Re: [LEAPSECS] Wall Street Journal Article

From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk_at_haven.freebsd.dk>
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 10:12:35 +0200

In message <20050731074044.GA18447_at_ucolick.org>, Steve Allen writes:
>On Sun 2005-07-31T09:19:40 +0200, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ:
>> I don't hear the counter proposal from the astronomers to fix leap
>> seconds.
>
>They're not broken.

It was my distinct impression from reading
        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/dutc.html
that in a mere couple of thousand years, we will have more
than 12 leap seconds a year.

That sounds broken to me.

If for some reason astronomers don't think that is broken,
then I can't see the logic in claiming that a leap-hour 500
years down the road is broken.

>All the surveys which were taken in the past six years indicate that
>the majority of time users believe this to be the case. They also
>indicate that there is no consensus about whether there needs to be a
>change, let alone about what that change might be.

Right, and that's why the major industrial states are not doing
anything about global warming either: They're not sweating more
than they used to.

>> Is this discussion really just about astronomers trying to make
>> sure this doesn't happen in their lifetime, and if not, why are
>> there no counter proposals for a better solution ?
>
>When the Wall Street Journal reporter called them why did the
>proponents of abolition either provide the same old and unjustified
>explanations or avoid talking altogether?

He didn't call me.

--
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk_at_FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
Received on Sun Jul 31 2005 - 01:12:49 PDT

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