Australians, the Earth moves for you!

Started by Glaurung, August 06, 2016, 10:37:15 PM

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Glaurung

As usual for me, a BBC News article.

According to the article, the continent of Australia (and presumably Tasmania too) is moving northwards at about 7cm per year, and this is causing problems with GPS systems. The GPS device reports the true position (latitude and longitude) - but the map data that it uses to work out where it is and what's around it uses latitudes and longitudes that were calculated in 1994 and have been fixed since then. Consequently the device thinks it's about 1.5 metres north of where it actually is. This is not a problem in most cases, but if the GPS is used in controlling automatic vehicles (e.g. farm tractors mentioned in the article) then there's potential for significant problems.

As a short-term fix, the Australian national mapping system will be shifted north by 1.8 metres on 1 January 2017 - this is a bit further than it needs to be, but will give a few years while the map and the actual co-ordinates are getting closer together. The long-term intention is to introduce a more flexible mapping system that can keep up with the movement continuously.

comrade_general

Tasmania isn't moving. The main continent is moving away from Tasmania because Khan is there.

Pentagathus

Sounds about right cg.

Personally I feel we should turn off the anti gravity in the southern hemisphere for a little while to help solve the world's overpopulation problem, and as a happy coincidence it would solve the world's khan problem too.

Jubal

I'm not sure how that's anything works, and I'm informed that most Khans tend to live in the northern hemisphere, but other than that, solid plan.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

comrade_general

He didn't mean plural khans. Just the one khan.

Jubal

Well, yes, but he didn't specify which.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

DeepCandle Games

What if it ends up being temporary and our dangerous wildlife is relocated to your countries?
I write many projects focused around RPGs and rules expansions!

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Pentagathus

Don't you understand basic physics you fool? The anti-gravity goes off, gravity returns to the southern hemisphere and you all fall off into space as god intended.