New Year to Arrive Late

"The extra second is being added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) – the official world time, based on the performance of atomic clocks – to make it agree with astronomical time to within 0.9 second."

That means this year the countdown must go 3 - 2 - 1-1 ...Happy New Year!

All this is to ensure that the clocks stay in sync with the rotation of the earth which is slowing down or may speed up according to great upheavels on the planet, earthquakes and tsunamis included. Also, its rotatiom is being slowed down by the gravitational pull of the moon. Here's some more interesting facts.

A STITCH IN TIME (Sourced from timeonline.co.uk)

-Since 1967 a second has been defined by the vibration of the caesium-133 atom. One second equals 9,192,631,770 periods of the chosen vibration
-Although this was chosen to be as near as possible to Earth seconds, the Earth’s rotation is not as regular as the caesium atom
-Since 1972 22 leap seconds have been introduced, usually at midnight on December 31 but sometimes at the end of June
-If the rotation of the Earth accelerated — because of changes in fluid circulation in the core, for example — a second would be subtracted
-This possibility is hinted at by the long wait since the last leap second, in 1999
-Without correction, in 1,000 years the estimated difference would be an hour

So syncronize your watches guys, and wait that extra second before you wish someone.