31-12-08 The Bells Are About To Ring

Hogmanay is on us again.
It does not seem that long since the last one as the year seemed to fly in or is it just me, getting old and all that.

Anyway, back to tonight were there is the annual hogmanay party in the Glen Bar and Restaurant starting at 8pm till 2am. There is the usual late licence with DJ Tim and live music, Alex with his accordian and anyone else willing to join in. Free entry and food, over 18s only.Wrap up well tonight as it will be bitter cold, but at least it will be dry and gale free for a day or two.

We have an extra second today.

Today, between 6:59.59 p.m. and 7 p.m., we all get one extra second, a leap second designed to keep the planet's clocks in sequence with the earth's rotation.

One extra tick of the clock.

Not enough to catch up on chores, read a book, call mom or do any of those other things we say we would do if we had more time.

But it's something.

Willa Lefever, a co-owner of Sonnewald Natural Foods, has an interest in time, as the North Codorus Township store sponsors an automated phone service that gives callers the time and temperature.

So what will she do with her extra second?

"Pray one more prayer for this country and the world," Lefever said. "If I had a little more time, what's the most efficient and effective thing I can do?"

Here are a few other suggestions for how to spend your suspended second:

--- Travel 88 feet, if you're driving 60 miles an hour on Route 30.

--- Play a half-note warming up for New Year's Revolution at Sovereign Bank Stadium.

--- Listen to a phone ring one time.

--- Earn an additional 0.2 cents working at the state minimum wage of $7.15 per hour. If you worked that second, plus an extra four seconds, you could buy a one-cent Tiffany Lamp stamp. With 27 of those stamps, you could mail a postcard.

--- Sign a postcard, or at least your first name.

--- Measure Michael Phelps' margin of victory over Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic in this summer's Olympic 100-meter breaststroke 100

--- Watch a ball dropped from the top floor of the Yorktowne Hotel fall 16.1 feet.

--- Kiss. Especially good if you want a different New Year's pick-up line.

AN END TO THE LEAP SECOND?

Scientists at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich have used leap seconds sporadically since 1972 as a way to update Greenwich Mean Time and keep it as the agreed-upon international time standard.

But some are now arguing that GMT should be replaced by International Atomic Time, which is computed outside Paris by averaging readings on 200 atomic clocks around the world that measure to the nanosecond.

GMT is calculated using the movement of the earth. A switch to IAT, which could be in place by 2018, could result in clocks slipping backward against the planet's rotation one second every few years.

In 1,000 years, noon -- when the sun is highest in the sky -- would be the new 1 p.m
Click HERE to comment to this blog entry.
(C)Copyright The Carradale Goat 2010