t\u2019s a leap year. This year we had a leap day. A man-made day that gave us all an extra day this year. Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere have to endure one extra day of winter. Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere get an extra day of summer in which to loll around. It\u2019s not fair. How did the Southern Hemisphere pull that off?<\/p>\n
Anyway, this year is one of the years we\u2019ll all get an extra second. That\u2019s right. On June 30, 2012 the day will be one second longer to adjust for the Earth\u2019s slightly flagging rotation. In a few billion years the Earth will stop rotating because it will be eaten alive by the sun, which will then be a big red giant gobbling up all the rocky planets and bringing warmth and loving, red sunshine to Jupiter, Saturn and the planets beyond. Maybe someday someone will be reclining on the shore of a lake filled with liquid metallic hydrogen. Not you. Not me. But someone \u2013 a few billion years from now may be getting a tan on some tropical Saturnine beach.<\/p>\n
What about this year of 2012? It\u2019s going to be interesting. Did the Mayan\u2019s really know what time it was? Did they really care? Their prophecy of doom has triggered a TV show called \u201cDoomsday Packers\u201d or something like that (not to be confused with the Green Bay Packers). <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if the world will end on December 21, 2012 or not \u2013 I\u2019m not counting on it. If you\u2019re counting on it, you can have a field day with your credit cards beginning the day after the December billing cycle begins. Live it up! Charge everything! You\u2019ll never have to pay the bill because the bill will never come. Enjoy.<\/p>\n
Getting back to the leap second: Did you even know there were such things? There are \u2013 and this year is one of the years we all get not only an extra day but an extra second. Everyone will get an extra 24 hours and one second this year to celebrate whatever they wish. Right now, International Atomic Time (TAI), is the time standard. It is calculated using a weighted average of signals from atomic clocks, which are located in 70 laboratories around the world.<\/p>\n
UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) is occasionally adjusted by adding a leap second to keep it accurate. The extra second is added because of fluctuations in the Earth\u2019s rotation. In the last 50 years a total of 34 leap seconds have been added; a 35th leap second is scheduled to be added on 30 June 2012. So if you\u2019re 50 years or older \u2014 by July 1, 2012 you\u2019ll have received a bonus of 35 seconds of additional time. Ask yourself? What did you do with it?<\/p>\n
OK. Does anybody really know what time it is? Yes! Does anybody really care? Yes! We all care. Time is something we either have too much of or too little of; it\u2019s all relative to our lives. If you\u2019re stuck in some slimy prison in Moldova, time is passing slowly for you. If you\u2019re having the time of your life with the love of your life \u2014 time is racing by too quickly. If you\u2019re 90 and your time is running out \u2014 time is a cascade. If you\u2019re a child of ten \u2014 time is forever.<\/p>\n
And whether you know it or not, our GPS systems could not function without super-accurate clocks. Aviation would be a mess. Satellite communications would be flaky and your favorite show wouldn\u2019t start at exactly 8PM. How about a TV Guide that listed show times as \u201cabout 8:00PM\u201d?<\/p>\n
So yes. Somebody really knows what time it is; and somebody really cares A LOT!.<\/p>\n
I was surprised this morning when I discovered my computer\u2019s clock was running 11 seconds slow. It\u2019s coordinated (or Windows says it is) with an Internet Time Server. It\u2019s about time, then, that these Internet Time Servers served up the right time. I fixed my computer clock \u2013 I chose the U.S. Government\u2019s time-server. It was set at the default which is time.windows.com . But now I\u2019m right on time thanks to the government. My tax dollars at work. Now, thanks to Uncle Sam, I won\u2019t be 11 seconds late for anything \u2013 thanks to my persnickedyness and the excessive taxes I pay to keep these government atomic clocks running.<\/p>\n
Do you really want to know what time it is? Do you really care? If you don\u2019t, then read no further; if you do care, then read on.<\/p>\n
What time is it?<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.time.is <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.time.gov\/ <\/p>\n
What time is it?<\/p>\n