FAA Warns of Ongoing GPS Issues in Southeastern U.S. Due to Defense Department ‘Tests’
January 21st, 2011Interestingly (instinctively?), Cryptogon readers have been buying Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass by Harold Gatty for years.
This one gets a tick in the Social Engineering box because of how the machine gets people to internalize and rely on whiz bang technology that can then be withdrawn with the flip of a switch.
Now, instead of a limited blackout cone for GPS, what would happen if Monsanto did this with their FrankenpHood seeds?
Via: Engadget:
Don’t panic, but anyone planning on using GPS in the southeastern US for the next month or so will likely want to make sure they have a fallback option. That’s according to a flight advisory just issued by the FAA, which warns pilots that their GPS signal “may be unreliable or unavailable” due to “GPS tests” that the Department of Defense will be conducting between January 20th and February 22nd. Details are fairly light beyond that, but the FAA does note that when the “tests” occur they will be active for 45 minutes, and be followed by 15 minutes of off time — additional notices to pilots will apparently be issued at least 24 hours prior to any test. Of course, while this particular advisory is directed at pilots, it will presumably will also affect all other GPS devices, as the FAA doesn’t mention any GPS issues specific to aviation. The real question, however, is just what those mysterious “GPS tests” are — if they’re, in fact, GPS tests at all…
I first read Gatty in 1986. My edition is titled “Finding Your Way on Land or Sea: Reading Nature’s Maps” and the last sentence of the little blurb on the flyleaf reads, encouragingly, “With this book you need never be lost.”
One of my favorite books ever. Time for another reread. I should buy another copy because mine is falling apart, but it also has years of margin notes and underlining.
Even before I read Gatty one of my favorite things to do was get myself purposely “lost” in the woods of Vermont in areas I knew to be bounded by roads, so if I ended up truly lost I’d come out on a road eventually. Found a lot of interesting abandoned farms that way, learned a lot about navigation. What was that about GPS?