What's a leap second?

In case you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY missed it or if you were sleeping in the pancitan, there's going to be a leap second that will occur at the end of June (or the beginning of July, depending on where you're on), where an extra second will add so instead of 23:59,59 becoming 00:00:00 GMT, it's 23:59,59 becoming 23:59.60 GMT. Scary isn't it?

So, what's a leap second anyway? Little did you know that the planet Earth, as a clock, loses about 0.6 of a second every year as it fluctuates randomly. The first leap second occurred sometime in 1972 and there were about 25 leap seconds to be added to the calendar.

This little clip will sum everything up about what is a second and why leap seconds occured:

Another possible reason why Earth's losing seconds is because of the motion of the planet and according to some researchers that a powerful earthquake struck Japan in March 11, 2011 made the Earth speed up, shortening the day by just two microseconds. There's a little experiment about a man-made quake where a 50,000+ crowd asked by some presenter to jump at the same time during a certain concert. Here's a little clip that sums everything up;



Could it be that the recent quake struck Nepal months ago have shortened the day within a few microseconds? For me, I'm not so sure but some handful of geniuses have to find out for themselves but in the meantime, the leap second timetable;

Tokyo Time: 15/7/1 08:59:60
Los Angeles Time: 6/30/15 16:59:60
Manila Time: 7/1/15 07:59:60
London Time: 1/7/15 00:59.60

*Concerning London Time and Los Angeles Time, the actual start may differ from those due to "Daylight Saving Time" and "Summer Time" changes.