Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
theguardian.com
Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
1–10 of 91 posts
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#2I'm guessing GPS has saved more marriages than any other modern technology.
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#3I'm guessing GPS has saved more marriages than any other modern technology.
I'm guessing that's still less than the number of marriages ended by the cellular phone.
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#4Looking at the title, I guessed this would be an article about Tristan Gooley, and yes, it was - I read "The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs" and it was both entertaining and informative. If you do outdoor activities, it is a nice supplement (even if you keep using GPS etc). Just parsing the environment a bit better is so much fun and kind of deepens the experience.
I recently started to watch the birds as well when hiking, and that again gave more depth and makes me feel more a part of nature. The example in the article of loud bird cacophony as a sign for something interesting happening is a good one. I was in Berlin's largest park yesterday, with birds tweeting around everywhere, but at some point, it was a bit off, so I stopped and started looking, and sure enough, there was a beautiful buzzard hunting.
Trees are the kind of obvious thing to watch, and they tell a lot about the environment. The next thing I'll try to get a better understanding for is weather phenomena (actually the most helpful thing to learn for outdoor activities as it can save your life). There's also a similar book by Gooley on how to "read water" which looks interesting.
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#5GPS is a great way to get from point A to point B without learning the first thing about the location that the route guidance software is navigating for you. If you're only passing through, fine. But you just don't build the same mental model of an area when you don't have to think about it. When the phone dies or there's no reception, you're utterly helpless. When I'm navigating my local areas, I only use a map application to plan routes and occasionally to correct course (like you'd use a physical map). I'd encourage everyone to give it a shot. Don't be a foreigner in your own city!
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#6GPS is a great way to get from point A to point B without learning the first thing about the location that the route guidance software is navigating for you. If you're only passing through, fine. But you just don't build the same mental model of an area when you don't have to think about it. When the phone dies or there's no reception, you're utterly helpless. When I'm navigating my local areas, I only use a map appl…
But maps give you additional advantage such as , live traffic due to which I save time by taking a different route (may be caused due to an accident or other reason)
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#7"the sun rises in the east, sets in the west and moves through the southern sky"
That last part is dependent on your latitude, correct? If you were far enough south, the sun would move through the northern sky, wouldn't it?
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#8GPS is a great way to get from point A to point B without learning the first thing about the location that the route guidance software is navigating for you. If you're only passing through, fine. But you just don't build the same mental model of an area when you don't have to think about it. When the phone dies or there's no reception, you're utterly helpless. When I'm navigating my local areas, I only use a map appl…
This is even more important in the outdoors - I had an instance last year where I messed up and didn't check the weather report before going, so I found myself in the middle of a forest in what turned out as the worst storm of the year. My phone's touchscreen immediately became unusable because of heavy rain and no cover. I fell back to a mix of intuitive knowledge of the area and a small compass I keep on my wristwatch, for general direction. It was a not so much fun run through a massive thunderstorm but worked out fine in the end.
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#9"the sun rises in the east, sets in the west and moves through the southern sky" That last part is dependent on your latitude, correct? If you were far enough south, the sun would move through the northern sky, wouldn't it?
Fear not, you are correct.
Re: Letting go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation
#10"the sun rises in the east, sets in the west and moves through the southern sky" That last part is dependent on your latitude, correct? If you were far enough south, the sun would move through the northern sky, wouldn't it?
Yes, it does depend on your latitude.
> The first qualitative change occurs at 23.5° latitude, where the noon sun on the June solstice passes directly overhead. This latitude is called the Tropic of Cancer. Farther south, in the so-called tropics, the noon sun will appear in the northern sky for a period of time around the June solstice. At the equator, the noon sun is straight overhead on the equinoxes. And after you pass 23.5° south latitude (the Tropic of Capricorn), the noon sun is always in the north. Much farther south is the Antarctic Circle, where the sun never quite rises on the June solstice and never quite sets on the December solstice. Researchers at the South Pole have continuous daylight from September through March, and continuous night (including twilight) from March through September.
[1] https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/SunAndSeasons.html