There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
I don't want to sound like a grumpy grandpa here, but we should Never Ever discourage people from a) carrying a paper map (as primary tool or backup) or b) learning and practicing those very basic analog navigational skills. Ever. Rather, go ahead and encourage people to do that, so they are not handicapped in the event of loss, damage, other failure, or inability to get a satellite fix. With analog skills you are better prepared overall and perhaps can still make use of e-helpers even without a sat fix (that does happen you know) or, say, when the compass hardware in the phone is inaccurate (if it even has it, many do not). For phones that do still have compass hardware, most are notoriously bad, perhaps only giving a semi-solid indication of North but getting wonky as a user points in other directions, and calibration often does not fix it or only does so temporarily. Compass hardware has mostly gone the way of FM radio reception as included features. Many of us grew up with analog skills and are confident in our navigation methods and techniques, and now enjoy some of the ease and benefits of e-helpers, but you gotta remember that this site, niche as it is, still reaches a broad audience. A ton of people who will bother to read this topic are most likely noobs who do not yet have any navigational skills. Plenty of stories every year about babes in the wilderness getting lost and unable to figure out their predicament because they just never bothered to learn before diving in to the hobby - I recall a couple of them that had paper maps and a compass along (because "they were supposed to") but didn't have a clue how to benefit from them, so when their phones failed they were out of luck even though they had what they needed.