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from the like-this-year-hasn't-been-long-enough dept.
Phys.org (among many other sites) is reporting on a leap second being added before the end of 2016:
As if 2016 has not been long enough, the year's dying minute will last an extra second to make up for time lost to Earth's slowing rotation, timekeepers say.
Countries that use Coordinated Universal Time—several West African nations, Britain, Ireland and Iceland—will add the leap second during the midnight countdown to 2017—making the year's final minute 61 seconds long.
For others, the timing will be determined by the time zone they live in, relative to UTC.
"This extra second, or leap second, makes it possible to align astronomical time, which is irregular and determined by Earth's rotation, with UTC which is extremely stable and has been determined by atomic clocks since 1967," the Paris Observatory said in a statement.
The observatory houses the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), responsible for synchronising time.
"The sequence of dates of the UTC second markers will be: 2016 December 31 23h 59m 59s, 2016 December 31 23h 59m 60s, 2017 January 1, 0h 0m 0s," the IERS website states.
Here is the original IERS announcement. There have been times in the past when the addition of a leap-second caused havoc — it is non-trivial to update the clocks on all the systems in an organization at the same time. When activity "A" happens before activity "B", but because of inconsistent system clocks the timestamps imply otherwise, things can go sideways in a hurry.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday December 30 2016, @05:58PM
2016 hasn't already been around long enough :(
I honestly can't remember any other year that I wanted to be over as much as this one.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @06:09PM
why?
please stop associating time stamps to unrelated things.
feel free to call 2016 "the year of the quick fox who jumps over the lazy dog", if that will make you feel better.
for instance:
"please let the 21st of december be over faster, I don't like it when the sun is hidden for 18 hours of the day" would make sense.
"please let the 21st of december be over faster, I don't like it because a meteor struck the planet this morning" makes absolutely no sense.
when you complain about people dying or votes going against your personal desires, and relating it to the year you're in, you are definitely in the second scenario.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @06:49PM
Ah you can't wait for Trump to become president either. Check!
... or is it that old celebrities died, like they do every year.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by martyb on Friday December 30 2016, @07:30PM
Or that, inescapably, I'm made ever-more aware of my own mortality?
If these ageless memories of my youth are now meeting their [un]timely demise, then maybe my life's youth has passed, and my remaining days draw nearer to their end. Very few indeed are they who, in full health and well-being, easily envisage their own passing.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday January 01 2017, @11:01PM
Not all were what I'd call old. Prince died at age 57, George Michael at 53, and José Fernández at 24.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_%28musician%29 [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Michael [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Fern%C3%A1ndez_%28pitcher%29 [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday December 30 2016, @09:06PM
This was a truly shit year, so go ahead and mod me offtopic* because I'm going to participate in this little circle-jerk.
On the public level, we lost all those great musicians (as well as came to the realization that there will be nobody even close to those people, ever, given today's shit music written mostly as lullabies for antidepressive medication-addled kids to be piped into stores to make them buy more shit).
We had a particularly vicious election season, which really brought out the most ugliness in America since the civil-rights era. Those who didn't see before finally did see that mass-media are paid actors rather than respectable journalists. That Democrats really are the same as neocons. That Americans really are stupid enough to be divided over increasingly petty issues by design rather than work together for common interests.
Our first "Black" president was the biggest disaster for race-relations since Ronald Reagan declared ketchup a "vegetable" to feed what he called "welfare queens." The man who will supersede him as President is significantly divisive -- although, in a good way, because somebody had to muster the balls to kick out the goddamn Latin Leeches and Durka-Durka scum Baraq Hussein Soetoro is pozzing our country with. He lost, so like a petulant crybaby he's implementing scorched-Earth tactics on his own country. I predict he'll have a seat at the UN pretty soon, like David Cameron will.
On a personal level, it was pretty shit. One bad setback after another, and a pretty shitty way to remember graduating from college. Like many people, I can't admit to my own family that I voted Trump without significant backlash - I did to one of them as a litmus test, and all I heard were the usual MSNBC talking points - "He's a RAPIST!" I'm just glad this year's fucking over.
* Note: only shit-eating cocksuckers mod me offtopic