Talk about globetrotters.
The cheerful Russians about to drink wine in this photo 3.6 kilometers west-southwest of Mitropol'ye, Tambovskaya oblast', Russia, are smiling because they've marched to exactly 53°N 42°E, one of the invisible "confluence points" on the surface of planet Earth where the lines of latitude and longitude intersect exactly.
You see, not counting intersection points in the middle of the ocean, there are 16,232 "confluences" on land or just off the coast where a GPS device will zero-out -- putting you exactly at the X-marks-the-spot of those lines on grade school globes. Like 13°N 8°W in Mali. 37°N 22°E in Greece. Or this sweet, sweet home at 46°N 0° in France. Since New Hampshire resident Alex Jarrett founded the confluence web project in 1996, 10,405 people in 177 countries have uploaded 71,929 photos to prove they found a latitude and longitude touchpoint.
Outside magazine notes in its June issue that if this all sounds a bit silly, the same can be said for other arbitrary numerical events, such as New Year's Eve or celebrating the recent change of the millennium. Humans react to numbers. The same thing that makes consumers buy magazines with 8 Rules of Love or 630 Fabulous Fashions makes mountain height, or GPS location, or time of year seem important. It's a good refresher for your advertising creative: Have you been using numerical offers to stimulate response?
Footnote: If you want to confluence hunt, make sure you take a photo without yourself in the frame. The confluence.org people have a rule that your picture can't include humans, only the landscape. Sorry, Russians, you're going to have to hike back to that field.
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