WBRZ - Baton Rouge

The independent state of Samoa is cancelling Friday. NBC Nightly News reports that Samoa is "syncing" with its two biggest business partners - New Zealand and Australia; linking to the eastern side of the International Date Line. The eastern side of the Line is today, the western side is tomorrow. As noted in a previous column, since 1972 an extra second has been inserted on the world clock to stay in sync with earth's rotation. Astronomers use star evaluations to monitor Earth's spin. New Year's Eve, 61 instead of 60 seconds will be added at Greenwich, England and at 5:59 pm, Baton Rouge time. In the past, ham radio operators have heard the correction and your personal computer, GPS receiver and radio controlled clocks will automatically adjust.