The graph also shows something else - natural processes aren't smooth and clean: the rotation of the earth "slows down continually, though at a slightly variable rate." Coincidentally this connects to my new year's resolution for 2009: to learn more about and try to ponder the significance of what might be called the "regular irregularity" of natural processes. This is something I started to apprehend in 2008, observing geological and wave patterns from airplanes, trying to concentrate on my breath at a Buddhist retreat, marveling at the cycle of the tides, all this leavened by repeated encounters with ideas of "emergence" and growing awareness of interdependence from both global warming and the unraveling economy, and topped with a new burst of interest in fractals. What could it all mean? Beats me - but stay tuned!
Friday, January 02, 2009
Just a sec
At dinner last night, someone mentioned that yesterday was the longest day of the year - by a second. All the world's atomic clocks were adjusted one second, to accommodate a slowing in the earth's rotation. Turns out that drag from tidal movements, etc., has required a number of such "leap seconds" adjustments. The graph below, from eponymous Wikipedia, shows the disparities between the universally coordinated time (UTC) measured by atomic clocks and mean solar time (UT1); whenever the disparity is more than 0.5, a leap second is added.
The graph also shows something else - natural processes aren't smooth and clean: the rotation of the earth "slows down continually, though at a slightly variable rate." Coincidentally this connects to my new year's resolution for 2009: to learn more about and try to ponder the significance of what might be called the "regular irregularity" of natural processes. This is something I started to apprehend in 2008, observing geological and wave patterns from airplanes, trying to concentrate on my breath at a Buddhist retreat, marveling at the cycle of the tides, all this leavened by repeated encounters with ideas of "emergence" and growing awareness of interdependence from both global warming and the unraveling economy, and topped with a new burst of interest in fractals. What could it all mean? Beats me - but stay tuned!
The graph also shows something else - natural processes aren't smooth and clean: the rotation of the earth "slows down continually, though at a slightly variable rate." Coincidentally this connects to my new year's resolution for 2009: to learn more about and try to ponder the significance of what might be called the "regular irregularity" of natural processes. This is something I started to apprehend in 2008, observing geological and wave patterns from airplanes, trying to concentrate on my breath at a Buddhist retreat, marveling at the cycle of the tides, all this leavened by repeated encounters with ideas of "emergence" and growing awareness of interdependence from both global warming and the unraveling economy, and topped with a new burst of interest in fractals. What could it all mean? Beats me - but stay tuned!
