New Year’s Day 2006: delayed by a second
By Marc • Dec 26th, 2005 • Category: In Other News...., the WeirdoWell, I was getting all excited at the extra second of sleep I would be getting. I realized thought that midnight CUT is six PM here in Nashville. Oh well.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first “leap second” in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth’s rotation.
The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this week.
“Enjoy New Year’s Eve a second longer,” the institute said in an explanatory notice. “You can toot your horn an extra second this year.”
Coordinated Universal Time coincides with winter time in London. On the U.S. East Coast, the extra second occurs just before 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Atomic clocks at that moment will read 23:59:60 before rolling over to all zeros.
[New Year's Day 2006: delayed by a second - Yahoo! News]
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Marc is a Catholic technology geek living in Tennessee. He blogs at Wild Tangents and is the host of the Catholic Vocations Podcast.
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