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AP Fake News
There’s no comment section for this article, so I’ll vent here. My comments are in bold.
Why do men have a reputation for never asking for directions, even when they’re lost? Is it because they’re macho, or just don’t like maps? Why do we enjoy the hunt over finding the prize?
Technology has made that debate moot with the invention of GPS — the Global Positioning System.
The history of GPS isn’t that old, but it is fascinating.
In 1973, the U.S. Department of Defense launched the first of a fleet of 31 satellites circling 12,550 miles above the globe.
No – GPS was initially formulated in 1973. The first satellite carrying a rubidium atomic clock, NTS-1 (for Navigation Technology Satellite), was launched in 1974. The first satellite carrying a cesium atomic clock, NTS-2, was launched in 1977. GPS Block 1 (test) satellites were launched from 1978-85. The first operational, Block 2, satellite was launched in 1989.
Each satellite has a built-in atomic clock, synchronized with the ground station and the other satellites. The satellites constantly transmit data about their time and location and GPS “receivers” (in your car and phone) pick up the signals from at least four satellites to compute your location.
The GPS system was initially only for military use. But after Korean Airlines flight 007 was shot down for straying into Russian airspace, President Ronald Reagan issued an order making the system available for civilians.
No, GPS was always intended for both civilian and military use. But only the military was willing to fund the early development. TI was selling the civilian 4100 receiver beginning in 1981, two years before KAL 007 was shot down.
The MSM wonders why we don’t trust them when they can’t get the simplest facts correct.
Published in Science & Technology
‘Specially since it’s free, right?
yep. that was probably them.
False stories frequently come from journalists copying other wrong stories. Given the effect of the internet on the number and pay of journalistic positions, people are pressured to produce material quickly. Even well regarded people like Simon Winchester and Walter Isaacson have recently repeated the fable that GPS started as a military only system. Then there are the people who exaggerate their importance to the creation of GPS. I’ve found many mistakes in the writings of one prominent person who has been called the father of GPS. But the mistakes all lie in one direction (exaggerating his importance and denigrating the work of my Dad).
imagine my surprise?!?
Another prominent person, who has received many awards for GPS, didn’t understand how it worked. He thought it worked like LORAN. Yet I’ve heard him called the coinventor of GPS.
I hate to say it but will say it anyway: Dude, find your zen.
That’s good advice, but it’s more fun tilting at windmills.
tell me, amigo mio, about it
I noticed this with my much younger sisters. One has been in this town for 2 years and still cannot get around without help. When I moved here in 2001 I looked at maps and then drove around for hours to figure out where things were. Now that I have gps, I make it point to be able to find things by memory, especially things I frequent. But I will note that I suck at it.
My husband, on the other hand, doesn’t have to ask for directions, because he actually always knows where he is. It probably helped that as he was growing up his mother delivered tons of papers and phone books, thus drilling in the need for both paying attention and memorizing locations.
Also, when I was young, there wasn’t much to do in the car and I got carsick so I had to pay attention to the road, whereas both my young sisters look at the phones, even the one that gets carsick, even on a one minute drive and so they never can memorize the drive because they are never paying attention.
Boy, did that become a Back in MY Day!
They got the important facts right, though; men are jerks, the military keep all the good stuff for themselves and would have gone on doing so but Reagan was forced to allow civilian use after a plane was shot down.
Certainly true at the higher echelons but not at the “ground pounder” level. We (USMC grunts) were not pampered.
Thanks for sharing.
GPS aside, I’ll do three right turns before I do one left. But that’s because I’m conservative, I guess.
Yeah. we had “Have Quick” radio frequency changing radios in our F-4’s when I was int the AF in the late 80’s. So when they didn’t sinc up we were deaf and dumb, reduced to hand signals for com. Nice when it worked…
What’s with the preparing? You’re always preparing to do stuff!
Not me. That’s the stupid Google Navigation garbage. I hate how it tells you basic stuff multiple times for no reason, but forgets to tell you useful stuff, like, oh, “When you take the next exit in Amarillo, the place you’re trying to get to is on the far side of the three-lane frontage road, so you should really get off at the exit before the one I’m going to tell you to get off at, because there’s no way you’re crossing three lanes of lunchtime traffic in a hundred yards.”
I know. I was quoting or at least paraphrasing Spaceballs.
Ah. Not my favorite movie. I think I’ve seen it 1.5 times.
@flicker, are you my father-in-law?!?
Same here. I used to believe that Space Balls was the worst movie ever made (for its pedigree). But my opinion started to change when I watched footage of Chinese opening bottles of fresh air.
Possibly. My father once told me maternity is provable, paternity is conjecture.
This is how I operate too. By looking at the map, I have a clear visual picture in my head and even if I don’t know all the finer points of the trip, I’ll know which directions I need to go, the major roads to take, what towns I’ll pass before I get to the destination, etc. I need that visual in my head to make sense of any other directions such as a turn-by-turn on Google maps so that I know which parts of those are basically N/A–like how to get from my house to the interstate.
AMEN!!
Moderator Note:
Folks, the point has been made. Please focus on the OP and the relevant discussions, because continuing the derail the thread by responding to an off-topic comment is just as rude as the original off-topic comment.How can we be sure that Gary isn’t reading this thread?
One advantage I have in tilting at windmills is that I’m an author. Thus, Annie Jacobsen, author of The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency, appeared on Spycast and asserted that DARPA invented GPS. She states this about 27:30 into the video. The funny thing is that DARPA doesn’t claim that it invented GPS. It had nothing to do with the creation of GPS in 1973 out of my Dad’s Timation system and the AF/Aerospace’s Project 621B. Ten years later it worked on miniaturizing receivers. I contacted the Spy Museum historian who does the Spycast interviews and seven months later appeared on his podcast. That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t written the book. I also contacted Jacobsen. Her initial response was that we would have to agree to disagree. I then sent her two DOD documents and two Aviation Week articles from 1973 about what became GPS. DARPA was not mentioned anywhere in these critical documents because it did not participate in the invention of GPS. She agreed to change the second edition.
Moderator Note:
On the contrary; after having been publicly called out and privately explained to that his behavior was out of line, Gary has not commented further on this post. All you are doing is continuing to be rude to Richard Easton and the other members actually engaging on the topic.This is what I like about the Google Maps app–I can look at the big picture map and then expand to the street by street map and back and forth. Navigating is such fun! I’ll turn on the location finder for info on car crashes and other delays ahead, as it’s remarkably accurate at predicting length of delay and such (and, honestly, I love watching the little blue indicator move down the road–it’s also handy to show when we’ve missed a turn). If there’s a problem ahead, I use the map to find alternatives. It’s fun! And I do tend to carry the map around in my head. I’m actually better at knowing north/south/east/west than I am right and left. I always hesitate on those. They’re relative, you know.
Same here.
I have been told that the ‘danger close’ indirect fire missions are a bit less stressful now that those guys calling them in have GPS. So thanks for that also.
That does sound like fun, Caryn. I’ll have to try it. And same thing on NSEW. Also, if I’ve been somewhere before, I can usually find my way again because I remember landmarks and street signs. Got thrown for a loop when I visited the town where we had lived 25 years previous and couldn’t find any of the old landmarks, though. They’d bulldozed and rebuilt and even reconfigured streets.