27 January 2011 by Tristan Gooley
Full marks to Radio 4′s Today programme for allowing even a few minutes’ discussion of the role of technology in our appreciation and understanding of nature.
Mike Saunders, Kew Garden’s Digital head, and I exchanged ideas and perspectives yesterday in a glancing and enjoyable way. ‘Today’ is prime radio real estate and they could not have been expected to indulge us for much longer.
Of course there were many points that I would have like to have made, but could not, the effect being a rather truncated view, which appears to many to be fairly blunt. No wonder I was accused by a few of being a Luddite! My fascination and interest in technology might surprise them, but that’s not important.
If I’d had the opportunity, the point I would have loved to have shoe-horned into yesterday’s discussion was that I believe the best of both worlds is achieved…
Read More...
Tags: BBC, book, deb, Kew Gardens, nature, nature philosophy, radio 4, technology, today programme, Yosemite National Park |
10 November 2008 by Tristan Gooley
The worlds of technology, navigation and nature convened in a mildly surreal way over the past month.
Satellite navigation development, like all things space-related, often appears to be governed more by national pride than calm pragmatism. Nobody has yet explained effectively to me the need for billions to be invested in Galileo, the European alternative to the American GPS system. The Russian version of GPS, GLONASS, has not been a story of relentless success or necessity either, but apparently the system has now been tested on Vladimir Putin’s dog.
‘Mr Ivanov said that the equipment goes on a standby mode when “the dog doesn’t move, if it, say, lies down in a puddle.”
Mr Putin interrupted him jokingly: “My dog isn’t a piglet, it doesn’t lie in puddles.’
Tags: dogs, gps, natural navigation, technology |
