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January 1, 2004
At first, this sounds scary
CNN.com - Earth changes its spin, baffles scientists - Jan. 1, 2004.
But reading further,
To make the world's official time agree with where the Earth actually is in space, scientists in 1972 started adding an extra "leap second" on the last day of the year.For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind
One second ain't much time, and who's to say that before the invention of the atomic clock, the earth regularly moved one second a year faster or slower?
28 years of slow moving earth by 1 second a year and 5 years of earth moving as scientists believe is correct does not a trend make, to me.
Posted by Beth at January 1, 2004 1:27 PM
Comments
The "journalists" are exaggerating again. Scientists are not "baffled", there are just so many possible origins for the changing behavior that it's difficult to determine the exact cause. Saying "scientists are baffled" makes it sound like we don't have a clue, when it's really the reporters that are actually clueless. All they want is a dramatic headline.
Being a Physicist, having taught astronomy, and having been an amateur astronomer for 25 years, I can come up with 5 reasonable explanations for the changes without even resorting to something unlikely. So, saying scientists are "baffled" is a bit extreme.
As Bugs would say about journalists, "What a bunch of maroons."
Posted by: Jack at January 1, 2004 1:44 PM
FYI: The permalinks don't seem to be working for some of your posts. It looks like posts that don't have categories assigned.
Posted by: Jack at January 1, 2004 5:11 PM
Thanks, Jack,
I just put this one in a category, I'll go thru and try to get the rest of them this weekend!
Posted by: Beth Donovan at January 1, 2004 5:34 PM