So on June 29th, 2022, did you say to yourself, wow, that day went by fast?

You were right, it was really one of the shortest days since the planet's rotation began

being measured with the atomic clocks in the 1960s.

It completed one spin, the Earth being it, in 1.59 milliseconds shy of the typical

24 hours just on June 29th, though.

So if you felt that that day went by faster, you were right.

Now the Earth has been consistently shorter in the past few years.

Earth's spin has actually been slowing down over time, causing the days to get longer

rather than shorter.

Back, I don't know, a billion years ago or so, a single day would pass in less than 19

hours.

The United Nations International Telecommunication Union, who doesn't love the United Nations

International Telecommunications Union, they will occasionally add seconds to the world

clock in June or December to make up for the longer days.

And they did it back in 2016, I remember talking about that as a matter of fact.

And they claim that it's probably unlikely that they're going to be doing it this December,

but they also claim that the trend of shorter days could be explained by a phenomenon

known as the Chandler Wobble.

I mean, I don't mean to talk down to you, but who doesn't know about the Chandler Wobble?

At the annual meeting of the Asia Oceana Geosciences Society next week, I'm a little bummed.

I didn't get my invitation to the Asia Oceana Geosciences Society meeting, and now I've got

something else planned.

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