7/31/05 | 2:43 pm | Bounty: Compass
I’m back at it with Bounties folks. The idea with Scavenger Hunt Bounties are to let you all “roogle” on your own time. Of course, as we’ve seen they don’t seem to last that long which is contrary to the reason I created them in the first place!
Well, this might last a little longer I hope… because I’m not including any word clues! At least initially. I may add some later… This building or feature that reminded me a bit of a compass rose. You need 15/18 magnification to see it.
You want to know the prize for finding it of course. First, please note that if you win the prize, I will need to ask you for your physical address if you want to receive it. Because some people either don’t want to give their address, or don’t really care for the prize, I am going to start REUSING prizes that aren’t claimed for whatever reason. So if you, see the same prize it’s not necessarily because it is a duplicate… someone probably didn’t claim it on an earlier bounty.
Ok, the prize for the Compass Bounty is a Petersburg, Alaska Viking Visitor Guide & Vacation Planner. I actually sent away for this because I had been thinking of visiting Alaska one of these days. Petersburg is also known as “Alaska’s Little Norway” because of its Norwegian heritage. It’s located in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, which I didn’t know is actually the largest National Forest in the U.S!
Petersburg also shelters one of Alaska’s prime fishing fleets, and the town actually started off as a fish camp for Tlingit natives before the Norwegians started to build canneries there.
I know the Petersburg Viking Guide is a free publication, but it might be cool to have… if you’re interested keep an eye out for this Compass clue while you’re roogling!
[Edit: 8/04/05 - There is a continent hint for this one…]
[Edit: 9/11/05 - 1st Clue released…]
Bounty Name : “Compass”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Jeremy H
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : North America
1st Clue : Southeast U.S.
Magnification Needed: 15/18Reward: Peterson Alaska Viking Visitor’s Guide
I have to run but will post more in after lunch. “Compass” has been solved!! By Jeremy H.:
[Edit: 2:20 p.m. PDT]
…And we have a winner! Jeremy writes:
well after hours of florida I finally started to check out more out west, when I started looking last week just before you submitted a clue, I thought, well it looks like a Church, but also a Church with money, from that I started looking in the BIBLE BELT, then the clue for South East came out, it actually took me off track
oh well, I could be a tour guide for Florida now
BTW, I am Canadian, and 1 last note, just before I found the clue, I was honestly thinking to myself, Hmm Monika Lewinsky territory
See, I knew that it was possible to solve these clues! This is pretty much how I wanted it originally. Bounties are not meant for a quick hit… those are what the daily clues are for.
Granted, it sounds like he did a lot of searching in order to find it… and the Southeast clue actually took him off track. I thought SE U.S. might help because I figured people would start off with large cities, and since this is pretty close to Little Rock, AK it might be easier to find. I actually don’t mean for them to take this long though, so I will try to drop additional bounty hunt hints for those that aren’t being found.
August 1st, 2005 at 10:59 am
Hmm ok what part of the world do i start looking with a fine comb , this should be quite the challenge i’m up for it.
August 1st, 2005 at 11:55 am
steve - I needed to do it without clues to start, because everyone was solving them faster than I could put them up. They actually take twice as long to write up and handle because I need to find a suitable prize, scan it, and talk about it. So I might as well spend time on daily clues if people find it so quickly. Hence, no clues for the time being.. =)
p.s. if you have any “goodies” from Oregon you can part with for use as roogle “Bounties” let me know. I only have some crater lake stuff that is rather old!
August 1st, 2005 at 12:02 pm
But what’s the point? With no clue at all, there’s nowhere to start, unless there’s something in the article or in the name you gave it. I poked around various Petersburgs, but I don’t see the point of a clueless hunt. It’s like that Monty Python sketch about Olympic Hide And Seek where the Hider could hide out anywhere in the world, and the Seekers took years to find them.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:34 pm
Citizen - You might be surprised how many ppl might get it without any word clue at all…
In any case, like I said it takes too much time and effort to make these bounties and then have them solved within 15 minutes. The whole point of them is to give anyone who comes to the site a chance at finding something whether or not there is an active daily clue or not. Word clues that one person thinks are difficult are easy to another.
If someone wants to come up with a bounty, write up a description, come up with word clues, find a suitable geographical prize, scan in a pic of it, mail me the prize, and pay for shipping it out… well I’m all ears. I don’t have the time right now, so that’s the way it’s going to be.
August 1st, 2005 at 2:43 pm
Well, here’s what it isn’t.
The “Four Corners” area.
The Luxor.
The Transamerica building.
The “Pyramid” at CSULB.
It’s probably a well known building, but it’s not ringing a bell with me.
August 1st, 2005 at 3:03 pm
No i actually like it with no clue i love a good challange, it gives the site varity.
August 1st, 2005 at 4:27 pm
Citizen - nice… I have actually been to every one you mentioned except CSULB’s. Though I did walk around the campus once. What is the pyramid?
Steve - I’m going to try have more than one bounty up at once too, so that it doesn’t get completely frustrating. I envision it sort of something to keep in the back of your mind while searching for other stuff. It’s an experiment as usual =)
August 1st, 2005 at 6:37 pm
I agree with Steve… it’s an extra challenge with no word clue, and you don’t feel the rush the solve it in 10 minutes. I’ve also searched several Petersburgs, St Petersburgs (Florida AND Russia) as well as Norway and a couple “little Norways”. Maybe I breezed right over it, who knows, but I sure had fun doing it.
August 1st, 2005 at 6:53 pm
While we’re at it, it’s not the pyramid in Memphis, TN nor is it the pyramid in front of the Louvre in Paris. It’s also not the pramid office building in Sacramento, CA, nor is it the pyramid in front of the Rosicrucian museum in San Jose, CA. Okay, then. That narrows it down quite a bit. We should have it in no time!
August 1st, 2005 at 7:03 pm
Maybe offer a $1.00 CA lotto ticket as an enticement? This should save you prep time on your bounties, and give people incentive of winning millions . Should be legal…. you aren’t doing this for money.
Or… maybe the hunt is enticement enough without a bounty (?).
You should at least break-up the planet into 2 halves or 4 quadrants….. western / northern / eastern / southern hemispheres. I know I lost interest after a couple of hours. Although I’m sure there are some hard cores out there that will find it in time! I like the no clue concept…… but it’s too vauge. Like Steven Wright said…. “It’s a small world, but I’d sure hate to paint it.”
August 1st, 2005 at 7:43 pm
Ha my comment of (cough cough gag gag) after my statement of winning millions, was deleted for some reason ….. I guess anything inside of “less than - greater than” symbols deletes…… interesting.
August 1st, 2005 at 10:30 pm
Tim J - glad you had fun…i will really try get some more up there so that ppl don’t get bored.
Judy - OK, I haven’t been too ANY of those locations unlike Citizen’s list.
Mark - That’s funny, I had thought about giving away a lotto ticket. Might be a good idea. But for now, I think I’m sort of taking prize donations from ppl. You know, postcards and maps that everyone has lying around the house. And I have indeed thought about breaking up the planet into sections. I was going to break it up by country first but sometimes that’s a giveaway as well. We will see! For sure I will not let one go for longer than a few weeks before dropping hints.
Weird, I don’t know why part of yr comment was deleted but yeah it’s probably something to do with getting confused with html tags.
August 2nd, 2005 at 5:20 am
CSULB’s pyramid is a general event venue, mainly sports, I think. Concerts are generally held at the music center next door.
August 2nd, 2005 at 9:42 am
Citizen - that’s cool. Funny because I’m probably going to drive down to Long Beach this sunday for the flea market they have. I’m going to look for some prizes, i saw plenty of people selling postcards last time I was there…
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:42 am
Well, I thought that maybe the title “Compass” was a clue. Little did I realize how many places have either “North,” “South,” “East,” or “West” in their name.
I guess this really is a needle in a haystack.
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:58 am
I went so far as to think maybe “NONE” was the clue, and I was looking in North Platte, NE! Maybe if we split the planet up into sections and each take one…
August 2nd, 2005 at 12:08 pm
Mike - hehe, sorry… this is really an experiment. I know everyone has limited time to serach for clues. I sort of meant it as something in the back of your mind while searching for the daily ones. which yes, i need to work on. So much roogling, so little time!
Judy - nope, NONE is just what it means, no word clues. I need to start coming up with more Bounties to put up. I have a few in mind, but i need to find some prizes… i think this weekend i may score some at the long beach swap meet =)
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:00 pm
I think you some of you guys might be overestimating the size of the building. Judging by the size of the cars in the top right, it’s probably not more than a few hundred feet wide, maybe 500 ft at the most. It may not be as big and as well known as you think, judging by the size that I estimate it is.
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:32 pm
That Jon G is a sharp one all right… you are pretty much correct about the size. =)
August 3rd, 2005 at 2:30 pm
I wonder if it actually is a pyramid… I mean, if you look at the shadow, there isn’t a point but a flat edge. If I had to guess, it would by pyramid in shape, but with a short roof-line rather than a point. maybe a church or temple of some sort…
August 4th, 2005 at 2:09 am
I think I might have figured out what kind of a building it is, but alas it didn’t help me at all to find the answer. Better luck for someone else. I just found this site today and wasted a couple of hours before deciding to quit before I get hooked.
There are certain buldings that are built with particular compass orientation: churches. It is common to have the main entrance in the SW direction, as this building also has. Whats more, there are
exits to the NE and SE direction to the car park. From a functional perspective and proportional perspective, this building could well be a church. It doesn’t appear to be a pyramid to me: the tips of the roof apparently end up pretty close to ground, which means the middle of each wall span must be raised (for the entrances). So its a very geometric shape, but slightly more complex than a pyramid.
August 4th, 2005 at 6:55 am
Yeah I think some people are missing the point of the bounties. If done right, there could be like 10 or 15 sights out there at once for people to find. They aren’t meant to be daily clues like the regular ones. But if you happen to be scrolling around the maps and see something that hasnt been found in months, that’s pretty cool.
August 4th, 2005 at 9:46 am
aaron - if I was playing, I think I might ponder the same thing. =)
jonathan - that’s pretty astute observation… well, I’m not saying if it’s a church, mainly because I’m ashamed to say I don’t know! Is that true about churches often having a certain orientation? Pretty interesting…
ryan - You hit it on the head. I have been trying to build up a stock of them… but everyone is so smart here that they don’t stay in existence for that much time. The big thing holding me back currently is looking around for GeoPrizes. i may put up some “prizeless” ones just to get a backlog…
August 4th, 2005 at 10:14 am
Why search? Automate!
Obviously the way to solve this one is to write a pattern recognition program that will interface with Google Maps, and search every possible shot of the Earth’s land surface at 15/18 for the provided clue photo using two dimensional convolutional filters and custom artificial intelligence algorithms.
I’ll get right on it. My PC at work should only take 98 years to grind through it all.
Ha! I have outfoxed you all! [STEWIE]Victory is mine![/STEWIE]
August 4th, 2005 at 10:20 am
citizen - that’s hilarious, because just yesterday I was thinking the exact same thing! … How long is it before someone comes up with an image recognition that will scan the maps and find the clue for you. And it could be a distributed processor type thing, like SETI.. hehe! Seriously, I was wondering if it would be possible.
I’m glad they brought back Family Guy too…
August 4th, 2005 at 10:50 am
I should just start crying now…
no really, look at it more zoomed out
August 4th, 2005 at 11:21 am
aaron - oops I think you mean this link instead… but yes that is funny!
August 4th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
scavengeroogle: orientation has indeed been a significant factor in church architecture, at least in the past. I immediately thought that the fact that the building has its axes so squarely on the compass orientation might be more than a coincidence, as well as the allegory of a compass rose.
Googling for orientation and architecture gives us the following, just FYI:
“The orientation in respect to compass bearings (especially churches, where the entrance normally faces west).”
“In medieval Europe and, consequently, in modern Europe and the Americas, it became customary to have the congregation and the priest at the altar facing east. So strong was this custom that “west front” came to be a generic term for the facade of a church.”
Now if that building was a church, the altar would be bang on the east end, because NE and SE walls have an entrance in the middle.
Its got to do with where the sun rises and all that, hence the small variations (the axis are not always 100% on compass orientation).
IMHO, it’s a church.
August 4th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Anyone here work for the NSA or the National Recon. Office? They probably have the scanning software we need.
August 4th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
cheater!
be a tourist, look for it on your own
August 4th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
In regards to the image recognition idea, some of the programmers at work wrote a program that would just about do this. Too funny. They have several apps they wrote that do this sort of deal. Would definitely take the fun out of it, but it would be possible. Take forever I’m sure.
You do know that this website is going to make us all request that google have a way of showing us where we have already viewed.
Maybe thats what we need someone to write, it would shade over areas you have looked at. 
I’ll get right on it!
August 4th, 2005 at 6:47 pm
jonathan- I did not know any of that… neat. I did think that orientation of a church might have to do with light coming through windows and stained glass or something…
citizen - I know some people at JPL/NASA… would that help?
ryan - LOL =)
dave - I knew it would be possible… it doesn’t bother me though. These things are bound to be created (or have been already!)
Actually, I was thinking that instead of having a way to show where we already viewed I would like someone to play with the API to make me an app that lets me see ONLY the high res squares of a google map… like the hybrid view except with High res squares in it. For creating clues I need to know where the squares are and sometimes it is tricky when viewing from high up. (they don’t always stand out in brown) Anyone up for creating this for me?? =)
August 4th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
JPL probably couldn’t help much. JPL doesn’t do much earth-centric stuff, at least if they do it was no where near the area I worked in.
August 17th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
Here is a cool site called flash earth. It combines Google and MSN mapping that is interchangeable with a click. Still not helping me solve Compass.
August 17th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Oh, I guess you will need the url for flashearth.
http://www.flashearth.com/
August 17th, 2005 at 2:57 pm
david - cool, I will have to take a look at that later… on my other computer though, since I have Flash turned off everywhere on this machine. =)
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:26 am
I think we need another clue, I havn’t seen this anywhere, and with my last couple of weeks before moving to college, I’ve seen a whole lot of the high-res areas in google earth
September 2nd, 2005 at 9:04 am
jordan - i hear ya, im trying to put more up. The problem is ppl keep solving them before they are up for more than a couple hours! and also, i keep running out of prizes. I just got a few more prizes in though…
September 2nd, 2005 at 6:22 pm
Compass Rose?…I say Diamond…in the rough! Because this is so difficult. I love a challenge but maybe another clue…as cryptic as you wish, scavengeroogle, but after hours of searching I’m beginning to creak. Take pity on us please!
September 2nd, 2005 at 6:29 pm
im wondering since youve specially ordered this book does the title or the location tha tthe book is about have anything at all to do with where this is
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:05 pm
susie - i will try get some more up this holiday weekend…
rubberbands - nope, it has nothing to do with the location or the book. not that I know of, at least.
September 4th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
Hello High Exalted Scavangeroogle Master…… I could be wrong, but I think the request of Jordan and Susie was an additional clue pertaining to the “Compass” bounty IE: “East or West of the Mississippi” or whatever.
As far as your bounty prizes go I still think a “Quick Pick” lotto ticket would heighten the interest……
September 4th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
mark - ohhhh, they meant another clue for the CLUE! i though they meant more bounties! Well, i am working on more bounties right now, but i will add some more info to the persnickety Compass next week…
September 5th, 2005 at 4:49 pm
and be sure you tell us when you give more clues! some of us have been a-hunt’n for so very long!
September 15th, 2005 at 10:33 am
seriously. the clue “southeast U.S.” isn’t helpful at all
September 15th, 2005 at 11:50 am
david - well, it’s better than “north america” isn’t it? Seriously yourself. This applies to any more complaints, i’m not going to respond any more to them: don’t expect a free ride with bounties. They’re not meant to be easy, they’re meant to be extremely hard to near impossible. Why? Because as we have seen in the past if they are “normal” then they get solved in a few hours. I like giving out prizes but it takes double the time to make up a bounty clue and the cost of blah blah blah… Ok, had to vent. We now resume our normal scavengeroogle good times and feelings broadcast.
September 18th, 2005 at 8:24 pm
aaaah. so THERE it is…
when you said SE US, I was going by the determinations of the states and not by their actual area. So SE US would be the Carolinas and Florida and maybe Alabama. Arkansas is more of the South I’d say. oh well! At least it was finally found!
September 19th, 2005 at 7:33 am
Oh man, I don’t believe it! That is about two miles from my house!
September 19th, 2005 at 9:47 am
Aaron - yesss.. my bad actually. thinking about it i should have said “The South” instead of SE.
Tim - that is the craziest thing! hehe… so is that actually a large church?
September 19th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
It’s the headquarters of Leisure Arts, Inc. You can visit their website at http://www.leisurearts.com/
I’ve posted a couple of pictures of the building. The first one is of the front of the building, and the second is taken from far enough back that you can see the tip of the pyramid. From what I could tell by the signs, this might be their visitor’s center. Hope the html doesn’t get mangled, but you should be able to at least cut and paste into your browser.
http://www.joinertek.com/compass1.jpg
http://www.joinertek.com/compass2.jpg
September 19th, 2005 at 12:28 pm
tim - that is cool that we have “real” photos of it. So it’s NOT a church… that’s a pretty big curveball. We had all pretty much decided that it was one, and in fact I think solver Jeremy was looking for one when he stumbled across it.
September 19th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
I dont think i would have been able to find it with a magnification of 15/18 maybe its just the way i have my screen set up
September 19th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
steve - hm… i just looked at it at 15/18 and I think you’re right. I think it was supposed to be “16/18″… the 15 was left over from a previous clue that I missed changing out.
September 19th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
I really didnt use the 15/18 as a basis, after a couple of hours in Florida, I just zoomed in pretty close, and kept scanning the screen
The church idea was the first, I figured that it had to have money, the size of the parking lot, so I figured Bible Belt.
yes the south east hint didnt help any, the whole time I was in Florida I was hoping that Texas wasnt south east, when I was looking in Louisiana, I found that the terrain and buildings were looking pretty good for the solution, finally I moved on to other states, in under 5 minutes in Arkansas I found it, I was hoping that it wasnt in a major city. but hey it was fun