Latest news with #Agnew
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Earth is spinning faster and scientists fear a Y2K-like Doomsday
Earth is spinning faster than usual this summer, raising concerns among scientists about potential disruptions to global timekeeping systems — with fears reminiscent of the Y2K scare . According to a CNN report citing data from the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the US Naval Observatory, July 10 was the shortest day of the year so far, clocking in 1.36 milliseconds under the standard 24 hours. More short days are expected on July 22 and August 5. The Earth's rotation isn't perfectly consistent. Factors like lunar gravitational pull, seasonal atmospheric shifts, and the motion of the planet's liquid core cause slight variations in the length of a day. While the changes are typically imperceptible in daily life, even millisecond discrepancies can affect technologies that rely on hyper-accurate timing — such as telecommunications, satellite systems, and financial networks. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Data Analytics healthcare Technology Finance Project Management Data Science Management Public Policy others Design Thinking Data Science Healthcare Leadership Artificial Intelligence Others Digital Marketing Product Management Cybersecurity PGDM Degree CXO MBA MCA Operations Management Skills you'll gain: Data Analysis & Visualization Predictive Analytics & Machine Learning Business Intelligence & Data-Driven Decision Making Analytics Strategy & Implementation Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business Applied Business Analytics Starts on Jun 13, 2024 Get Details To maintain precise time, atomic clocks — which have been used since 1955 — track time to an extraordinary level of accuracy. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), used worldwide, is based on atomic clocks. If Earth's rotation falls out of sync with UTC, leap seconds are added to bring them back into alignment — a process that's occurred 27 times since 1972. However, as Earth's spin has been accelerating, no leap second has been added since 2016. Scientists are now warning that a negative leap second — subtracting a second instead of adding one — may be required as early as 2035. 'There's never been a negative leap second,' physicist Judah Levine told CNN, but the chances of it happening are now around 40%. Such a move could wreak havoc, especially since many systems still struggle with positive leap seconds even after five decades. A negative leap second, never before implemented, could cause failures across systems that depend on stable, continuous time — evoking comparisons to the Y2K bug. Interestingly, climate change may be buying time. The CNN article, citing a study published last year by Agnew in the journal Nature, claimed that melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica is redistributing mass across the planet, subtly slowing Earth's spin and counteracting the speed-up. Live Events Benedikt Soja, an assistant professor at The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, told CNN that if warming continues, "the effect of climate change could surpass the effect of the moon, which has been really driving Earth's rotation for the past few billions of years.' 'I think the (faster spinning) is still within reasonable boundaries, so it could be natural in a few years, we could see again a different situation, and long term, we could see the planet slowing down again. That would be my intuition, but you never know,' Soja added.
India Today
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Jofra Archer dons commentator's hat after proving critics wrong at Lord's
Jofra Archer's return to Test cricket wasn't just about pace and wickets—it was also laced with a challenge against Jonathan Agnew and how the pacer ultimately had the last his long-awaited red-ball comeback after more than four years, Archer reminded everyone of his class by picking up five crucial wickets in the Lord's Test against India. Clocking speeds above 90mph and bowling nearly 40 overs in the match, he silenced critics who had doubted his ability to return to the longest vs IND, 3rd TEST HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD But it wasn't just Archer's performance that made headlines. It was also his fashion choice—a simple blue round hat—that sparked curiosity and conversation. That hat, as it turns out, was much more than an gesture was directed at Agnew, the former England cricketer-turned-BBC commentator, who had famously wagered with Ben Stokes back in 2022 that Archer would never play another Test. At the toss on Day 1 at Lord's, Agnew lived up to his word by handing over his hat to Stokes in front of the Archer? He made sure to complete the circle, appearing for an interview with Agnew while wearing the very same hat. It was quiet, cheeky revenge—served with a his last Test in early 2021, Archer's career had been clouded by serious injuries—stress fractures in his elbow and back forced multiple surgeries and long rehab spells. Though he gradually returned in white-ball formats, his path to red-ball cricket was carefully monitored by England's medical Lord's, Archer proved he was ready. Dismissing Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar in the tense final innings, he played a pivotal role in defending a modest total and securing a win for performance was vintage Archer—hostile, skilful, and high-impact. And with the hat on his head and five wickets under his belt, he sent a clear message: he's not done with Test cricket just fans will now hope the man in the blue hat stays fit—for this comeback may just be the start of a new chapter.- EndsMust Watch
Yomiuri Shimbun
12-07-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
For A Few Days This Summer, Your Days Will Be Just A Smidge Shorter
You're not running late – Earth is just moving faster, at least for a few days this summer. On July 22, Earth will spin about 1.38 milliseconds faster than its typical 86,400 seconds in a day. If that's not quick enough, Earth will rotate 1.51 milliseconds faster on August 5. Those numbers are calculated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, according to The IERS tracks Earth's orientation in space and schedules leap seconds, which are added to help keep our clocks synchronized with astronomical time (when Earth moves a bit more sluggish). People already experienced a shorter day on July 9 – but maybe didn't know it because it's only 1.3 milliseconds faster. The fastest day since the introduction of the atomic clock occurred on July 5, 2024, when the day was truncated by 1.66 milliseconds. 'Since we are talking [about] 1 millisecond, it's not something you'd notice,' Duncan Agnew, geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, said in an email. But while the changes may not register to people, scientists track them to keep our technology accurate, including GPS systems that tells us where exactly we are. Shorter days happen from time to time. They tend to occur during the summer, when Earth spins faster than other times of the year, Agnew said. But there's also added boosts on these days from the moon and maybe even mysterious processes in Earth's core. During the summer, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, which minimizes the difference in temperature between the equator and Earth's poles. This smaller temperature variation slows down the jet stream – a narrow band of strong winds around 30,000 feet above us – and moves it northward. (The slower jet stream also explains why storms are more sluggish during the summer in the northern hemisphere.) To recall a lesson from physics class, the angular momentum in this Earth-atmosphere system is conserved. When the atmosphere begins moving slower, Earth's rotation speeds up. But some days are even shorter than the rest, thanks to the moon. Agnew explained that the moon isn't perfectly aligned with Earth's equator, orbiting on an incline. It travels over the equator twice a month and also travels overhead at higher and lower latitudes twice a month. The moon reaches its most extreme north and southern positions about every 18.6 years – called a lunar standstill – which is occurring in 2024 and 2025. On July 22 and Aug. 5, the moon will be close to its peak angle, 28 degrees, to Earth. The steeper angle causes Earth to rotate faster. 'So twice a month, when the Moon is North or South, it spins faster,' said Agnew. That's important information to know for GPS operators, for instance. GPS determines accurate positioning by sending signals from satellites to receivers on Earth. To do so, it relies on precise measurements of Earth's rotational speed. If a GPS system doesn't account for a faster rotation at a particular time, then it may arrive to a point on the ground earlier than expected and create positioning errors. Earth's spin has varied throughout its history. When Earth was first formed and the moon was closer, days were much shorter. Days were 19 hours long for about 1 billion years. As the moon has drifted away from us, our more recent days have been some of the longest in history. 'Out of the trillion days or so of the Earth's existence, almost all have been shorter: very very roughly, maybe 100,000 have been longer,' said Agnew. 'It's just that the long days have all been recent.' Some processes like the melting of the ice sheets may have contributed to slowing down Earth's rotation, too. The meltwater is moving toward the equator, making our planet bulkier and rotate slower. Even as Earth is moving much slower than historical timelines, Earth's rotation has mysteriously been speeding up in recent decades. Agnew said the boost could be due to processes deep within our core, which is hard to confirm or predict because of limited observations. Given all the factors, it's also hard to know if Earth will continue to speed up or tap the brakes in upcoming years. At the end of the day, all we can do is make the most out of 86,400 seconds, give or take.
The National
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Tory councillor suspended over 'inappropriate' Travellers comment
The Conservative suggested that 'Gypsies are not British people' at a Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting back in November 2023. Her comments were made during discussions around plans to change the use of the Findon Park football pitch near Portlethen into a camp. The issue flared up due to the retrospective nature of the application being voted on. Mrs Agnew suggested this showed a willingness to ignore rules on behalf of the applicants. READ MORE: Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell granted legal aid in embezzlement case She said: 'If they're ignoring this, they may ignore other things. That's my problem.' When pressed by colleagues to retract her remarks, she added: 'I don't want to refute it. Anything could happen there. That's all. It's slightly worrying to me. 'And I'm not saying it's just because they're Gypsies. It would be the same if they were British people. I'd be worried about this massive site. That's all.' The incident sparked some controversy and resulted in Mrs Agnew stepping down as committee chairwoman in the aftermath. By standing down she lost out on an extra £10,000 each year. Now more than 18 months later, she has faced standard watchdogs. An investigation has now been carried out by the ethical standards commissioner. The Stonehaven member faced the Standards Commission today. Ethical standards commissioner Ian Bruce said: 'The respondent made inappropriate comments about Gypsy Travellers and the appropriateness of granting a retrospective planning application for a site, including insinuating that they are not British. 'This was deemed a failure to treat everyone with courtesy or respect, and also a failure to advance equality of opportunity.' At the meeting, Mrs Agnew stressed she didn't 'feel hatred' towards gypsy travellers and blamed her comments on 'clumsy language'. The councillor also argued she had 'no intent to be disrespectful'. Before the recording of the fateful 2023 meeting was shared on YouTube, it had been edited to remove Mrs Agnew's comments. READ MORE: Ryanair cancels more than 800 flights due to conflict in the Middle East The council's head of legal and people, Karen Wiles, admitted this had been done to prevent the local authority from facing any potential legal challenges. She said: 'It was apparent to me that people of a Gypsy Traveller community may have seen themselves as being differentiated from British people. 'That could be offensive since the two terms are not mutually exclusive.' Standards Commission member and chairwoman of the hearing panel, Helen Donaldson, said members found Mrs Agnew had treated the applicant 'less favourably' because she was a Gypsy Traveller. They based this on Mrs Agnew's suggested knowledge of unauthorised use of a different site and an assumption that Travellers were 'more likely to breach planning conditions'. Ms Donaldson added: 'The provisions that state councillors … must avoid any perception that they are not acting fairly and without bias when making decisions on quasi-judicial matters. READ MORE: LIVE: Latest updates as MPs vote on proscribing Palestine Action 'The panel noted that a failure to comply with the code's provisions in this regard can have a detrimental impact on the right of an applicant to be treated fairly, and can erode public confidence in the role of a councillor. 'Such a failure also had the potential to bring the committee, the council and its decisions into disrepute and open it up to the risk of a successful legal challenge.' Members then decided to hand the Stonehaven councillor a two month suspension. This means she will not be allowed to attend any meetings or represent Aberdeenshire Council during this time.
STV News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- STV News
Councillor suspended after making 'inappropriate' comments about Gypsy Travellers
A Stonehaven councillor has been suspended for two months after she was found to have made 'inappropriate' comments about Gypsy Travellers. Wendy Agnew was thought to have suggested that 'gypsies are not British people' at a Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting back in November 2023. Her comments were made during discussions around retrospective plans to change the use of the Findon Park football pitch near Portlethen into a Gypsy Travellers site. The incident sparked some controversy and resulted in Agnew stepping down as committee chairwoman. A councillor colleague made a complaint about her comments the following month and an investigation was carried out by the ethical standards commissioner. In April, the Standards Commission was sent a report that suggested that Agnew had breached the Councillor's Code of Conduct. The Stonehaven member faced the Standards Commission on Tuesday to face the consequences of her comments. Ethical standards commissioner Ian Bruce said: 'The respondent made inappropriate comments about Gypsy Travellers and the appropriateness of granting a retrospective planning application for a Gypsy Traveller site, including insinuating that they are not British. 'This was deemed a failure to treat everyone with courtesy or respect, and also a failure to advance equality of opportunity and to seek to foster good relations between different people.' Aberdeenshire Council Wendy Agnew, Aberdeenshire Council At the meeting, Agnew admitted she didn't 'feel hatred' towards Gypsy Travellers and blamed her comments on 'clumsy language'. The councillor also stated that she had 'no intent to be disrespectful'. Before the recording of the meeting was published online to YouTube, it had been edited to remove Agnew's comments. The council's head of legal and people, Karen Wiles, admitted this had been done to prevent the local authority from facing any potential legal challenges. She said: 'It was apparent to me that people of a Gypsy Traveller community may have seen themselves as being differentiated from British people. 'That could be offensive since the two terms are not mutually exclusive.' Standards Commission member and chair of the hearing panel, Helen Donaldson, said members found Agnew had treated the applicant 'less favourably' because she was a Gypsy Traveller. They based this on Agnew's suggested knowledge of unauthorised use of a different site and an assumption that travellers were 'more likely to breach planning conditions'. Ms Donaldson added: 'The provisions that state councillors must be respectful, must foster good relations between different people and must avoid any perception that they are not acting fairly and without bias when making decisions on quasi-judicial matters, such as planning applications, are key requirements of the Councillors' Code. 'The panel noted that a failure to comply with the code's provisions in this regard can have a detrimental impact on the right of an applicant to be treated fairly, and can erode public confidence in the role of a councillor. 'Such a failure also had the potential to bring the committee, the council and its decisions into disrepute and open it up to the risk of a successful legal challenge.' The panel found that Agnew had breached paragraphs 3.1, 3.2, 7.4a, 7.4c and 7.5a of the councillor's code of conduct. Members then decided to hand the Stonehaven councillor a two-month suspension. This means she will not be allowed to attend any meetings or represent Aberdeenshire Council during this time. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
