Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Dec 26, 2005 at 11:40 UTC
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The most obvious answer is missing!
I will spend it leaping.
Thanks, folks, I’ll be here all week.
Makeshifts last the longest.
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If his day job allows him to make such horrible jokes, please, let him quit and find a new one! :)
----
Give me strength for today..
I will not talk it away..
Just for a moment..
It will burn through the clouds..
and shine down on me.
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by McDarren (Abbot) on Dec 26, 2005 at 07:20 UTC
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This was easy, as procrastination is my favourite pastime (and I'm also very very good at it) :D
For those that are interested, a few relevant links are here and here. | [reply] |
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by johnnywang (Priest) on Dec 26, 2005 at 08:35 UTC
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why spend it? I'll save it, or sell it on eBay. | [reply] |
Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by jonix (Friar) on Dec 26, 2005 at 11:07 UTC
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From scienceworld.wolfram.com:
Our current system of civil time is based on coordinated universal time (UTC), which is based on a system of atomic clocks. Leap seconds are used to guarantee that UTC does not differ from the Earth's rotational time by more than 0.9 seconds. The Earth's rotation is decelerating at a rate of about 1.5 to 2 milliseconds per day per century due to the frictional action of the tides. Currently, the Earth is slower than UTC by about 2 milliseconds per day, so every 450 to 500 days the time difference reaches 0.9 seconds. Leap seconds are added to UTC to keep the two times in agreement.
Interesting questions arise:
How long will it take until...
- we need a yearly, monthly or daily leap second?
- we need a leap second per second?
- we need a leap day per second?
- Earths rotation will finally stop? Within our Sun´s lifetime?
(Update: Spelling enhancements) | [reply] |
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Certainly not within the Sun’s lifetime. The rate of deceleration is decreasing. What happens is that the tidal wave that the Moon pulls around the Earth is actually at an angle from the line that connects the gravitational centres of Earth and Moon, and is big enough to tug at the Moon. So the Moon gains momentum at the expense of Earth’s torque and inches to an ever higher orbit. (See an illuminating explanation of how the tides really work.)
In about two billion years (if memory serves) the Moon will be too far away to cause a totality when transiting in front of the Sun during solar eclipses. We live today in the era of the Earth-Moon system where the Moon is just far enough away to cover the Sun’s disc exactly in a total eclipse that leaves the corona visible.
Makeshifts last the longest.
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So that's why my clocks are always wrong..!
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If you have one clock, you know the time. Having two, you are not so sure anymore... ;)
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by bradcathey (Prior) on Dec 26, 2005 at 18:50 UTC
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I recently heard a fifties+ designer, who literally designed the new CITI bank logo on a napkin and was later questioned by the client about her invoice and the fact that she designed it only took her a "second", reply with "yes, it took 34 years and 1 second."
Experience so often adds up to nothing in the minds of those who aren't.
/me hmmm...did I just get way to serious?
—Brad "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot
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The original bon mot was from Pablo Picasso. A guy in a restaurant asked him to make a quick sketch on a paper napkin. Picasso draw it. The guy asked him to sign it. Picasso said "OK, but then you'll give me 500 francs " (it probably was a bargain at the time...) "-500 francs? but it took you just a second!""-no,it may not seem so, but actually it took me 60 years".
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by DaWolf (Curate) on Dec 26, 2005 at 13:56 UTC
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Cool one, davido, but the "Computing the answer to the universe on my new 3GHz dual-core system." option is pointless, since we all know it: it's 42 =:cP
This option should be "Computing the question to the universe on my new 3GHz dual-core system."
Cheers and have a nice one! =:c)
Your PM friend,
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Hey, we all know a bunch of prime numbers and keep on calculating them over and over again!
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This option should be "Computing the question to the universe on my new 3GHz dual-core system."
Actually, the question was eventually (preventually?) found:
What is 6 x 9?
-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of
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I think you are on to something here, if you think the 69 like a yin-yang sign.
However, perl doesn't think so, try:
perl -e 'print 6 x 9'
Must be that missing 12....
Personally, I think that the answer was given in an dyslexic way, and should have been 24. But if it still is 42, then the factors are 2*3*7, which on an upside-down TI82 would spell all letters... however, in which order should they be?
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by tbone1 (Monsignor) on Dec 27, 2005 at 12:17 UTC
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Dual-core, baby! My wife got me a dual-processor dual-core Apple G5 tower for Christmas.
I'm telling you, if you have to marry, marry a geek. Can you imagine one of those wafer-thin rice-cake-chompin' trendy wives buying you something like that? No, if they bought you anything at all, it would be something to turn you into their own personal Ken doll. Marry a geek, it's great.
--
tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub)
And remember, if he succeeds, so what.
- Chick McGee
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by mk. (Friar) on Dec 26, 2005 at 12:51 UTC
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by bageler (Hermit) on Dec 28, 2005 at 19:01 UTC
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I'm just gonna count the second later, when I have a spare minute. | [reply] |
Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) on Dec 27, 2005 at 03:38 UTC
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Probably procrastinating... but then I'll have to answer
that later. No rush making plans... I'll get back to you
all on that later...
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by blazar (Canon) on Dec 27, 2005 at 11:23 UTC
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Oh, I'm just planning on doing all that and more at a time. I like ambitious projects...
;-) | [reply] |
Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by dna (Beadle) on Dec 28, 2005 at 04:12 UTC
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At that time I will have been passed out for hours. The day after I will write the following oneliner, which saves me from a lot of thinking:
perl -e 'while(1){print "I shall never drink again! :(\n"}'
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by petdance (Parson) on Dec 27, 2005 at 21:34 UTC
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I've always liked "Oops, I Did It Again."
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by fraktalisman (Hermit) on Dec 30, 2005 at 09:28 UTC
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by Mago (Parson) on Dec 30, 2005 at 19:27 UTC
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"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."
Thomas DeQuincey
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Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
by jfk1admin (Initiate) on Dec 31, 2005 at 11:35 UTC
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having spent a considerable period of time, (all of my life), learning new ways to procrastinate, i now find myself full of knowledge and interesting facts on this subject. with this wealth of experience, i naturally find every opportunity of deployment. i soon devised a "shortened" name for the very word itself, (to allow more time for procrastination), this being "procreate". as with all good programs and scripts, a new version was soon developed and released. i now find myself "f**cking about" all the time..... | [reply] |