Time Is Of the Essence

Does the amount of time spent chewing bubble gum affect the size of the bubble? 

Will crawling into a large, empty cage at a pet store and growling at people as they approach get you jail time?  Or maybe a job?

If you cut your lawn with your electric power-mower, but don't plug it in, will that get you nominated for a Green Award - reducing noxious fumes while saving time and energy?

For parents who very shortly after school lets out for the summer will hear “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do” there’s three suggestions. 

Time will drag. Killing time won’t be murderous but a must, especially now that we may have an extra second to deal with.

This past January in Geneva, 700 delegates spent a good deal of time discussing the significance of a single second - one tick of the clock. Seven hundred delegates from about 70 nations attended a meeting of the United Nations telecommunications agency as to whether to abolish the leap second.

According to the New York Times article reporting on the event, “The leap second is tacked on once every few years to synchronize atomic clocks — the world’s scientific timekeepers.” 

Yeah, so what’s the big deal? It’s only a second. 

“The United States is the primary proponent for doing away with the leap second, arguing that the sporadic adjustments, if botched or overlooked, could lead to major foul-ups if electronic systems that depend on the precise time — including computer and cellphone networks, air traffic control and financial trading markets - do not agree on the time.”

“Now wait just a second,” I would have said had I been a delegate to the conference, leaping to my feet to address the leap second while waving my wrist-watched hand.  “Are you saying we’ve got some seconds to save if we abolish a second every few years because if that’s true then we’ve no time to lose!”

Although upon second thought ...    

Actually we evidently do have a lot of time to lose.  If you are Joe-average, you spend eight hours per month on Facebook; another 32 hours each month on the Internet; and a whopping 120 hours during the month watching TV, for a total of 160 hours every 30 days.

That’s more time wasted per month – nearly five times more - than volunteering in the neighborhood, cleaning house, playing with the kids, and educating your mind combined (6, 19, 6 and 4.5 respectively)! 

And for husbands who say their wife doesn’t listen to them, well, that’s what they say they spend 48 percent of their time doing.  Then again there’s the other half.

So back to the are-bubbles-bigger-if-bubble-gum-is-chewed-longer question: what’s the answer?

Give me a second.