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by Peter Amram

My wife’s new iPhone comes with a diminutive booklet of instructions printed in type so small that my O-loupe with 2.75x mag is needed just to bring the letters into focus. (The center of the Pawtuckaway map is pellucid by comparison.) The legal department at Apple seems to have urged more than usual lawyerly elusiveness on whoever wrote the booklet, for it contains no page numbers. You’ll have to take my word that the rookie iPhoner is informed that:
iPhone contains an internal digital compass located in the upper-right corner of iPhone. The accuracy of digital compass headings may be negatively affected by magnetic or other environmental interference, including interference caused by the close proximity of the magnets contained in the iPhone earbuds. Never rely solely on the digital compass for determining direction. Compare the information provided on iPhone to your surroundings and defer to posted signs to resolve any discrepancies. Do not use location-based applications while performing activities that require your full attention.

Annual gathering and potluck
for all NEOC members
Saturday, January 21, 2012

Details will be e-mailed to all NEOC members. See the event information.

Brian MacQuarrie from the Boston Globe was at the Needham Town Forest meet. Read his article, Finding their way just for fun.

Once in the woods, however, the sport becomes a compelling mix of brainpower, fitness, decision-making, and a chance to appreciate nature all at the same time - if there is time, that is.

Photos from the article are here.

(If you get blocked by the Globe's request that you register, clear your browser's cookies, back up a page, then continue.)

NPR's Only a Game will broadcast a piece on Orienteering, this Saturday (Nov. 19) at 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. on WBUR (90.9 FM). It will feature interviews of competitors at CSU's recent A-Meet in Lynn Woods. The show is streamed live on WBUR.org

An archived copy of the broadcast, with photos, is here.

In which we periodically examine how art imitates life and life imitates orienteering.

by Peter Amram

In Sermons in Stone, a cheery rumination on that staple of off-trail orienteering in the northeast, the stone wall, the author, Susan Allport, declares:

Taken together, the states of New England and New York had more miles of stone walls [in 1871] than the United States has miles of railroad track today. The work that went into them, according to one estimate, would have built the pyramids of Egypt one hundred times over. It has been said that two men could build about ten feet of stone wall a day, an estimate that included the time required to gather the stone and lay a foundation. (p. 18)

Think of that the next time you gratefully scamper alongside some long-dead farmer’s boundary, in hopes of locating a little orange-and-white triangular box kite.

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