From
@IrelandOn-line Next year will be arriving late – thanks to a slowing down of the Earth’s rotation.
To compensate for the effect, a “leap second” is to be added to the end of December 31.
It means the traditional New Year’s Eve countdown will now end at 00.00.01.
The decision was taken by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, based at the Paris Observatory.
Leap seconds were first introduced in 1972, but this is the first to be applied for seven years.
If only Bush agreed to the Kyoto treaty:
But the speed at which the Earth spins is continually changing, partly due to varying weather patterns and geological disturbances, but mostly because of the friction of tides.
This results in a small but continuous slowing down, so that the day is now about two milliseconds longer than it was 200 years ago.
