Yes, folks, a whole second is being added to 2005 because the world as we know it is slowing down!
It's something to do with the friction of the tides affecting the rate at which the world is spinning on its axis thereby necessitating the addition of a 'positive leap second'.It's all a bit confusing for Jakartass.
Leap years involve an extra day, traditionally February 29th, but now we're adding leap seconds. Does this mean that we live longer or shorter lives? And surely the frictional force of last year's tsunami had a major effect on the Earth's spinning axis. Do we need to add even more time as compensation for all those lives cut short?
There are many imponderables to think about.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) who decreed this momentous bit of time travel don't seem to be providing answers to the questions being asked here.
Such as how to adjust all our time pieces. There are five wall clocks and five watches in Jakartass Towers, plus one in both computers for which we use the free Atomic Clock Sync for automatic daily time corrections. This is provided by World Time Server operated by the aptly named Chaos Software Group, Inc.
Another question which needs answering is that if, as it is often stated, time is money, do we get a pay rise? And if we don't, is it really a negative leap second that is being added to our lives?
Well, that's enough procrastination. If you want to use up your extra second, why not add a comment?
