The leap second has cheated death, for the time being. Members
of the International Telecommunications Union have met in Geneva
to decide whether to abolish the cheeky bonus second, but with
no consensus reached the decision has been delayed until 2015. A
leap second is sometimes added to bring Atomic Time -- a near-
perfectly accurate way to score seconds by measuring the
vibrations of atoms -- into sync with the Solar Time spin of the
Earth -- which is irregular, and gradually slowing down. When
the two time-keeping methods veer apart by a second, an extra
second is added in June or December to delay Atomic Time and
bring it in line with Solar Time. One was added in December
2008, and another is due to be inserted in June 2012. It's just
like the leap year, where every four years a bonus day is
introduced to account for the discrepancy between our 365 day
year and the Earth's 365 and a quarter day rotation around the
Sun. You probably won't notice the extra second in June 2012,
but it will be a major headach