You can get some extra sleep this New Year's Eve. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has announced the introduction of a "time step" at the end of December to add a "leap second" as 2006 arrives.
Leap seconds are needed to keep clocks in step with Earth's rotation, which varies by several thousandths of a second per day. Slowing down the clocks every year or two keeps them in sync. As 2005 transitions to 2006, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) will be retarded by 1.0 second. This essentially means that the last minute in 2005 will be 61 seconds long: December 31, 2005, 23:59:59; December 31, 2005, 23:59:60; January 1, 2006, 00:00:00.
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