WIRED Staff
Culture

Slideshow: 16,000 Things to Do With GPS

A project to collect digital photographs of 16,000 points on the globe is gaining momentum. It's also giving thousands of people who shelled out for GPS devices something to do with them. By Joanna Glasner.
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Three visitors from New Zealand, Portugal and Tanzania needed the help of a local resident to find confluence point 9 degrees south latitude and 125 degrees east longitude. The point is located in East Timor, less than five kilometers from where border patrol keeps watch.

See related story: 16,000 Things to Do With GPS

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This area, north from confluence point 79 degrees north latitude and 12 degrees east longitude, was reached by snowmobile.
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Confluence point 23 degrees north latitude and 10 degrees east longitude in the Algerian desert is marked with a shovel.
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This GPS device proves the validity of reaching confluence point 34 degrees north latitude and 43 degrees east longitude reached by U.S. soldiers on their way back to an Iraqi airfield.
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At the confluence point of 79 degrees north latitude and 12 degrees east longitude, located in the arctic territory of Svalbard bordering on the Barents Sea, a group followed tracks that led to a polar bear.
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In October and November 2002, the German Land Cruiser Association traveled to South Algeria hoping to locate a confluence point, and reached two. The water bottle marks one that is 23 degrees north latitude and 10 degrees east longitude.
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In East Timor, Frank Macha, local resident Rosalino Xemenix, Sam Robinson and Conceição Alonso found confluence point 9 degress south latitude and 125 degrees east longitude with the help of Xemenix and a GPS device.
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A group of U.S. soldiers reached a confluence point 34 degrees north latitude and 43 degrees east longitude by landing a Black Hawk helicopter in the Iraqi desert. They had just delivered blood supplies to soldiers serving at an airfield in western Iraq.