If the new year comes a second later

Are you eager to put 2008 behind you? I mean, are you, for example, a Wall Street analyst, a stockbroker, a financial reporter, or still worse, are you people who lost a fortune trusting the above mentioned “experts?” Well, tonight you have to hold your good-byes for just a moment, one second, to be precise. In fact, the international authorities—the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), namely the world’s official timekeepers—will add a single second to our lives to keep our clocks in sync with solar time used by astronomers.

It will be the 24th “leap second” since 1972. That’s because, “sometimes, the Earth’s rotation on its axis can take longer or shorter than 24 hours, depending on factors such as the breaking action of tides, snow or the lack of it at the polar ice caps, solar wind, space dust and magnetic storms.”

So, please hold on, and pray the new year brings a better economy. When economics fails, prayer can step in and do the work …