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2008 Will Be a Second Longer

Posted by on 12/11/08 • Categorized as Science

clockIf 2008 feels like a long year for you, maybe it’s because it is, by a second anyway. From the “Things You Never Knew You Didn’t Know” category: Apparently a “leap second” will be added to the clock on Dec. 31 at 23:59:59 to make the timescale match the Earth’s slowing rotation. So remember: Start your New Year countdown a second later this year.


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3 Comments

  1. Bill
    December 16, 2008 • 3:23 pm

    John,

    Do you remember the Simpsons episode where the crowd was counting down to midnight and the clock got stuck and they just kept shouting the same number over and over? Name that episode.

    • John Zhu
      December 16, 2008 • 4:44 pm

      I do remember that. I don’t remember the name or what the rest of the episode was about, but just that the scene ended with Wiggum shooting the clock to get it moving again, and the crowd goes wild.

  2. Bill
    December 17, 2008 • 2:50 pm

    YES! Very good. Actually, I had to cheat to look up the name of the episode. It was The Trouble With Trillions from Season 9. Homer and Burns go to Cuba to recover a trillion-dollar bill from Castro. So-so episode, but a great opening. “Will this year ever end?!” And the countdown got stuck at eight, BTW. Sadly, I did not have to look that up.