Dux Nest

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Happy New Year!

New Year 2009 was a leap second longer than normal. Who decides that we are going to change our clocks?

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) that is who.

Leap seconds, added once every 500 days or so, keep high-precision atomic clocks from running ahead of solar time, which is gradually falling behind as tidal friction slows Earth’s rotation. Michael Schirber.  (2005). U.K. Stargazers: Save the Leap Second. Science, 309(5744), 2147.

Deciding whether and when a leap second is needed falls to an international organisation called the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). It collects and averages measurements of the Earth’s rotation from around the world. Each January and July it issues a notice announcing whether a leap second is required in the next six months. James Randerson,  Science correspondent. (2008, December 31). Front: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … er 1. New Year to take extra second to reach big bang: Atomic clocks come into line with astronomical day: Erratic rotation of Earth creates need for change. The Guardian,3.

The periodic insertion of a leap second step into the scale of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) necessitates frequent changes in complex timekeeping systems and is currently the subject of discussion in working groups of various international scientific organizations. UTC is an atomic time scale that agrees in rate with International Atomic Time (TAI), but differs by an integral number of seconds, and is the basis of civil time. In contrast, Universal Time (UT1) is an astronomical time scale defined by the Earth’s rotation and is used in celestial navigation. R A Nelson, D D McCarthy, S Malys, J Levine, B Guinot, H F Fliegel, R L Beard and T R Bartholomew Satellite Eng. Res. Corp., USNO, NIMA, NIST, OP, Aerospace Corp., NRL, Litton TASC Inc.

The International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) was established in 1987 by the International Astronomical Union and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and it began operation on 1 January 1988. It replaced the International Polar Motion Service (IPMS) and the earth-rotation section of the Bureau International de l’Heure (BIH); the activities of BIH on time are continued at Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). Since 1 January 2001 the IERS has got a new structure. In 2003 it was renamed to International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.

The definition of UTC was implemented in 1972, principally to accommodate celestial navigation and follows recommendation 460 of the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) in 1970. Since 1972 the use of electronic means to navigate has overtaken celestial navigation. Dennis McCarthy,  F Arias,  W Dick,  D Gambis,  M Hosokawa,  W Klepczynski,  S Leschiutta,  J Laverty,  Z Malkin,  D Matsakis,  R Nelson,  J Vondrak,  P Wallace,  N Capitaine,  T Fukushima. (2005). Division I Working Group on “Definition of Coordinated Universal Time”. International Astronomical Union. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 1(T26A), 63-66.

The leap second has been used sporadically at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich since 1972, an adjustment that has kept Greenwich Mean Time the agreed time standard.

Some scientists now say GMT should be replaced by International Atomic Time - computed outside Paris - because new technologies have allowed atomic time to tick away with down-to-the-nanosecond accuracy.

But opponents say atomic time’s very precision poses a problem. A strict measurement, they say, would change our very notion of time forever, as atomic clocks would one day outpace the familiar cycle of sunrise and sunset.

Atomic time advocates argue that leap seconds are onerous because they’re unpredictable. Since the exact speed of the Earth’s rotation can’t be plotted out in advance, they’re added as needed. Sometimes they’re added Dec. 31; other times at the end of June.

Those fixes can trip up time-sensitive software, particularly in Asia, where the extra second is added in the middle of the day.

Critics say everything from satellite navigation to cellular communication is vulnerable to problems stemming from programs ignoring the extra second or adding it at different times. Raphael G. Satter,  Jamey Keaten Associated Press. (2008, December 31). Wait a sec, 2009; Earth’s running late. Journal - Gazette,A.10.

So what is the time?

Tags: Atomic, Clocks, Earth, Measurement, Rotation, Time, Universal.

Some might think it is great to be a gym junkie or spend hours playing world of warcraft. In a time when we are becoming more conscious of having a balanced diet, many of us are working longer hours and spending less time with family or even doing exercise.

Polar Opposites:

The university student who spends virtually all there waking hours studying and neglects their social life

Or

The university student who spends most their time joining in social activities and neglects their studies

Even though in the back of our mind we know we should have a balanced lifestyle it is as if we become fixated on one aspect of our lives and neglect the rest.

So what do the experts suggest in maintaining a balanced life?

If employers play a role in our work-life imbalance, then there’s hope for the future. Experts foresee a major shakeup over the next decade, as the labour force changes from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market. Today’s employers rely on unpaid overtime and would go under if employees truly had balance, Linda Duxbury, a professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University, who co-authored a seminal 2001 study on work-life conflict says. In the near future, with fewer young people entering the workforce to replace aging boomers, the most desirable employees will have the power to demand a family life. If employers are going to require work outside of normal business hours, they will have to cut employees some slack during slower times.

“As a society we haven’t become flexible about when things happen,” says Duxbury. “We need to reconceptualize; sometimes work takes priority, sometimes family takes priority. We’re never going back to nine-to-five, so balance on a day-to-day basis is unattainable.” It’s no longer possible to separate life into neat little compartments. However, Higgins points out that if we truly want worklife balance, it will be up to us to turn off the technology that allows work to interfere at all hours. “I see too many parents on their BlackBerrys at their kid’s hockey game.” T K Demmings (2008, April). Balance backlash. Today’s Parent, 25(4), 96,98,100.

To stem an exodus of talented women a few years ago, the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche began radically changing its corporate culture, from one that valued overtime and hours logged in the office to one that prizes flexibility and efficiency.

From the start, the company made changes from the top down, thanks largely to the foresight of J. Michael Cook, who retired as CEO in May. Executives, for instance, learned to openly say they were having dinner at home or watching a school play, rather than saying they were “with a client.”

When a CEO isn’t afraid to openly value his own balance, employees are more likely to believe they can too. Maggie Jackson Associated Press (1999, July 21). More CEOs try better work-family equilibrium. Journal Record,p. 1.

The idea of recognising when a passion becomes an obsession can be a complicated concept.

Gornick (2005) suggests while the United States leads the world in gross domestic product per worker, we are ranked eighth among the OECD countries in GDP per worker-hour. It is possible that, as a society, we could shift some hours from work to family and see a rise in our hourly output. What is clear is that the current workfamily arrangement-with its weak protections and limited benefits for working parents-is problematic on many fronts, and that large numbers of American parents and their children are poorly served. Janet C Gornick (2005, July). Overworked, Time Poor, and Abandoned by Uncle Sam. Dissent, 52(3), 65-69.

Yang (1996) argues that regardless of culture, work-family conflict was bidirectional in nature: work interfered with family life, and vice versa. Culture was an important predictor of work-family conflict and outcomes, both moderating the magnitude of multiple role pressures on individual employees’ time and energy, and influencing their cognitions of the conflict origin. On average, American respondents perceived more global work-family conflict, and Chinese respondents perceived more work interference with family. Yang, Nini (1996) Effects of individualism-collectivism on perceptions and outcomes of work family conflict: A cross-cultural perspective. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, United States — New York.

Many experts on obsessive behavior agree that there are striking similarities between addictions to substances like drugs and food and addictions to activities like gambling, shopping, sex and computer games. Some addiction counselors have begun to focus on compulsive game players.

But help, addiction experts say, seldom means giving up the games or computers. A common approach to treating computer game addicts is to try to teach them moderation, said Peggy Reynolds, a professor of human development counseling at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

”You can’t go cold turkey,” said Dr. Reynolds, explaining that asking a compulsive game player to quit would be like asking an overeater to stop eating. ”Computers have become part of our life style. People have to know how to manage them.” Michel Marriott (1998, March 12). When Love Turns to Obsession, Games Are No Game. New York Times (Late Edition (east Coast)),  p. 8.

In conclusion, I believe it is important that we strive to achieve a balance life as well as a balance diet. I never said it was easy but we shouldn’t give up trying.

Tags: Balance, Culture, Hours, Life, Lifestyle, Obsession, Obsessive Behaviour, Time.