How fast was I going, Officer?

This week I had a bad GPS week. It does sound like some kind of disease, but don’t worry it is not infectious and does not necessarily hit with any woman between 20 and 30. But, as the GIS specialist, I need to make sure these interesting instruments do work… and mine just refused to engage in any kind of communication with any of 31 satellites that currently orbit around our planet. When I finally got a location, my GPS told me as I was standing, JC style, in the middle of the harbor…

This can be very frustrating but, like another different syndrome what hits women between 20 and 30 (more or less), the problem can be sweetened with a little brownie (like Mary Poppins says “with a little bit of sugar everything goes down” –liberal translation from Italian--)

Inevitably, I miserably ended up sitting on the side of the street, holding the GPS in one hand and the brownie in the other, looking out to the very blue water (it is so beautiful on a sunny day) where you are suppose to be standing.

And I though, I though… about communication ports, satellites in the space, maps… I reached the following conclusions: “satellite number 7 is standing right on top of my head right now, if I could see it…”. “last time I went to the beach at night we were looking at moving satellite as if they were shooting stars…”and finally the revelation that could put an end to my bad GPS week “I must have the wrong projection as a base map!”

But the brownie was not finished yet; I put the GPS down and just enjoy the wonderful view, those many shades of blue (it is always all blue, like in the song!!).

But my mind is still in the geographic mode, and the realization of the week: did you know that, right now, as you are reading this post, even if you are sitting still, you are actually moving and going somewhere?

To the question “where is life taking you?” you can now answer “apparently, I am going north-west, dangerously moving along the Tongan trench, which just me an earthquake once in a while (about 9-13 felt earthquakes a year)”. There you go, not only you know where you are going now, you can also add some spice and danger to it.
If you are in Hawaii, you are actually moving 9cm/year! How fast was I going, officer?? That is right, 9 centimeters a year! This sounds like a lot of involuntary unconscious movement to me!

(anyway, here a reference: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html

I do not want people to think I am crazy like when I said that in Italy we have water buffalo and that they produce the BEST mozzarella ever)

Did you know that by moving in American Samoa, you moved “into a burning ring of fire”? Not to mention that you are sitting on a hot spot…

Did you know that only 3% of the island of Savai’I is above water and this island is 5 million years old, like the big island of Hawai’I (check this out: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080616161631.htm)

Anyway, time for me to go and check on the ragu’ for tomorrow’s gnocchi night… but if you would like to know more about Samoan movement, check out http://www.mantleplumes.org/Samoa.html “The Samoan Chain, a shallow lithospheric fracture system”