The earth is not round. So the BBC Earth Facebook channel tells me in a short video. Does that mean it is flat? No, not that either. They say that it is an oblate spheroid. And that it isn't a fixed shape. This makes me think of my Flaming Pear Flexifly filters, as they all have mathematical names. There's an oblate one or two.
The tallest mountain, Mount Everest isn't the highest mountain from the centre of the Earth. Mt. Chimborozo turns out to be the furthest from the centre of the Earth. So there we are with another scientific correction.
And what do scientists call the Earth's shape? They call the Earth roundish. Doesn't science has its own way of being precise and being vague.
In comparison to scientists who are able to get more precise about the exact shape and its fluctuations, the members of the Flat Earth Society make up wild unproven theories that physicists can only scoff at. Like the "US model" where the Sun and Moon are 50 km in diameter and circle the disc-shaped Earth at a height of 5500 km with the stars above this on a rotating dome.
Poor scientists, here they are with the tools to describe all the amazing aspects of the Earth and how its shape functions. And what awaits them? The simpleton, child world of Flat-Earth conspiracy followers who are growing in numbers. It turns out that conspiracy minded people are tuned into flat earth ideas. There is great worry over the growing number of conspiracy followers rather than science followers and this could overturn political and education systems.
The advice within the science community today is to engage flat-Earthers thoughtfully and respectfully - a process acknowledged as going to be excruciatingly painful. I just don't think that a sounds feasible or reasonable, either.
I went another route, and spent a bit of time with my Flexifly filters, finding an oblate series. This is oblate north pole and then the oblate south pole to present the Pearl Morissette Menu. This matches up with the Earth being more like a football than a soccer ball.
The bottom picture? The beet red velvet cake with sorrel and false cardamon. You can see how miniature it is with these paper thin layers of cake and filling. An amazing experience.
