SO much happened in 2008 that, to some people, it might have seemed like a longer year than normal. Actually, it was. The year was in fact one second longer than usual after scientists added a “leap second” to keep clocks ba lanced. The US Naval Observatory, which measures time with atomic clocks, needed to lengthen the year because the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. If they didn’t do this, over many years time would fall out of sync. There are no plans to add another second to 2009, so if it feels like this year just flies by, you’ll know why.