ok, yeah, now i’m getting bored. i used to spend entire work days, i mean all day long, i’d sit at work and look stuff up online. and now, i can’t think of anything that would interest me.
but i came across this story, and i thought it was kind of fascinating on one hand, and kind of incredibly not interesting at all on the other. so here it is:
New Year’s Day 2006: delayed by a second
By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first “leap second” in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth’s rotation.
The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this week.
“Enjoy New Year’s Eve a second longer,” the institute said in an explanatory notice. “You can toot your horn an extra second this year.”
Coordinated Universal Time coincides with winter time in London. On the U.S. East Coast, the extra second occurs just before 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Atomic clocks at that moment will read 23:59:60 before rolling over to all zeros.
A leap second is added to keep uniform timekeeping within 0.9 second of the Earth’s rotational time, which can speed up or slow down because of many factors, including ocean tides. The first leap second was added on June 30, 1972, according to NIST, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department.
Since 1999 until recently, the two time standards have been in close enough synch to escape any need to add a leap second, NIST said.
Although it is possible to have a negative leap second — that is, a second deducted from Coordinated Universal Time — so far all have been add-ons, reflecting the Earth’s general slowing trend due to tidal breaking.
Deciding when to introduce a leap second is the responsibility of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, a standards-setting body. Under an international pact, the preference for leap seconds is December 31 or June 30.
Precise time measurements are needed for high-speed communications systems among other modern technologies.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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interesting, i think. and what about this International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service? who works there? how much do they get paid? does the job come with health benefits? i mean, is this their ONLY job, deciding whether to add a second to TIME? and doesn’t that seem like it’s sort of…FOOLING WITH MOTHER NATURE? i mean, ADDING A SECOND? i mean, you add a second here, a second there, and all of a sudden we’ll be…ahead? behind? we’ll eventually add a whole day? or maybe lose one?
i can see that i’m never going to get a job at the int’l. earth rotation and reference systems service, so i might as well not even bother trying to send them a resume.
plus, now that the excitemet of ADDING A SINGLE SECOND to TIME is over, there won’t be anything at all to do for the next seven years. maybe they’ll all go on vacation for a while, a few years, and then they’ll spend a couple of years quibbling about whether to add or maybe SUBTRACT a second. some radical commie pinko nutcase will want to subtract a second, just to be difficult. or maybe they’ll want to add TWO seconds, which of course would result in WORLDWIDE PANDEMONIUM.
which we should really try to avoid, if at all possible. seeing as how it’s less than an HOUR awaf from xmas from where i’m sitting.
ok then,
merry xmas grace.