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[jbd]

[PUZZLE] GPS Small scale theories and spec here

[Malrog]

Re: [PUZZLE] GPS Small scale theories and spec here

[jegger]

Pairs

[Guest]

I'm new at this so please forgive me if this sort of meta-thinking is poor form. Mods, feel free to delete if I'm out of line.

I believe the locations themselves are important, but I can't convince myself that the PMs have actually physically visited each spot. Even given the scale of this thing, it defies common sense to assume that the PMs are flying around the US looking for intersections. That's why I don't buy the theories about looking for clues, and I don't think we should be looking for specific things that would need to be individually verified (signs, pay phones, nearby restaurants).

I also don't think you're looking for something to happen in those spots on August 24. If you are, the my condolenses to whichever PM drew the short straw and has to go sneaking around the Sears Tower late at night during a code orange.

My gut tells me that it has to be one or more general chracteristics that are shared by the locations. Something that a PM, with a bit of research, could verify without actually moving around the country. Theories like wi-fi and geocaching may not have been right, but I think that's the right track to be on.

[Grout]

I can confirm with personal experience that not all of the Chicago locations are WiFi hotspots.

I'm all for scrapping that theory for now.

Like I was saying in the other thread, these coordinates appear to fall on streets and intersections - which would imply that the coordinates were originally ADDRESSES - meaning all the PMs had to do was get the yellow pages and find a bookstore in indiana or whatever they were looking for then convert the addr to GPS. Looks like visiting the locations and putting them into general categories seems like the best bet right now... though I have already discovered that with the amount of error in some of these calculations... it may be hard to pin down what some of the coordinates are actually pointing to.
Like Addison and Wilton in Chicago... We have the choice of a crappy corner convenience store - or the apartment buildings across the street (one of which was boarded up - the boards had "busy bee boards inc." printed all over them....settle down.) - or as we deviate from the exact coords - it could be the Addison stop on the red line - or even Wrigley Field - but that is a huge stretch... I don't think the coordinates would be that inaccurate.

[Alzheimers]

As unpopular as the theory is becoming, I'm still intrigued by the fact that the coordinates are paired up. Although no patterns seem to be emerging from processing this fact, I'm not sure we should discount the idea that the pairing was intentional for some reason. Perhaps it's something in those parings, either a difference in location names, or distances, or the slope of the lines produced by (X2-X1)/(Y2-Y1) or some other derivation.

The pairing just seems too intentional -- like the seemingly random groups of links that populated the links page prior to the 10th. I know a lot of work was put into plotting these coordinates onto maps and into cartesian planes. However, if it was that easy we would probably all be dissapointed.

[Speaker]

[Ben_Dover]

Has anyone tried anagrams with the paired city names?

[Grout]

so why are some of the locations posted together and some not... i.e. 4 out of the 5 chicago locations are grouped together on the list - but one isn't. Any signifigance?

[Speaker]

RE: anagrams - some of the pairs stand out as making that unlikely .. ie CHICAGO CHICAGO doesn't seem to make anything even close to reasonable.

http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=CHICAGO+CHICAGO

[citizenpep]

[deleted by poster]

[sherpa]

Folks --

This thread is about the physical aspect of the puzzle. What visiting each location will reveal. NOT similarities on the top-level, i.e. words, pairs, anagrams. Please stay OT!

[Grout]

you're ever so right Shirpa. Sorry bout that.

Anyway, like i've said in many a thread, Handful and I visited all the Chicago sites last night. They have nothing in common. I was thinking maybe the pairings were significant, as one pair was the Sun-Times Building and a Sunglasses store...bringing out the word SUN... but the other Chicago pairing was the Sears Tower and a convenience store called "Addison food mart inc."

And then there is a Borders book store that is the location directly across the street from the sunglass store. It falls much earlier on the list and isn't grouped with the other Chicago coodinates for some reason.

I'm dead in the water here.

[jbd]

Just a footnote to my original thoughts: I'm thinking that the important information may not all require a visit. For example, if we're supposed to group 10 locations into the 'Mall' category, well, it's pretty easy to spot which GPS numbers go to malls.

That of course doesn't mean it wouldn't be easier to just visit the place in person for some things. The AI may have an easy time analyzing a satellite map to tell that spot X has a tree, but it may be incomprehensible to us just looking at the map.

[jbd]