The second (symbol: s) (abbreviated s or sec) is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). It is qualitatively defined as the second division of the hour by sixty, the first division by sixty being the minute. It is quantitatively defined in terms of a certain number of periods – about 9 billion – of a certain frequency of radiation from the caesium atom: a so-called atomic clock. Seconds may be measured using a mechanical, electric or atomic clock.

"Seconds" is the second track on U2's 1983 album, War. The track, with its recurring lyric of "it takes a second to say goodbye", refers to nuclear proliferation. It is the first song in the band's history not sung solely by Bono, as the Edge sings the first two stanzas.

There is a break of approximately 11 seconds in the song at 2:10 featuring a sample of a 1982 TV documentary titled “Soldier Girls”. Bono said that he was watching this documentary while he was waiting in the green room in Windmill Lane Studios and he recorded it. The band felt it would fit well into the song as unsettling evidence of soldiers training for an atomic bomb explosion.

Writing and inspiration

"'Seconds' is particularly pertinent today because it's about the idea that at some point someone, somewhere, would get their hands on nuclear material and build a suitcase bomb in an apartment in western capital. It was twenty years early but I wouldn't call it prophetic, I'd just call it obvious."

During his writer's block period in 1982, Bono felt it was lonely writing lyrics, so he asked the Edge to assist in writing, but the guitarist wasn't interested in such a goal. The Edge finally wrote the line It takes a second to say goodbye. Bono wrote the remainder of the lyrics. On the recording, the Edge sings the first verse of the song. Lyrics in the song about dancing to the atomic bomb is a reference to "Drop the Bomb," a song by Go-go group Trouble Funk, who were U2's labelmates on Island Records.

A minute of arc (MOA), arcminute (arcmin) or minute arc is a unit of angular measurement equal to one-sixtieth (1/60) of one degree. As one degree is 1/360 of a circle, one minute of arc is 1/21600 of a circle (or, in radians, π/10800). It is used in fields that involve very small angles, such as astronomy, optometry, ophthalmology, optics, navigation, land surveying and marksmanship.

The number of square arcminutes in a complete sphere is approximately 148,510,660 square arcminutes.

A second of arc (arcsecond, arcsec) is 1/60 of an arcminute, 1/3,600 of a degree, 1/1,296,000 of a circle, and π/648,000 (about 1/206,265) of a radian. This is approximately the angle subtended by a U.S. dime coin (18mm) at a distance of 4 kilometres (about 2.5 mi).

To express even smaller angles, standard SI prefixes can be employed; the milliarcsecond (mas), for instance, is commonly used in astronomy.

Symbols and abbreviations

The standard symbol for marking the arcminute is the prime (′) (U+2032), though a single quote (') (U+0027) is commonly used where only ASCII characters are permitted. One arcminute is thus written 1′. It is also abbreviated as arcmin or amin or, less commonly, the prime with a circumflex over it ().

E's (Japanese: エス, Hepburn: Esu) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and drawn by Satoru Yuiga. It was originally serialized in Monthly GFantasy from 1997 through 2005, and later published in 16 tankōbon volumes by Square Enix from March 18, 2003 to February 27, 2010. The series focuses on Kai Kudō, an "Esper", who is recruited by an organization called Ashurum to become a soldier to purportedly save other psychics from regular humans. After a mission in Gald goes wrong, Kai finds himself living with a man named Yuuki and his adopted sister Asuka. As he learns more about Ashurum, Kai finds himself wondering what their true goals are, and worrying about his ill sister, who is under Ashurum's care.

The series was adapted into a twenty-six episode anime series entitled E's Otherwise (エス·アザーワイズ) by Studio Pierrot. It debuted in Japan on April 1, 2003 on TV Tokyo; the final episode aired on September 23, 2003. Two light novels and three drama CDs related to the series have also been released in Japan.

The European Economic Area (EEA) provides for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the internal market of the European Union (EU) between its 28 member states, as well as three of the four member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Agreement is applied provisionally with respect to Croatia—the remaining and most recent EU member state—pending ratification of its accession by all EEA parties.

The EEA was established on 1 January 1994 upon entry into force of an agreement between the member states and the EU's predecessors, the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. EFTA states which join the EEA participate in the EU's internal market without being EU members, adopting almost all the relevant EU legislation other than laws regarding agriculture and fisheries. The EEA's "decision-shaping" processes enable them to influence and contribute to new EEA policy and legislation from an early stage.

A gigasecond (symbol: Gs) is 1 billion seconds, or roughly 31.558 years. Below is a table that lists times of between 1 and 1000 gigaseconds, or between 31.558 and 31,558 years. This timescale encompasses the whole of human history since the time of Cro-Magnon man.

1–10 gigaseconds