Dec 30, 2016

Leap Second

Twenty-six times since 1972, the world's timekeepers have added a leap second to the clock to make up for time lost to Earth's slowing rotation. The adjustment is necessary because Earth's rotation is not regular. It sometimes speeds up, sometimes slows down, but is gradually slowing overall.


It will happen again tomorrow. That's right, we get one more second of 2016 added to our lives. The final minute of 2016 will have 61 seconds. After all of the political nonsense during these past twelve months, it is almost like adding insult to injury to have a leap day and a leap second in the same year. Oh well, savor the extra second of life. We can never get too many of them.

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