the "matches" it generated.
Thanks to all who donated: Michael, Patti, Bud, Peter, David, Richard, Gary, Michael, Tobias, and "anonymous." Thanks to Pete Lane for procuring and installing the new flags.