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2008 the longest year since 1992?

  • Thread starter DavyJones
  • Start date

DavyJones

Is ready to take this hobby to a whole new level
I love whenever this turns up, being interested in Astronomy, I always find this subject interesting. As it turns out, atomic clocks around the world will be adding an extra second to the year to account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation. This year it will occur exactly between 6:59:59 and 7:00:00 pm on Dec. 31. That means we will actually have a 6:59:60! This extra second was last added in 2005. Seeing as this is also a leap year, the 2008 calendar year will be the longest year we've had since 1992 when it last occurred. Our year this year will last 366 days + 1 second. Pretty neat. Here's the article...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_on_sc/sci_extra_second
 
Whoa. That's really neat! Though, it's strange there'll be a 6:59:60...but ok!
 
i find it even more interesting that the time/date system that's been around for hundreds (thousands??) of years remains this accurate...
 
Through some astronomy courses I've taken, I have come to appreciate our time system. If it is something you are interested in, there are certainly some excellent educational sources available. Every ancient culture seemed to measure time differently; some used the moon cycles, other (including us) the sun. Also interesting is how these cultures dealt with 365 not being divisible by 12, etc. I suppose that is more in respect to calendar days. Actual time keeping is much more complicated.

Modern, accurate time pieces are rather new technology in the scheme of things. In older days, sailors at sea would observe the moons of Jupiter and their relative positions to the planet, to calculate how many longitude lines (i.e. time zones) they were away from home, telling them how much further they needed to travel. An instrument called an Astrolabe could be, and still can be, used to tell you what time during the day it is, all based upon the location of the sun and the date. Once you read about some of these things, you really gain an appreciation for the nuances of life, the conveniences we have, and how much life has changed through inventions we take for granted.
 
By the way, I'm waiting for xvart's response. I'm sure hes got some great nuggets of wisdom here too!
 
There used to be ten months in the year. July and August were invented as holidays to Julius and Augustus Caesar, respectively, if I'm not mistaken.
~Joe
 
Just remember any and all measurements of "time" / dates / calendars only have a symbolic significance - leaning towards a sort of dogmatic faith which all of us who are employed are forced to follow. But time is purely for us domesticated primates and really has nothing to do with the workings of the universe. The universe itself does not follow the Gregorian calendar ("the Christian calendar" which the western world follows) which was created by Pope Gregory XIII in the 1500s, which has been reworked for accuracy. One of the funniest is: "...and the calendar was changed when Gregory decreed that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582." So today is not really today, and this isn't really what time it is right now...who knows what time it really is? We just believe it because that's what we've always been told. lol! :D

"I know precisely what time is, so long as nobody asks me."
-St. Augustine


.
 
There used to be ten months in the year. July and August were invented as holidays to Julius and Augustus Caesar, respectively, if I'm not mistaken.
~Joe



I don't know about the additional months, but the year used to start in March, you can tell by how the months are named. October was the eighth (prefix oct), September the seventh, etc.
 
I like time!
danceemote.gif


I have a habit of wasting it though.
 
  • #10
Interestingly if you want to see where we are on the old Julian Calender ask your Eastern Orthodox friends they still use it for religious purposes.

Personally I am going to stick to the Mayan calender, its just more fun wheels with wheels all spinning and spinning. The end of the thirteenth baktun coming up should be interesting.
 
  • #13
as opposed to the new-age fanatics with the mayan one?
 
  • #14
Time and tide wait for no man.
 
  • #15
as opposed to the new-age fanatics with the mayan one?
After 2012 it won't matter if we follow the Mayan one as it ends in 2012. BUT if we go by the Discordian calendar and look at the precepts of Discordianism which says all things are related to 5 (and 5 is the magic number equaling the chaotic beginning and end of everything) we see that the Mayan 2012 can be Cabalistically extrapolated to read: 2 + 0 + 1 + 2 = 5 so both the Mayan and the Discordian calendar are in agreement on the ending... but if it doesn't end in 2012 it will prove Discordianism even more by simply just being a new beginning... lol! ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordian_calendar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism
 
  • #16
It sounds awfully inconvenient to use those calenders, because they all end at 2012. You'd have to find something else to use in 2013.

oesn't end in 2012 it will prove Discordianism even more by simply just being a new beginning... lol!

Hey, then we can't lose ;)
 
  • #17
Actually the Maya calender just starts over at the 1st baktun in 2012. Maya belief systems are based in cycles and the end of the 13th baktun merely signals the beginning of a new cycle. Or at least that is how the Mayaists I know explain it.
 
  • #18
Or at least that is how the Mayaists I know explain it.
That's the problem with any predicted universal expiration date - the Mayans certainly weren't the first who foresaw an end. The Teutons had their Twilight of the Gods, modern evangelical Christians have been predicting the end times since the 1800s in Scotland. And it's become something of a cottage industry here in the US, I forget the exact sales figures I'd heard for the Left Behind series but larger than anything I'd ever imagine. However, the closer those days come (and as they pass) more and more ingenuity has to be used to make the prediction fit the universe, such as 2012 = 5 an end or just a new beginning.

If you can find it, the out of print non-fiction book The Ragged Edge of Science by sci-fi author L. Sprauge deCamp has a fantastic collection of essays, including "So You Want to Be A Prophet..." which illustrates many of the finer points of prediction protection people use in deeper detail. I've recently loaned the book to my cousin who wants to become a professional psychic (seriously).

If there's a group saying the Maya calendars will simply "reset" that's a new one on me I haven't heard that before. But I've not read any of the modern 2012 books I've been seeing at the bookshops. I only know the older absolutist predictions taken from it. But if you think about it, the new idea is taking on the long held Discordian Interpretation of 2012 (titled after the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics) whether they intended to or not!

"Can't Lose" is absolutely right Finchy! ;)

"Hail Eris!
Or not.
I don't care,
I got my Five."

-To be said after you reduce, add or somehow algebraically arrive at 5. lol!
 
  • #19
On the topic of astronomy, the full moon on December 12 will be the closest full moon to the earth in a long long long long time.
 
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