A leap second? Are you freaking kidding me?

Last week, I learned something new: there is such a thing as a leap second. According to Wikipedia, which has become my source for all knowledge recently, leap seconds have been added 24 times since 1972. Yet, I'm pretty sure I had never heard of it until last week.

The most recent leap second was added on December 31, 2008. By the way, I believe my favourite headline of 2008 is "Gloom of 2008 to be extended". It's been a tough year, why on Earth would we want to make it longer?

Anyhow, to quote Wikipedia again: "A leap second is a one-second adjustment that keeps broadcast standards for time of day close to mean solar time...The leap second adjustment (which is approximately 0.6 seconds per year) should not be confused with the difference between the length of the mean solar day and the SI day. This confuses velocity with travelled distance (in time). The reason for leap seconds is not the difference but the sum of the difference between the SI day and the mean solar day (currently about 0.002 seconds) over a given period of time. The actual rotational period varies due to unpredictable factors such as the motion of mass within Earth, and has to be observed rather than computed."

Yep...that sounds about right.

I just can't help but think that it's not the Earth that's wrong, it's our calculation of time. I understand that pre-historic Earthlings had to invent the calendar to allow the eventual invention of the BlackBerry. But, I think they got it wrong.

If we had an accurate understanding of time, we wouldn't be adding leap seconds, and we wouldn't have an extra day in February every four years. We wouldn't have to have wacky rhymes to help us remember which months have 30 days or 31 days...or 28/29. Maybe all months would have 103 days and we can just leave it at that.

Something's messed up. I don't know the first thing about measuring time or the invention of the modern-day North American calendar. But, if we have to do something as nutty as add a whole second to the end of a year, we did something wrong.

However, the second was added, whether I like it or not. Now, I hope you all set your clocks and watches back one second before you went to bed on New Year's Eve. If you were too busy partying, and forgot, please go do it now. You don't want to be the jerk who shows up to the meeting one second early.