Magnetic North seems to be a bit disturbed by the modern age. This map, from the World Data Center for Geomagnetism at Kyoto University, shows its location from 1900 to 2020. Notice how much more active it became starting in 1980.

The good news is, it’s getting closer to the geographic North Pole, and in fact the declination is predicted to reach zero in 2050. The bad news is, everyone from cell phone users to nuclear submarine navigators relies on a program that adjusts location by calculating the difference between magnetic and actual North, and that program is falling behind.

Usually updated every five years, the program has become inaccurate enough that the US government was planning to release an update after three years, on Jan. 15, 2019. Except the US government is not open, so that didn’t happen.

The release has been re-scheduled for Jan. 30. I don’t know if that’s because someone expects the government to re-open by then, or because people are working more slowly since they aren’t being paid.

I would definitely work more slowly if I weren’t paid. I mean, that’s slavery, right? Slaves work under threat of violence, and I suppose the 21st-century equivalent is the threat of losing your government job/pension forever, on the premise that it is worth keeping and will actually pay out at some point. Stress, anyone?

The moving magnetic pole affects everyone in the world of course, in fact, the program is called the World Magnetic Model. For whatever reason, NATO and the UK and US Defense/Defence Department/Ministry and WHO as well as Android and iOS rely on WMM, jointly produced by US and Brits.

The Brits may have other things on their minds at the moment.

The calculation is not as straightforward as you might expect. The deviation varies not only by measurement of the angle between magnetic and geographic north with you at its vertex, but also due to local deposits of iron and magnetite and by deep Earth flows of liquid iron. And it varies widely, ranging from +15 degrees to -4 degrees across the continental US.

• Entertainment potential : A few drivers who are overly reliant on navigation ending up in lakes.
• Grave risk: Mislaying a nuclear sub.
• Notable: Most modern humans have no idea how our critical tools work, and no recognition of the legions of folks who support us.
• Conclusion: Anyone not living off-grid is the opposite of independent.