Even without it, I didn't feel too pressured.

This year's June 30, the date given to this Boidem column, is a regular June 30. Last year's, as we can learn from numerous sites that report on leap seconds, was one second longer than most of those that preceded it. That means that had I planned to post a column on June 30 of last year (2015) I would have had a bit (a very little bit) more time to prepare the column. But I only renewed the writing and the posting of these columns one month later, in July of 2015, so I wasn't able to take advantage of that additional second.

Unlike leap days that are added to the calendar in a highly predictable manner, leap seconds are added when the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service determines that one is needed. Since 1972 26 leap seconds have found their way into our calendars, some of those on June 30, and some on December 31. But it's not advisable to get into the habit of expecting these fleeting additions. At present it's not clear that more leap seconds are on the horizon. From a glance at http://nextleapsecond.com we learn:

leap second

And it's not only that the date of the next leap second hasn't yet been determined or announced. It seems that many scientists simply want to do away with them. A Proposal to Abolish Leap Seconds is examined in depth on the Wikipedia entry devoted to leap seconds. The possibility that we may no longer have leap seconds doesn't mean that there's no longer a need to synchronize our clocks with the earth's rotation. There is. But apparently there are scientists who think it would make more sense to occasionally have a leap hour in order to get things back in sync. The United States Naval Observatory's Chief Scientist for Time Services apparently supports this change, and I found his argument, as reported by Wikipedia, particularly interesting:

He stressed the practical inability of software programmers to allow for the fact that leap seconds make time appear to go backwards, particularly when most of them do not even know that leap seconds exist.
I'm not sure I understand why adding a second would make time appear to go backwards, but there's something tantalizing in the idea. On the other hand, though I often feel as though I need a few more hours in my week, I've lived through all the previous leap seconds and I can't say that I've felt that they've had much of an effect on me. I didn't even notice them.



Go to: I didn't even buy postcards.