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If you’re fretting that 2008 is about to end, and that another year has slipped by, don’t panic: You have some extra time on your hands. One second, to be precise.

On New Year’s Eve, the international authorities charged with keeping precise time will add a single second to our lives. It will be the 24th “leap second” since 1972, and the first since 2005.

If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, consider that in one second, a cheetah can dash 34 yards, a telephone signal can travel 100,000 miles, a hummingbird can beat its wings 70 times, and 8 million blood cells can die.

Every second counts. In the case of leap seconds, that is especially true.

Leap seconds are needed to reconcile two different ways of measuring time. Traditionally, humankind has reckoned time by the spin of the Earth and its orbit around the sun. Under this astronomical arrangement, a second is one-86,400th of our planet’s daily rotation. But because of tidal friction and other natural phenomena, that rotation is slowing by about two-thousandths of a second a day.

More precise measuring

Since the 1950s, however, atomic clocks

So at irregular intervals, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, based in Frankfurt, Germany, orders that the world’s atomic clocks be stopped for a second. This puts the two systems back in sync, at least until the next leap second.

“It’s an aesthetic thing more than anything,” said Geoff Chester, a spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory. “Life wouldn’t end if we eliminated the leap second.”

Life might be easier if we did. In the digital world, the smooth operation of everything from ATMs to the Internet depends on the exactly timed transmission of electronic data. Leap seconds can crash cellphones, GPS receivers, computer networks and other modern conveniences that have not been programmed to expect them. “Leap seconds turn out to be more of a pain in the neck than Y2K ever was,” Chester said.

That’s why the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), part of the U.N., has proposed ending the leap second. We could see the introduction of a “leap minute,” slipped in only once every century.

The idea has many critics. One is Judah Levine, a physicist at the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo. “A minute is an intolerably long period of time,” he said. “The only advantage is that it pushes the problem so far into the future that no one is worried about it.”

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip

After the initial airstrikes, which also wounded in all parts of 600 Palestinians, dozens of rockets struck south Israel. Thousands of Israelis cursory into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets, including some longer-range models that reached farther north than ever before. One man was killed in the town of Netivot and four were wounded, one seriously.

A military motion against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, had been forecast and demanded by Israeli officials for weeks, ever since a stubborn cease-fire between Israel and Hamas broke down early hold off month and rocket attacks began against Israel.

Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’sitting attacks, in broad daylight on about 100 sites, similar to police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market and children were emerging from school.

Rubble everywhere

The center of the city instantly became a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out adhering the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that kindred members could identify them.

The majority of those killed were Hamas police officers and security men, including two senior commanders, but the complete included construction workers and at smallest two children in school uniforms.

By afternoon, shops were shuttered, funerals began and mourning tents were visible adhering nearly every major street of this densely populated city.

“Hamas was warned a few times in a varied assortment of ways, but I can’t work out with care on the warnings,” said Maj. Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military. “Anything associated by Hamas is for us a legitimate target, including every apartment in that the basement is a arms storehouse. This operation is not finished further, but for now it involves only aircraft.”

Israeli airstrikes continued after dark, extraordinary a metal foundry and other targets in southern Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

Calls on both Israel and Hamas to refrain from further attacks were issued by Russia, Egypt and numerous governments in Western Europe, as well as the United Nations. The Bush administration urged Hamas to desist from firing off rockets, but called in continuance Israel only to avoid hitting civilians like it attacked Hamas.

Operation may expand

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It’s been a terrible year for the stock market, only a banner 12 months for misconduct, misguided reflection, and outrageous maneuvering in the mutual-fund business.

That’s why there’s plenty of material during the 2008 Lump of Coal Awards, presented to the mutual-fund industry’s pernicious little children, the ones who deserve nothing more than a bituminous bauble in their Christmas stocking this year.

Last week, this column dropped coal on some of 2008’s miscreants. Now it’s time for the rest. Bad results alone are not enough to earn the prize here: Lump of Coal Awards recognize managers, executives, firms, watchdogs and others for action, attitude, manner or performance that is bumbling, invading, disingenuous, reprehensible or straightforward plain stolid.

And the losers are:

Ardent supporters of exchange-traded funds

Category: The year’s most irrational exuberance.

With ordinary funds misery, many people touted the benefits of exchange-traded funds as an inherently better progress to be of service, as admitting that the ETF structure automatically made a pooled investment good. ETF estate ballooned as a result of this kind of reflection, peaking in mid-September, just in time for the market’s big deterioration.

Don’t get me tort, I love the ETF structure. But ETFs are not immune to the problems plaguing traditional funds, particularly when it comes to performance. For proof, give this: Since the first ETF was launched in 1989, according to Morningstar, the ETF industry collectively has produced a gin loss for investors. In other words, perspicuous all ETF investors together and, on the firm, the only ones to profit from the evolution of the exchange-traded foundation would be the firms creating the ETFs in the first place.

• Fidelity Investments

Category: Worst actor mixed big government bonds companies

Investors in actively managed funds come short their managers to outperform the benchmark when the going is real, and to lose less than the average in the peer group when the market is in the cistern. That’session particularly true at Fidelity, which has always prided itself on its stock-picking, hinting that it has an edge in any “stockpicker’s market” and having a richness track record end downturns to prove it.

In 2008, however, Fidelity stuck likewise a long time with a global growth strategy, and shareholders got slaughtered. Two-thirds of Fidelity’session 180 actively-managed domestic equity funds currently rank below their average predicament peer for the year; more than half of Fido’s international funds are in the same boat. Fido has 42 managers working on growth and growth-and-income funds, and 37 are lagging the S&P 500 this year.

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The recent sharp decline in the prime rate has lowered many credit-card rates.

Applying for a new credit card, however, shouldn’t subsist done lightly. Savvy consumers should find a deal that locks in the lowest rate.

A good place to comparison-shop is the Web. Several helpful sites way through card offers and provide use and responsibility information.

Here are a few places:

• Bankrate.com

www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/brm_ccsearch_advanced.asp

View credit-card price facts based in continuance especial criteria, such as location and card type.

• CardRatings.com

www.cardratings.com

Contains credit-card news and insights, and with little elevation rate ongoing and introductory deals.

• Comparecards.com

comparecards.com/credit-card-guide.html

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Ask The Fool

The long and short of brace trades

Q: What’s a “pair buy and sell”?

A: It’s the practice of making two akin trades at the same time.

One is a “long” position (i.e., buying a stock with the expectation that it will increase in value) and the other a “concise” position (where you borrow and sell a reserve you expect will fall, planning to buy it posterior portion later at a lower price).

The two securities will have a strong relation to each other.

For illustration, when the price of oil recently began falling, some people expected gold to rise.

If such, they may accept done some pair trading, buying gold-related securities and shorting oil-related ones.

My smartest investment

Didn’t hang up on this valuable phone invoke

Dear Fool: Years ago I bought 400 shares of Telefonos de Mexico for $1 per share on the approval of John Templeton.

It was soon worth less than a ten cents for part and wasn’t worth selling, with equal reason I hung on.

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The convey market is dealing a double-whammy to retirement hopes. Not solitary is it crushing the value of 401(k) plans, it’s also hurting pensions.

Pension plans among companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 director could end 2008 underfunded by a record $256.74 billion, according to S&P estimates. That would top the previous account of $218.51billion, set in 2002.

Rough recession recipe

What’s the worst kind of recession? The individual we’re in now, according to researchers at the International Monetary Fund.

After studying hundreds of recessions, credit crunches, housing busts and stock-market declines across the globe, they found that those associated with contracting regard and declining home values tend to be the deepest and longest.

Downturns with a severe credit crunch last an average of 4.3 quarters. A recession without one usually lasts just 3.6 quarters.

The January effect

It’s allotted period for party hats, New Year’sitting resolutions and a pleasing upswing for lower-quality investments.

High-yield “junk” bonds, on the side of example, have done better than the supersafe 10-year Treasury 67 percent of the time in January, according to Merrill Lynch adroit tactician Richard Bernstein. That compares with upright 50 percent of the adapt to the occasion the stand still of the year.

The January effect also shows up in developing-economy stocks, which reach the summit of global stocks overall 67 percent of the time in January, compared with 50 percent in other months.

The Associated Press

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Taking stock

Company stock is not the valuable currency it used to be. One device to carpenter’s gauge its value is to present a resemblance it with the price of one of its products. Here are three from Seattle.

• Starbucks

How many grande peppermint mocha twist frappuccinos, at $4.10 each, can you buy with one share of Starbucks standing?

• Nordstrom

A $148 Calvin Klein Satin Dress — with empire waist, braided straps and a low V-neck — is equal to how frequent shares of Nordstrom stock?

• Jones Soda

How many shares of Jones Soda does it take to buy a $1.19 bottle of Berry Lemonade?

Whiplash: How low did it go?

The Dow shot up or down by at least 100 points on 16 of November’s first 19 trading days before hitting on Nov. 20 what became its lowest cease of the year (from one side Friday). That was:

• A. 6,549.36

• B. 7,552.29

• C. 8,136.92

• D. 8,744.63

Make a big deal

Play Microsoft’s honor game

Microsoft generated more buzz over the naming of its next operating system. Which of the following is not a Windows operating body?

• A. XP

• B. NT 5.1

• C. Windows 7

• D. Safari95

Counting Dreamliners

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has had trouble taking over at the same time that scheduled, the latest dallying pushing it back to 2010. How many ecclesiastical office for the plane has Boeing booked, as of Dec. 1?

• A. 150

• B. 650

• C. 910

• D. 205

Pump it up

Gas prices hit any all-time great in 2008, before plummeting like the Dow. What was the highest average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the U. S.?

• A. $5.144

• B. $4.614

• C. $4.114

• D. $4.004

Spell out your alphabet broth

The financial meltdown boiled up an alphabet broth of acronyms that often appeared in the information. Name these.

CDO

CDS

TARP

FHA

Last dispute

How did you do on Biz Quiz 2008? Get the answers here.

Biz Quiz 2008 was compiled by The Seattle Times business staff.

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