Rob Seaman Jul 4, 2018
On Jul 4, 2018, at 8:52 AM, Bill Gray pluto@... [find_orb] <find_orb@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
(*) (Getting on my soapbox here; picture the following delivered as a
red-faced harangue, with spittle being sprayed over the first few rows.)
The claim is made that leap seconds are needed to provide a civil time
system that will stay in synch with the sun, to within +/- 0.9 seconds..
That claim is made, but then actual local civil time (the sort we use when
telling someone we'll meet them for a beer at 5:30 PM) is divided into
time zones, introducing a casually accepted half-hour error; then further
mangled with Daylight "Saving" Time by another hour. You never really
know when a local government will change zones or DST rules.
I see no need for _two_ levels of unpredictable, arbitrary time
mangling. Drop leap seconds, and leave UTC fixed relative to atomic
time. As the earth's rotation requires it, governments may decide,
a millennium or two from now, that clocks need not "spring ahead"
in their jurisdiction, in order to stay at least somewhat in synch
with the sun, to the same minimal degree that they currently do.
(OK, I'm getting off my soapbox. Thank you; I feel better now.)