NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2019 Aug 21, 20:19 -0700
Here's an amazing little item from the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-49319760.
Remember what3words? It's a system that assigns three words to every human-sized patch on the Earth's surface. By doing so, users won't have to learn those dreadfully complicated numbers... you know... latitude and longitude. Oh gosh, so confusing! Only mathematicians and scientists can read numbers... They developed this idea a few years ago and have been trying to monetize it, but it's slow going since it's a fundamentally trivial product. So what gives? Why is the BBC running an article like this making the preposterous claim that this saves lives?
I think what we're seeing here is the power of the press release. The dope who wrote the article, Duncan Leatherdale (seriously? ...or is it a fake name to go with fake news?), apparently just regurgitated the press release from the folks at what3words. Free advertising! Or was Mr. Leatherdale perhaps compensated for his work?
Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA