Jon Hirashima of Honolulu is puzzled. He wants to know WATDAT "BIG WHITE X in the middle of Ala Aolani Street??? It is around the 1300 block . . . just after you pass the golf course on the left going into the valley. Is it some kind of government conspiracy or something out of the X-Files???" Someone up there
is watching
Government conspiracy? It's worse than that, Jon. It may be an example of the government actually doing its job.
It has to do with satellites. The military has been lofting GPS, or Global Positioning System satellites, for several years, and now no matter where you are on the planet, there are at least three GPS satellites above the horizon. Using triangulated signals from these satellites, a relatively inexpensive electronic device can tell you exactly where you are.
How accurate it is depends on whether you've got an expensive military GPS unit or a cheap jobbie. Most units are accurate within a few dozen feet if everything's working right.
The white Xs on Ala Aolani -- and there is more than one such X in the Moanalua area -- were painted within the last few months by a Southern California outfit called Bell Terra, says city information official Carol Costa. These Xs mark spots where latitude and longitude are known precisely, and the GPS unit can be zeroed in.
Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin