2008-12-31

Happy "New" Year

The earth is a spinning ball of rock, metals, and gas, rotating around a continuous mass fusion reaction. That orbital rotation takes approximately 365 days, 5 hours, and 56 minutes to complete one full cycle.

At the same time, the center of the orbit, what we call the "Sun", is moving through space, both orbiting around the center of the galaxy and moving with the galaxy through the stretches of the universe.

There is, literally, no point in our motion where we are "back where we started". At no point is the Earth ever in the same place twice. Even if we only count the orbit around the sun, friction causes slight changes in velocity and, thus, orbital distance.

The arbitrary designation of a single day of the year as being the "end" or 'beginning" may be appealing but has no functional value.

Add to that, this year we're going to have a 12/31/2008 23:59:60 (adding a second) to account for the disparities between our calendar system and the actual rotation.

So, eat, drink, and be merry - tomorrow's not really all that different from today. It's only in the mind that any significance exists.

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