Today is for time lapse

I won't get to write a blog on this day for another four years.  This is that special day of a leap year that makes the year a leap year.  It's the key ingredient for extending the year by 24 hours.

It's a bit funny sometimes how ideas linger much past their time.  I hear people, for instance, still saying "roll up the window," when modern cars press a button to raise and lower it.  But the "roll" action lingers.  Admittedly, it's used a little more by older people than younger people like "icebox" for refrigerator is.  The two older terms will soon die out, probably in another 20 years or so.

The keepers of the stock market were rather stubborn as well.  It was the 21st century, April 9, 2001 to be exact, before Wall Street changed from using fractions to using decimals.  That could have happened easily a decade prior to the change, maybe even two.  But, it's the result of conditioning people receive.

So, when it comes to Leap Year, it's time for an update.  We've just been conditioned to think in terms of a leap year.  We have the capacity to think a little differently about a true year, and we certainly have the technology to calculate it accurately.  Everything would work out without a leap year if our days were extended by .9856262833675 of a minute each day.  How hard would that be?  Simple.

And who would notice the extension.  Clocks wouldn't have to change anything.  There are already 1440 minutes in a day.  It would take nothing to have 1440.9883321894303 minutes in a day.  Only the timing mechanisms would have to adjust by 59.299 seconds every day to make the change.  Then, there would be no need for leap years at all.  I'm really all for this change.

We could change the calendar too while we're changing things about time.  Who needs to have short and long months?  We have the technology to precisely and accurately change to having our days completely equal.  Every month would be the same length every year, year in and year out.  That would much better mirror what is happening with the Earth's revolution around the sun.  We could even adjust for the Earth's slight movement closer to the sun and account for a new revolution time in nanoseconds as well.  I guess that is a discussion for another day.

Today's blog is in honor of Leap Day for Leap Year.  I hope people become reconditioned soon and that timing of years changes post haste.  But, until then... Happy Leap Day 2016.