In the vein of "public libraries could never be created today," a pitch for a calculator would get you thrown out of the boardroom. What do you mean, it just maths? Where are the ads supposed to go? How does it send usage telemetry back if it doesn't even have wifi? There isn't even a leaderboard.
Rich Burroughs@somewhattolerable.com · 10h agoAnother massive difference is that a calculator isn’t answering your questions in a way that’s specifically designed to get you to continue using the calculator.
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Earth’s poles are rising by 0.5 to 1 millimeters per year, slowly un-squashing our planet’s slightly flattened, jelly-donut-like shape, according to a new study. Linking satellite measurements of changing altitude across Earth’s surface from 1997 to 2015 to the planet’s shape, researchers found that the rounding effect also seems to be accelerating over time, with the poles rising an extra 0.4 millimeters per year faster every decade. Though our planet seems solid, the Earth’s interior acts more like an extremely slow-flowing liquid, warping over time under forces like the weight of ice sheets and oceans. Currently, our planet bulges out a little around the equator. But as ice sheets melt and reduce the force acting on the Earth at the poles, the equator is gradually cinching in as the poles push upwards, molding our planet into a more spherical shape. [JGR Solid Earth study]
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026JB034224](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4txx6cwpxn5wbtalgjnkpu4w/bafkreib2npq3yvdm5e2eu35edj566ldyizubt2sw2jmctduxwcnvwb5y6i)
