alt Hacker NewsInteresting! There's a lot I don't know about this, but I know a little more now. I'll admit, I naively thought this would be more regular than it appears to be [0].
Replies
butILoveLife • yesterday at 4:01 PM
They teach us Scientific Realism in school, but reality is that we are really using Instrumentalism.
That said, no one wants to admit it, so contemporary science follows Falsification, where we find ways to not actually make claims about reality. (Which as an Instrumentalist/pragmatist, I love Karl Popper, its just not metaphysical truth. And that would break Popper's heart)
➕ show 3 replies
The Earth is generally expected to spin more slowly over time, due to tidal friction. But it has been spinning faster and faster since the 1960s. As shown in the figure in the wikipedia article [0].
I have read numerous explanations, but haven't found a really authoritative discussion.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second#Rationale