More than you ever wanted to know about our calendar: Panic Blog – “Once in a Blue Moon”.
Much of this I already knew (being the geek that I am), but some of it was new and interesting. For instance:
Surprisingly, while just about every year between 1972 and 1999 required a leap second to keep the clock synchronized with the Earth’s rotation, there have only been two leap seconds added in the last ten years. The Earth has sped up just a bit, and no one knows why.
And this:
For the same reason, the Earth’s rotation is also slowing down and will eventually match the orbit of the moon. At that point, billions of years from now, both a day and a month will last for around 47 of our current 86,400-second-long days. One side of the Earth will face the moon; the other will never see it again.
A single day lasting about a month and a half of our current time. It boggles the mind.
