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Technology

Do You Know Where You Live? 521

Posted by michael from the 1600-pennsylvania-avenue dept.
An anonymous submitter writes "Thanks to GPS, it seems quite a few people are discovering they don't live where they thought. Prior to GPS, state, county and city borders were part law, part measurement, and part guesswork. Now, they're able to go back and discover where actual borders should be, and it's making many people unhappy. Some familes in Rhode Island are finding out they may actually live in Connecticut. Each state, county and city wants as much land as possible, because it means more tax income. The people caught in the middle simply want to know where they'll send their kids for school."
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Do You Know Where You Live? More

Do You Know Where You Live?

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  • Borders (Score:5, Funny)

    by ThereIsNoSporkNeo ( 587688 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:41PM (#4000385)
    NOOOOOOOoooooooo...

    I'm Canadian!

    • Re:Borders (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Angry White Guy ( 521337 ) <CaptainBurly[AT]goodbadmovies.com> on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:44PM (#4000417)
      Maybe we could use GPS to get back the portions of Alaska that stretch down our west coast!

      Idiocy at it's best.

      • Re:Borders (Score:4, Informative)

        by Medevo ( 526922 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:58PM (#4000561) Homepage
        If you read history, in about 1900 Canada and the USA were fighting over Alaska (and those coastal regions). Since Canada was still pretty much a British colony the British and Americans formed a group of 5 (2 Americans, 2 British, 1 Canadian) that heard arguments from both sides, and were to vote based on the arguments. In the End the British decided to vote for the Americans to help improve relations (this is one of many times the British sold of Canada to create favors for themselves).

        Medevo

    • Re:Borders (Score:2, Funny)

      by enrayged ( 67136 )
      ...at least you didnt find out you are mexican...

      Oh great, here comes INS...

    • I used to live right on the Candian-American border (in Canada). The American part was just a little penisula that was totally cut off from the rest of the US. Anyway, the "official" border extended 15 feet into what should have been Canadian territory. So, the Americans had a bit more land than they should have. Overall if you take into account the whole border, I think Canada wins out and gets more space than it should just because they surveys that were taken were just not accurate enough.

    • Re:Borders (Score:3, Funny)

      by rlowe69 ( 74867 )

      NOOOOOOOoooooooo...

      I'm Canadian!

      Welcome to the fold, eh! Want some poutine [umanitoba.ca], ya hoser?

    • Re:Borders (Score:4, Funny)

      by _ph1ux_ ( 216706 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:01PM (#4000586)
      "I'm Canadian"

      It like an american - but without the gun.

    • Re:Borders (Score:2, Funny)

      by necrognome ( 236545 )
      "One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble! Gooble gobble! One of us! One of us!"
      Ha.
    • "NOOOOOOOoooooooo... I'm Canadian!"

      I'm canadian and issues such as where the borders of municipalities meet are important because people who live close to a border, like me, could end up paying MUCH higher property taxes depending on which side they live. I guess this really isn't a Canadian issue alone because I'm sure that cities exist in other countries as well ;-)

    • Re:Borders (Score:2, Troll)

      by isdale ( 40622 )
      Consumer GPS systems are not accurate for survey purposes. Neither are many map/gis systems. *and* by law surveys must be conducted by licensed surveyors. Many people are finding this out the hard way [shef.ac.uk].

      Some may see this as protecting job turf, but there are sound technical reasons for having a professional surveyor do the job.

      GeoPlace.com has a recent article [geoplace.com] on the topic.
  • The gps receiver on my visor tells me I'm no where near work.
  • that's the good part about having lived around rivers all my life. I know where the state line is.

    • Re:water (Score:2, Interesting)

      by tiedyejeremy ( 559815 )
      Actually, the Rio Grande moved over the last two weeks. This means Mexico just got bigger. Sadly, it also means someone will have to dig out the hot springs. I've never quite understood their attraction in the desert, but to each his own - speaking of, it appears that, for now, the Rio Grande river god of Big Bend Nat'l Park has reclamed his/her spring.
      • Actually, the Rio Grande moved over the last two weeks. This means Mexico just got bigger.

        Maybe that's how they'll win back the western half of the United States...acre by acre...

  • Whew (Score:2, Funny)

    by Tri0de ( 182282 )
    Glad to find out I *DON'T* live in San Francisco after all, couldn't take another one of those summers
  • Wherever you go, there you are!

  • great! (Score:3, Funny)

    by jeffy124 ( 453342 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:48PM (#4000458) Homepage Journal
    maybe that can solve the India-Pakistan problem....

  • I'm always in the State of Confusion.

  • Related problem (Score:5, Informative)

    by JUSTONEMORELATTE ( 584508 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:49PM (#4000473) Homepage
    I used to work in the Oil-n-Gas business (petroleum, not Taco Bell) and that industry is grappling with the same question about well spotting -- the exact surface location of a well. Historically, they are identified via footage calls from a known location (e.g. 354' N, 287' E of SW corner of such-n-such)
    While the state agencies would love to have nice, precise lat-lon coords, the property owners often refuse access to the survey crews because an accurate survey may show that the property line is incorrect, and Farmer Smith never really owned the well, it's on Farmer Johnson's land.
    The real financial impact can be huge.

    • Re:Related problem (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gilroy ( 155262 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:02PM (#4000599) Homepage Journal
      Blockquoth the poster:
      the property owners often refuse access to the survey crews
      It amazes me people can refuse access. Even if you believe in the virtual sancitity of private property you own, until the survey is done, you don't know you own it. Couldn't the state argue that, to know where your "denial" begins, they need to get on your land anyway?

      For that matter, say Farmer Johnson thinks the well is on his land. Can't he grant access for the survey team to walk the perimeter of his land, and then see where the well ends up?

      • Most states have laws that if you are allowed to encroach on someone's land as if it were your own for X amount of years, it becomes yours.

        For example, I was recently buying a house that wasy too close to the back of the lot, but there was a fenced off 50 foot back yard even though the lot only went 15 feet off the back of the house. Since the landowner being encroached upon hasn't demanded they remove the fence, in several years, that land might become part of the other lot, and the original landowner will have no recourse.

        I'm sure these laws will get their test with this new development.

      • Re:Related problem (Score:4, Interesting)

        by JUSTONEMORELATTE ( 584508 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:48PM (#4001006) Homepage
        Blockquoth right back atcha:
        It amazes me people can refuse access. Even if you believe in the virtual sancitity of private property you own, until the survey is done, you don't know you own it. Couldn't the state argue that, to know where your "denial" begins, they need to get on your land anyway?
        In some parts of the county (Mississippi, to be precise) the state survey crews have been greeted by shotgun-toting farmers (ranchers? I've not spent a lot of time in MS) when the survey crews come to call. When I say they are refusing access, I don't mean some lawyer in a suit, I mean a very simple, literal (and effective!) refusal. In a very rural setting like this, the survey crew isn't going to get a lot of support from the local sherrif, and the state law enforcement has better things to do.
        For that matter, say Farmer Johnson thinks the well is on his land. Can't he grant access for the survey team to walk the perimeter of his land, and then see where the well ends up?
        In many cases, this is exactly how the state (dept of revenue in some places, dept of environmental quality in others) is getting the job done. Doesn't always work though, there may be several wells along the property line, some on each side. It's an agrarian Prisoner's Dillema!
        What's always been funny to me is that the state agencies that care about well locations don't care at all about property lines. One of the most effective efforts involved establishing fixed points for differential GPS, then sending backpack-sized receivers in with the well maintenance crews. It's a nutty industry all around.
        • In a very rural setting like this, the survey crew isn't going to get a lot of support from the local sherrif, and the state law enforcement has better things to do.

          The state law enforcement has better things to do than arrest someone for open threatening or assault with a firearm? Damn, but i'm staying the fuck OUT of that state.

  • GPS accuracy (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Kobal ( 597997 )
    We're currently having issues at work with that silly GPS, as it's nowhere nearly as reliable as we'd need when it comes to field use. You know where you stand, but you can't quite know where most of the limits are supposed to be, thanks to the napoleonic era cadastre that is still used. So, while getting the data to map again, the surface we get for a given plot can be wildly different from what was previous declared, with no way to know which is right. So what good are precision tools when you still have to rely on your eyes and ancient maps?
    • Yes, you are very correct. Anyone that has looked at an old plot of land that is in metes and bounds can see this. They all go off a given landmark, but they are not 100% exact.

      There is now software that can help plot your land on a map from metes and bounds, but it is too bad they still use this ancient system when GPS is available.

  • use common sense... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bje2 ( 533276 )
    i can see where this could matter to states or municipalities in terms of tax revenues, etc...but when it comes to interfering with people's lives, common sense should be used...for intance, if a kid has been going to a school in one district for a while, then they find out that the family actually lives somewhere different (becuase of a redrawn line), let the kid stay in his old school...make it some sort of grandfather clause...the other things, such as taxes, etc, that's fine...they don't directly effect your day-to-day life...and if the two disputing parties want to sort out who collects taxes and what not from you, that's fine me...of course, i can already see the problem arising where a student goes to school in township A, but his family pays taxes that support schools in township B...i didn't say it was is perfect, but every effort should be made to not interfere with people's daily lives becuase of some poorly drawn boundry line many, many years ago...

    • Re:use common sense... (Score:5, Informative)

      by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) <bittercode@gmail> on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:59PM (#4000570) Homepage Journal
      such as taxes, etc, that's fine...they don't directly effect your day-to-day life

      You must not have a job yet.

      There is also a lot more than taxes or schools involved that directly impact peoples daily lives. State laws can vary greatly. I'm in the middle of my state. But what if I lived near some other state and suddenly things I own are illegal (I've got a rifle that would fit this easily in some places)

      This is a pretty big deal and I think what will have to utlimately happen is people will need to move if they really don't want to live where they really live.

    • Re:use common sense... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Zapman ( 2662 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:02PM (#4000597)
      The problem with this is that both RI and Conn. are planning on sending taxes to these residences, and BOTH expect to collect. If they don't they will take these people to court in either RI or Conn, where they will be guilty.

      What do you do in that case? It certainly will impact you, especially if one state is a tourism state (collects lots of revenue from sales tax) and the other is a property tax state.

      --Jason
      • Never happen, but it's fun to think about. Throw a blur on those black lines on the map. "Well, you appear to live 70% in Israel and 30% in Palestine, please split your taxes, votes, political leanings, religious doctrines, prejudices, and so on accordingly."

        My take: people live where they think they live. For tens of thousands of years, people have defined places using prepositional phrases. Now we can use coordinates, great. But if the numbers conflict with those definitions, it's the numbers that need adjusting.

        Oddly enough, this is germain to my germaine [ghostmap.com] to my half-baked, nowhere-near-ready-for-public-consumption personal project [ghostmap.com], which involves trying to represent places both with GPS coordinates and phrases like "down by the riverside".

    • Re:use common sense... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dynedain ( 141758 ) <[moc.nilcmynohtna] [ta] [2todhsals]> on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:22PM (#4000774) Homepage
      But where does that funding come from to pay for the kid's schooling? Property taxes. No state is going to want to take a decrease in their property taxes without the associated decrease in students. So a change in tax structure will affect everyday lives. The money to pay for that kid's education doesn't just appear out of loopholes, and it would cost more to transfer the money between states than it does to send that kid to school.

      And what happens when the parents have another kid? Does he/she go to the same school or to one in their "new" state? How long does it get grandfathered? One generation? One continuous family line? Does it stick with the property? If so, then give the property to the state where the people are using the tax money.

      And there's more than just taxes to fund schools...you also have roads, sewer, zoning issues, etc. etc. etc....

      Part of why the US isn't a true democracy is because the majority typically overules the minority. So, by correcting state lines, some 50 people out of a combined population of a couple million are affected....an extremely small minority that probably won't notice much of a difference anyways.
      • Part of why the US isn't a true democracy is because the majority typically overules the minority.

        No, that's democratic--majority rule.

        We're not a TRUE democracy because the minority is protected from the tyranny of the majority. It's better this way.
    • the other things, such as taxes, etc, that's fine...they don't directly effect your day-to-day life...

      What about the elderly lady whose amublance service (that she presumably pays for with her taxes) would be switched to a town much farther away? It's a situation that shows how important these borders (and your taxes) can be...

      And what about voting districts? What if you're suddenly unable to vote for the school board for your child's district?

      In the Southwest, water rights are a big issue. I wonder if GPS has been making any changes to who gets to water their crops.

  • No surprise (Score:4, Funny)

    by Deadstick ( 535032 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:55PM (#4000521)
    In writing the manual for some civil engineering software back in the 80s, I found that there are some very oddly laid-out survey markers out there, especially in the plains states. The client explained that most of these were laid in the mid-19th century, which was the peak period of American alcohol consumption.

    rj

  • well... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Auckerman ( 223266 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:57PM (#4000544)
    I suspect in the cases sited, which used rivers to determine boundries, you will see the old common law agreements sticks. When you are measuring within a few feet to find a spot that moves (a few yards) with the seasons, on both sides of the border no less), you're new "accurate" measurement has little value and one is still stuck with simple common agreement.

    Would be an easy case to present, and keeping common agreed boundries is a no brainer. If one starts using fixed points on boundries, who's to say a narrow river that is used as a boundry will not just move entirely into another state or county...imagine the implications for water management...

    No rational person wants that.

    • Re:well... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Lumpish Scholar ( 17107 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:21PM (#4000758) Homepage Journal
      No rational person wants that.
      True; but we're talking about lawyers and politicians....

    • Re:well... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by The_Guv'na ( 180187 )

      If it were my choice, I'd change all current records to the real coordinates of the previously accepted borders, therefore records are now accurate, nobody has to be bothered by changing schools, tax arrangements, addresses etc... If anyone complained I'd say "Well, if it really matters that much, you should have done your own damn survey, just in case!". Seems pretty sensible to me, but...

      No rational person wants that.

      ...it's not about what rational people want. It's about what lawyers and state governors want!

      Ali

    • Re:well... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Frobnicator ( 565869 )
      This is GOVERNMENT. It won't happen.

      Almost every time political boundaries need to be altered (for representatives), these people don't move the border around a few houses, they rewrite the entire map to best suit their own agenda. Legislative Redistricting [rev.net] causes this problem (known as Gerrymandering) in elections again [jsonline.com] and again [washingtonpost.com] and again [halfbakery.com] ALL OVER THE USA.

      You are right about no rational people wanting it. There are many rational people who have offered ways to restructure boundaries that offer the biggest human benefit and lowest government cost. These ideal solutions segment the groups by physical boundaries and population density. But government is not a rational entity.

      There are countless smart was to divide it up. Clusters of people should rationally be served by the same set of government. People between clusters should be separated by distance to the clusters and other boundaries (hills, rivers, roads). In dense population areas, map the location of a current road, or a side of the road, as the boundary -- not the line between where two rivers meet and where another river enters a lake bed.

      And of course after two counties or states go to court fighting it out -- costing millions of taxpayer dollers -- They will put out big press releases saying either "We saved tax money by moving these buildings outside of our county!" or "We increased tax revenue without increasing taxes!", overlooking the fact that they wasted millions in the process.

      frob.

    • Re:well... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ckedge ( 192996 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @04:48PM (#4001485) Journal

      GPS Coordinates, I'd imagine that they don't account for continental drift, eh?

      One inch a year adds up over a century or two. So by default you can't use precise GPS coordinates, unless you account year by year for all the plate movement.

  • Very Easy Solution (Score:5, Funny)

    by unsinged int ( 561600 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @02:58PM (#4000549)
    Just make a 51st state that includes Everyone Living on the Thick Black Lines of the US Map. Think of all the interstate commerce with all the states they'd border! Oh, but wait, what about the people living on the border between the new Border State and the other states? Let's create another...ouch. **Brain implosion**
    • Oh, but wait, what about the people living on the border between the new Border State and the other states? Let's create another...ouch. **Brain implosion**

      Wow...Infinitely recursive bureaucracy! Maybe this is how we can fix those nitwits in Congress!

      I mean, most of them have hairpieces, so they wouldn't fall prey to the old robot trap of "Lather-Rinse-Repeat"...

  • Old Land (Score:3, Interesting)

    by N8F8 ( 4562 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:00PM (#4000576)
    I bought a piece of peopery in Surry County Virginia a few years ago. I had a hell of a time because the recorded deed goes back more than a hundred years and refers to chops in trees for markers and distances measured in chains.

    Most mortgage companies wouln't touch it without a recent survey. I finally found a farm credit company that would give me the mortgage. I've had the road frontage surveyed but I still have to survey the other 60+acres. Researching the sale was quite an education.

    I could go down to the city office and pull up three different aerial surveys of the area, but no land surveys. Reaally sad because the county taxes me on 40 acres and acording to the surveyer I used for the frontage, I probably have 80+ acres.

  • Reminds me of Four Corners.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:01PM (#4000585) Homepage Journal
    Last year, I went through Four Corners - for those of you not up on your US geography, Four Corners is the point at which Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah all meet, being the only place in the US where 4 states meet.

    I was struck by the arbitrariness of this location - it was nothing but a meeting of fictional lines on a map. There was no magical property of this location - c was still 3E8 m/sec (to 1 significant digit), 9.8 m/sec^2 acceleration, no majestic peaks, poles, or pyramids rising from the ground. Save for a decision made by a bunch of beaurcrats there was nothing special about this location.

    This article strikes me the same way. Due to a complete non-event (the changing of a line on a map), people's lives are going through upheaval.

    So we are able to more accurately define these imaginary lines. Why do we need to change the location of the border - why not just more accurately define existing practice. Look at a map of Kansas - the state USED to be a simple rectangle, until somebody decided to use the river to define the northeast corner. Now we have the silliness of "Kansas City, Mo!"

    It just seems so wasteful!

    • Re:Reminds me of Four Corners.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gilroy ( 155262 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:09PM (#4000658) Homepage Journal
      Blockquoth the poster:
      there was nothing special about this location.
      What is special about Four Corners is exactly that there is nothing special. The mid-US states are amazing in the political undertone. Look, those borders were drawn by some guys with a pencil and straightedge. No natural fortification. No concern for defensible borders. No historical or trade mandates. What a wonderful thing to break free of that mindset! Those lines were drawn for administrative convenience only.
    • Yeah, human-drawn artificial border line is a big mess, and can have a very negative impact on people's life.

      I had a friend at college who could really tell his country of birth. It all depends on the season and the result of the guerilla war. He was born in a village in the Golden Triangle (the border of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand). He would be cambodian or laotian and thai citizen, depending on who controlled the area. And when the drug warlord controlled the area, he would be stateless (in a no-man's land, and had to pledge allegiance to whoever controlled the area).

    • To confuse matters, there is also Kansas City, KS right accross the river!
  • Being in the middle of the state, I know where I am, but then quite a few people would dispute Florida being a state at all ;-)

  • The West Wing ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuperRob ( 31516 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:02PM (#4000601) Homepage
    That makes me laugh. "The West Wing" had a bit on that a couple of weeks ago (it was a re-run) where Donna wasn't allowed into a Government party because she was an illegal alien. Turns out the borders got moved, and she had been born in CANADA. Ha, ha!

    Seriously, it was resolved by the end of the show, by deciding that anyone that these changing borders had effected would be "grandfathered" in. In other words, once they make you a citizen, they can't take it away from you.

    Wonder if that would be ACTUAL government policy now that it's more likely to be a REAL issue ...
  • And if not, WHY not?

    how would this be any different than cities/counties/whatever annexing land like they do now?

    Borders change all the time - maybe not usually in a state border situation - but certainly often at lower government levels.
  • If a border has been agreed upon for 160 years it should be left alone. The markers their basing the new lines on seem to be doubtful and sometimes movable! Wouldn't it be better to use the established borders? It sure would save a lot of headaches and "wasted" tax payer money that would be spent straightening this thing out.
  • What about plate shifts etc.. the relative distance between two points on Earth does change, even if it's only a little bit.

  • For all you non-Rhode Islanders (Score:4, Funny)

    by RadioheadKid ( 461411 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:10PM (#4000664)
    First off, c'mon RI is so small anyways, just let them have a little more land. You know that little chunk that Massachusetts has along the top of CT, I think CT is still pissed off about that and taking it out on RI.

    The other amusing thing is this quote: "It bothers me giving up my low-number license plate with my initials on it." It's kind of a hobby, maybe even an obsession, of some people in RI to try and get a low number (or as they say in RI "low numba") license plate, for example if you had w-12, you would be all the envy in the state. License plates are typically two letters and three numbers in RI.

  • This may be a stretch [amazon.com], but some people affected by this discovery may benefit from the confusion. If you are in this situation and were arrested/convicted by the state that you weren't really in at the time, it is possible--though IANAL & YMMV--to have your conviction overturned due to lack of jurisdiction.

    I'm just throwing that out there because a lot of people with DUI, indecent exposure, drug possession, etc... run-ins from their teen & college years will have an unfair disadvantage for the rest of their life because of the fanciful association potential employeers make between a police record and future job performance.

  • Not only are borders inaccurate, but the earth moves too. For exampe the San Andreas shifts two inches a year- sometimes in violent jumps all at once. This adds up to 16 feet in a century.
    Boundaries based on waterways are prone to sfting also.

    GPS is used a research tool to observe earth shifts on a minute scale.
  • When my home state was still a territory, the river that separates it from one of its neighbour states changed course. That boundary dispute is still in the courts more than a century later.

    So those of you who think you've recently moved, don't rush out and buy new stationery just yet....
  • They'd be able to track you down in the middle of Antarctica.

    RMN
    ~~~
  • Is there a way you can just be exempt from the new borders and cite the original declaration of land ownership from when you bought the property?
  • I remember reading a newspaper article a few months ago about a town that straddles the US/CDN border. The article discussed specific people, such as a lady who lives on the US side but works on the CDN side (or the other way around), or neighbours who live across the street from each other and are in different countries.

    The article then discussed some of the ramifications of this, especially in light of September 11. Before that, people were fairly relaxed about "crossing the border". Now, however, they can't afford to take such things lightly.

    Moving more on topic, the article pointed to in the story mentioned a certain Iva Crider.

    Iva Crider, 78, has more serious concerns. She and her husband built a house near the border 60 years ago. She'd always considered her house -- and five chicken coops -- in Rhode Island. The North Stonington survey would bump her into Connecticut.

    "It's a shame. I'm a mile from the Hopkinton town hall, the post office, the police, two miles from the ambulance," says Mrs. Crider. "If they put this house in Connecticut, I'll have to sell. I can't go 15 miles [to town]. I'm in a wheelchair. After 160 years, I think they should just leave it alone."

    This is someone who is facing her whole life being turned upside down for the sake of what must seem to her like purely arbitrary definitions.

    Unfortunately, there's no simple question. Jurisdiction demands that these questions be defined precisely (especially in such a litigious society as America; what police officer is going to want to risk getting caught in a jurisdiction battle over disputed boundary lines when he is responding to a violent crime which may require him to draw his sidearm?). And simple politics demands that politicians protect their territory, valid or invalid, sensible or insensible.

  • Can you imagine... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Xeriar ( 456730 )
    If this was not the U.S., but just a hodgepodge of 50 or so countries?

    And they go to war, not for land, not for mineral or 'natural' resources, but for fucking (pun intended) -people- and the taxes they represent.

    Why can I see this happening?
    Somewhere, on some planet or continent even more boneheaded than ours, this has, or will happen...
  • The survey used military satellites to locate two 19th-century boundary markers, six miles apart. Then, on a computer, the survey team plotted the markers on a detailed map and connected them with a straight line -- correcting the slightly distorted border established by an 1840 survey.
    If the survey team was hired by the town in Connecticut, the team has an incentive to skew the findings. It's not difficult to do by "correcting" the time your receiver thinks it is, and if ever contested in court it could be excused as a simple mistake. "My watch must have been a few minutes fast, your honor." A survey team hired by the Rhode Island town could set their watch back a few minutes to get favorable results.

    Of course, articles about GPS always highlight the fact that they are "military satellites" up front to suggest to the reader that some official military operation was involved. The WSJ article even calls GPS "new technology" -- which is really stretching the idea that "new" is a relative term. I used the same network of military satellites, "new technology" and a $100 device that runs on two AA batteries to drive from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon last year. Doesn't sound quite so official now, does it?

    Neither team's findings would change the fact that the border established between the states 160 years ago was based on observations on the ground, not GPS. It would take an agreement between the two states or a drawn-out legal battle before the U.S. Supreme Court similar to the case that resulted in New York and New Jersey splitting Ellis Island right through the middle of an existing, historic building. Ellis Island was arguably more important financially to the states than a handful of houses, and I suspect the Supreme Court would rule that the indigenous residents of those houses have a greater right to choose their state than a bunch of abandoned buildings.

    On the other hand, Connecticut and Rhode Island could always go to war over this. Yeah, let's do that. There's nothing good on TV tonight anyway.

  • You mean? (Score:5, Funny)

    by aengblom ( 123492 ) on Friday August 02, 2002 @03:48PM (#4001001) Homepage
    I can't believe these "surveyors" are that bad. I mean it's not as if the states aren't all different colors! I live in central PA so it's all green. New Jersey, as we all know, is orange! Perhaps we should get some non-color blind folks out there to define the borders!

    Hint: Black line=new state!

  • Portable GPS (Score:2, Interesting)

    by arnex ( 238036 )
    From the article: The receiver, which typically is portable, calculates its distance from the various satellites and triangulates to determine its own location within an inch.

    Uh, is there really such a thing as a non-portable GPS receiver?
  • Hmm.. border disputes, Rhode Island... where have I heard this before?

    Oh, yeah - Family Guy! [tktv.net]

    Man, talk about life imitating art..

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