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1.  

   Overclocking the Earth

   

   Dave Starr, Dec 31st, 2003 @ 10:21am

   
   

   This is newsworthy, but it would be perhaps more newsworthy were it accurate. The referenced article correctly states that 1972 was the original year for addingt leap seconds, however a perusal of:
   
   http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html
   
   will show that 5 leap seconds between 1972 and 1999 were not required, including three in consectutive years, so the fact that 4 have not been added recently hardly proves a definitive trend.

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2.  

   What time is it???

   

   Joe Schmoe, Dec 31st, 2003 @ 12:45pm

   
   

   I never came away with the impression that internet time meant that biz time was faster, but rather the recognition of the 24/7 activity of the net connected [generation].
   
   It would have been a cute idea to have a [S]watch (TM) time that you could recognize that Jack or Jill in Timbuk3 was awake without adding ot subtracting 14 hours in your head, but nothing much more...

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3.  

   Medieval Guilt

   

   dorpus, Dec 31st, 2003 @ 12:52pm

   
   

   For similar reasons, it's been shown that wobbles in the Earth's orbit have a far more dramatic impact on the Earth's climate than minute variations in atmospheric composition. In medieval England before the Industrial Revolution, people grew wine and ate food quite similar to middle eastern food. Greenland had vineyards. Today it is much colder.
   
   Perhaps future generations will view our Greenhouse Effect control efforts like the self-flagellators of medieval times, punishing ourselves for imaginary sins.
   

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4.  

   Symptom of a decaying orbit?

   

   Anonymous Coward, Jan 1st, 2004 @ 2:07am

   
   

   ...well, *that* would certainly explain global warming!

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5.  

   "...for reasons no one is quite sure..."

   

   Pat Dennis, Jan 1st, 2004 @ 8:03am

   
   

   We're moving closer to the sun?

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6.  

   Re:

   

   Brian the astronomer, Jan 3rd, 2004 @ 10:07am

   
   

   
   This is hardly a mysterious effect. The Earth's rotation is slowing down with time. This is mostly due to tidal effects with the Moon and (to a much lesser extent) the Sun. There are also other factors involved, such as the shifting of mass (on the surface and under the surface) which create a wobble in the Earth's rotation axis and leads to humans making adjustments in our timekeeping system.

   Because we like to keep time by the apparent position of the Sun and/or stars in the sky as the Earth rotates on its axis, we are forced to resync our clocks every now and then to take into account that the Earth is not a perfect rotating sphere isolated from everything else in the universe.
   

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7.  

   Years?

   

   Keppy, Mar 9th, 2004 @ 12:25pm

   
   

   Earth's orbit is indeed contracting ever so slightly along with the rest of the planets. In general, the time span between trips around the sun is decreasing. Over the span of thousands of 'years', each trip is shorter on average than the last.
   
   This is why it bothers me when folks estimate that the universe or Earth is X-Billion years old. What's a year going to be 6 billion trips around the sun from now?

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