[RightWhale]

The oceans are rising near the equator and some of the islanders blame the industrialized West. But maybe their case is weakening as the earth gets less round.

[dirtboy]

Mysterious Shift in Earth's Gravity Suggests Equator is Bulging

Heck, my midsection is bulging as well, but I can only blame it on beer, not cosmic changes...

[mewzilla]

It's from all the fat people.

[r9etb]

On a more practical note, I'm wondering what the net effect is on gravity models.

Some space missions won't care much, but others such as GPS, and various black- and white-world earth observation missions, will probably care whole a lot.

[Dog Gone]

"The result is it looks as if post-glacial rebound has reversed itself. But, we do not have any reason to think that post-glacial rebound has in any way stopped or changed."

Hell no. We can't possibly challenge the religion of global warming.

[twntaipan]

I bet Algore or some other enviromentalist wacko comes out in a few days and attributes this to global warming caused by mean and evil humans.

[onedoug]

Isostatic resonance?

[dead]

The polar weightloss due to glacial melting has been offset by the gradual move away from the equator of Hillary Clinton.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm not knocking you or the article, but I do get amused when scientist release findings like these. It is interesting but all too often the perception of a need to extrapolate meaning from the data, means that we'll be hearing some hair-brained sky is falling tripe within the next few months. Either this will be tied to El Nino, La Nina, global warming, emissions or some new phenom that portends dire problems for the children. Can't we all just enjoy the data and "Get along"?

[r9etb]

The more I think about it, the more interesting it gets.

There hasn't been a leap second for four years, and none scheduled for December, either. That's more than twice as long as any other gap (they can be applied as often as every 6 months).

This phenomenon probably explains some of it. (As it likely explains the sudden flurry of symposia being held by the Earth Rotation and "fluid loading" geeks.)

[Reaganwuzthebest]

We know what this means, a whole new theory industry will rise that will attribute all the world's problems to the fact it's flattening out. Scientists will now have something new to sit around and pontificate about for decades.

And of course, you know they'll find a way to blame it all on the US.

[GaltMeister]

Just like Wilhelm the Fornicator and Ted Kennedy, the earth is getting rounder.

[teletech]

Must be due to all those discarded half eaten Big Macs!

[decimon]

Capitalism is to blame. The exploitive nations of the northern hemisphere have stolen so much of the raw material from the equatorial zone that the reduction in surface mass is causing underlying layers to bulge towards the surface.

Or it could be the cell phones.

[Mercat]

My law partners would say it's the fault of the evil Republicans.

[Centurion2000]

This report is pretty stupid. The idea that the glaciers and oceanic weight would affect the shape of the planet is pretty stupid. This would be like saying that the first layer of skin on an onion can affect the shape of the onion.

[rwfromkansas]

And this will affect us how???

[tet68]

"We have a strong suspicion that it's in the ocean," Cox said.

Somewhere off the coast of Japan, tiny twin girls are beginning to sing.

[Schatze]

I know what it is. It's that guy Caesar Barber, who suing the fast-food chains -- he must be on vacation somewhere near the equator. He probably took Rosie O'Donnell and Jerrold Nadler with him.

[StormEye]

"Mysterious Shift in Earth's Gravity Suggests Equator is Bulging"

Americans must demand that a cabinet level agency be created and funded to counteract any deleterious affects of this global phenomenon. It is imperative that massive studies be funded to see what this change in the gravity field portends for minorities, blacks, hispanics, gays, lesbians, transexuals, the differently gendered, women, low income inner city residents and those on Social Security and fixed incomes, welfare recipients, the elderly, and the differently abled. We must not leave any of these people out. Leave no child behind. After all this for the CHILDREN!

[Nick Danger]

Earth's gravity field suddenly shifted gears and began getting flatter

I knew it. Global Flatulence.