2008 Ends With a Second to Spare

With a brutal economic slowdown, 2008 may feel as if it will never end. Now, the world's timekeepers are making it even longer by adding a leap second to the last day of the year.

Along with the economy, the Earth itself is slowing down, requiring timekeepers to add an extra second to their atomic clocks to keep in sync with Earth's slightly slowing rotation. So, an extra second will be tacked on to Dec. 31

That extra second will make 2008 — already long with an extra day on Feb. 29 — the longest year since 1992.
The decision to add an extra second was made by an international consortium of timekeepers,