Dec 31 2008
Being Bipolar: There’s an extra second in 2008
The year 2008 has been one of the most horrible years of my entire life. I am ready for it to be over with. However, I have to wait an extra second in this wretched year before it finally comes to an end.
Did you know that it takes the Earth exactly 365.2422 days to travel around the sun? This is why every four years we add an extra day to the month of February to keep the calendar accurate. In a similar fashion, the “leap second” is added to the clocks as needed to keep them in synch with the 24-hour rotation of the planet. The last extra second was added on December 31, 2005.
This began in 1972 and I am just now hearing about this. Regardless, it adds one more second to this seemingly endless year.
As I am counting down the final seconds of the year as midnight approaches, when I reach 1 I will know that it could have been over already. *Sigh.*
Happy New Year everyone! Let’s all hope for a wondrous 2009.
