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A huge quake rupturing the Earth’s crust, heavy snow in Siberia, even high winds in the Andes Mountains can alter the planet’s rotation and change time, even by a single second.

And for people like retired Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomer Skip Newhall, a second is a big deal – big enough that he’s planning his first, and possibly last, “leap second” party today at his Valencia home to note the extra blink of the clock between 3:59:59 and 4:00:00p.m. local time.

“We’re going to have 30, 35 people,” Newhall said Friday. “I’ve got three different time read-outs. One will have a 60 in the second spot – clocks don’t usually do that – and I have a couple of clocks that aren’t going to read right.

“I’m going to have everyone give a chorus of `boos’ for those.”

(and here is what Bill O’Reilly thinks of leap seconds…)