Page 10 - Hobe Sound Relections - January '25

Page 10, Hobe Sound

HappeninGs

House Of Hope’s Cirque Du case managers to locate needed resources, obtain financial or care for individuals and families throughout the community.
housing assistance, and chart a better future with workforce
Sponsorship opportunities at varying levels are available at
Soirée Gala Goes Electric development and self-improvement programming. Project hohmartin.org/soiree.
To learn more about House of Hope or make a donation,
For 2025 HOPE strengthens families, prevents homelessness, equips visit House of Hope’s website at www.hohmartin.org or
students to learn and grow, improves health, encourages
employment, and changes lives for the better. call (772) 286-4673.
House of Hope’s glamorous gala, Cirque du Soirée, Tickets sell out fast. They’re available now at hohmartin. For more information about House of Hope, visit
presented by Pedersen Family Foundation, is going electric org/soiree. Sponsors of Cirque du Soirée are assured of hohmartin.org or call (772) 286-4673. Updates and
this year! With a reputation for surprising and delighting its prime seating at the event, recognition in event-related announcements can also be found on Facebook, Instagram,
guests, the Third Annual Cirque du Soirée is promising an communications, and the satisfaction of helping House of Hope and X.
unforgettable evening with an exciting atmosphere, fantastic
entertainment, exquisite food, and an opportunity to change
the lives of people in need in Martin County.
This annual event takes place on February 1, at Piper’s
Landing Yacht & Country Club in Palm City. The gala is a
celebration of the generous community of support that has
enabled House of Hope for over 40 years to empower area
residents to overcome hunger and hardship.
“The gala has earned the reputation of being a terrific evening
of fun and fellowship,” House of Hope CEO Rob Ranieri said.
“At the same time, it has a very serious purpose – to remind us
that helping others is a continuing challenge and it requires high
energy and commitment from all of us every day.”
Soul Survivors Band is returning to the event this year to
provide the lively soundtrack to a great evening of dancing
and entertainment. Guests will enjoy a full gourmet dinner,
open bar, and lots of unexpected experiences to make the
evening memorable.
All proceeds from the evening will benefit House of
Hope’s Project HOPE (Helping Others Progress through
Empowerment). Through Project Hope, individuals and House of Hope CEO Rob Ranieri, center, is joined by members of the Pedersen Family Foundation, the Presenting Sponsor
families can receive food, access the clothes closet, meet with for Cirque du Soirée 2024: Cory Pfister, Timothy Pfister, Stephen Pedersen, Kari Pedersen, Kenny Gould, and Jack Waldroup.
Book review

Pinpoint: How GPS Is 16 U.S. Air Force monitoring stations around the world, from point of sabotaging at every opportunity the use of GPS
And then, for decades, the military rejected to the
Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific to the South of England, collect
Changing Technology, Culture, data from satellites coming over the horizon, noting speed and for civilian purposes! This is one of the most frustrating
And Our Minds trajectory based on 1,200 different protocols that tell how the themes that runs through much of the book, a constant
satellite is performing. There is no room for error. Among other
example of the shortsightedness of the American military
uses, all the world’s atomic clocks base their timing on these in its obsessive concern about technology getting into the
By Nils A. Shapiro satellites. And for drivers, if a satellite’s timing is off by one hands of an enemy. It was left to private industry to do
Nils began his career millionth of a second the directions can send a driver as far as the job.
as marketing director for a 200 miles from the desired destination! Interestingly, one of the individuals who played a role in
major book publisher. He • America’s first interest in developing a technology that its development was an immigrant who, hating and fearing
has since edited the authors’ would later become GPS began in earnest during World War Ayatollah Khomeini, fled from Iran hoping to work hard
manuscripts for more than II. Its purpose: to kill people more efficiently by making our and bring his wife and children to the U.S. He was hired in
20 published books, written airplanes’ bombing raids over Germany and Japan more accurate. 1981 by a tech firm, Trimble Navigation, was fascinated by
more than 200 book reviews, Although the facts were kept from civilians at home, the truth the concept of GPS and was instrumental in the introduction
served as publisher of several was that the Army Air Corps’ doctrine of high-altitude bombing three years later of their first GPS receiver.
million-plus circulation to avoid hazardous daytime raids resulted in targets often being
national magazines, created missed by more than a mile. Book Review on page 11
the official yearbooks for
teams in Major League Baseball, the National Football
League, National Basketball Association and National
Hockey League, and “retired” as president of a successful
telecommunications company.
As miraculous as is the now common practice of being
guided by an invisible voice as you drive miles through streets
and down highways, making left and right turns on command
until you arrive at your predetermined destination, the true
background story of how
this technology—the Global
Positioning System (GPS)—
was created and developed
is equally extraordinary, and
it is told here in impressive
detail thanks to the clearly
exhaustive depth of research
by author Greg Milner. After
266 pages of text there are an
additional 50 reference pages.
I must state at the outset
that so fascinating to me is the
way that the GPS technology
is able to provide its driving
directions to the general
public. I was sufficiently intrigued to keep turning the pages
to the very last one, even though, because of other important
events in GPS’s history and other ways in which it is used, the
author took many narrative detours that (ironically, considering
this book’s subject matter) it frequently left a “non-techie” like
me lost for a while.
But it has been well worth the trip. And here are just a few
of the hundreds of things you will learn here to underscore my
recommendation that you dip into Pinpoint … especially if your
technology IQ exceeds mine.
• There is a constellation of 31 GPS satellites orbiting more
than 20,000 kilometers above planet Earth. Every few minutes