Posted by
michael
on from the VCR-clock-still-accurate-as-always dept.
standards writes "The IERS has announced, once again, that there won't be a leap second in June 2005. It has been more than six years since the last leap second."
I believe it may have been the last leap second (1/1/1999?) or perhaps one just prior to that, I sat out by (or, more appropriately, on) the sundial at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, TX. with my father and his shortwave radio, and together we counted the beeps of the 61-second minute. Good father/son bonding times like these don't come around every 6-months (or every 6-years, even, it seems...)
-- This sig intentionally left justified.
Re:Shame, really...
by
clem.dickey
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
That leap second would have been added to 1998/12/31 23:59. Leap second tables usually show the seconds value for 1999/12/31 00:00:00 because it's seconds value forms the basis for seconds computations going forward.
Incidentally, I sometimes give out the following trivia questions:
A. February is the shortest month of the year, but what is the longest? (Big Hint: This question not valid in Arizona, Hawaii and parts of Indiana.)
B. Now that you've found the longest month, you know the second shortest month as well. Not every year has a unique second longest month, but for those which do, which month is it? (The second longest month, of course, is December due to the occasional leap second. March is a theoretical candidate for a leap second, but it's never had one.)
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I believe it may have been the last leap second (1/1/1999?) or perhaps one just prior to that, I sat out by (or, more appropriately, on) the sundial at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, TX. with my father and his shortwave radio, and together we counted the beeps of the 61-second minute. Good father/son bonding times like these don't come around every 6-months (or every 6-years, even, it seems...)
This sig intentionally left justified.