[meteorite-list] Can you give me a second? (GPS, a kiss & time)

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

Hola Olde and New Acquaintances, Free  seconds for everyone, one per person, 
for Time Gone By!!  A wonderful song  around 5 years back also lamented "I 
don't pardon time because time doesn't  pardon me."

Well ... time really is being pardoned this Saturday night  !  For all of the 
busy people of the world, one second will be forgiven a  minute before 
midnight entering into the New Year!  That will be London  time, of course, so get 
ready as the New York clock goes from 18:59:59 to  18:59:60 to 19:00:00 upon 
the 61st second. (That's 7PM in New York, and time  zones east of London will be 
registering it in the wee hours of 2006).   Which one of our nuclear-powered 
list members has the gadget that registers this  in real time?!  Ha! ha!

That will make 2005 the longest year in  "measurable" history, excepting the 
29-day February leap years, of course.   If you consider leap-day years, 1992 
is the king of time since it had both a  leap year and a leap second on top of 
that, just like only 1972 and 1976 have  had.  I think.  For the time zones 
in the Western longitudes!   

This happens because earth's rotation is slowing, but the method of  counting 
cesium atom vibrations by the atomic clocks doesn't catch on to this  
phenomenon, mainly hand-waved away as "tidal braking".  The theory as to  why we are 
spinning slower still isn't finished, but it generally revolves  around the 
fact that the Moon is the culprit, because the tides it induces turn  some of 
that rotational energy into an odd type of friction - that gets  transferred to 
the Moon, or maybe causes an epsilon of global warming as  convoluted tidal 
cycles are damped in innumerable ways.  No one expects  this to be a problem, 
nor that we will reach ...."The Day the Earth Stood  Still".

Well time is always synchronized to the earth's rotation, so  never mind that 
since 1821 we haven't had a day of 86,400 (24x60x60)  seconds.  Nowadays, 
days are a bit more than 86,400.002 seconds, so we are  loosing about two tenths 
of a second every three years.  We'll be around  four tenths of a second in 
another second if this interval continues.   

Due to the fact that a round earth doesn't fit into a square clock, time  has 
been manipulated like this 22 times since 1972 by the Men in Black!   Now we 
are going for the 23rd second!

GPS won't be affected since these  changes could cause a sudden Y2K-styled 
Y2m bug in some applications.  GPS  uses 1980 as the base year, so for everyone 
who uses a GPS to boastfully set  their watch using satellite time - it just 
might be 13 seconds faster than you  think:), the number of leap seconds those 
naughty Men in Black have added behind  our back...since 1980...

Surely Ben Franklin wouldn't miss this  opportunity except for his life.  
He'd certainly be in France charmingly  having his bottoms up with a Parisian 
damsel (and down a bit of fine Champagne,  too) in this extra second in his 
Franklin's Planner.  Maybe time to take a  cue from the guy who invented the 
concept of Daylight Saving Time.

2005 -  A leap year?  Yes !!! :-)  For further information, contact the "Men  
in Black" at this seemingly innocuous web site... or just enjoy a whether  it 
be a whole pint stowp or just a right gude-willie waught!!

Have fun in  Limbo, Doug