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U.S. Moves to Kill Leap Seconds
blacklite001 writes "Not content with merely extending Daylight Savings Time, the U.S. government now also proposes to eliminate leap seconds, according to a Wall Street Journal story. Their proposal, 'made secretly to a United Nations body,' includes adding 'a "leap hour" every 500 to 600 years.'
Hey, anyone remember the last bunch of people to mess with the calendar?"
... 'cause we've got the bomb!
Disclaimer: This refering to a quote, don't 'troll' me because you don't know Denis Leary.
Mind the frickin' laser...
Exactly. Perfect 24-hour days would result in time drift similar to cheap PC RTC chip (relative to actual astonomical time that is). Tweaking by a leap second now and then is far less disruptive than tweaking by an hour every 500-600 years (not that it will be any of OUR problems). If there were going to be radical changes made to timekeeping, I expect that decimal time would be the top candidate. Have they thought about redefining the length of a second (and consequently minute, hour) to achieve these perfect 24-hour days? ...usual short-sighted thinking by the Americans.
This reminds me of the space probe NASA lost due to confusion over metric/imperial measurements - http://www.space.com/news/orbiter_error_990930.htm l
Do we really trust America to mess with standards?
Drink some ball you fat Euro-trash bitches.
Logistically, it is a nightmare the way it is. Operation of space-based assets is a particular problem. Many of them need millisecond (if not microsecond) clock accuracy for pointing and position information. These usually feed data into custom software that can be quite old. In some cases the systems are old enough that the source code may not exist. Workarounds are a pain to implement. It should be pretty safe to assume that adding a leap hour 500 years from now won't have these problems.
-- Instant Karma's gonna get you! [320848 = 2*2*2*2*11*1823]
When I navigate using a compass (yes, some of us still do) I need to know the difference between magnetic north and true north. This figure is either subtracted or added to my compass bearing so that I get to my destination.
All the astronomers need to do is know the difference between UTC and the true time then either add or subtract it. I'm sure that this could be done within the software that manages the positioning of the telescope.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
Hey, anyone remember the last bunch of people to mess with the calendar?
Withouth bothering to follow the link, I'd guess that'd be the Committee for Public Safety, yes?
What a nice, anti-terrorist sound that name has.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
That's a bit confusing. Well, it's not secret anymore, so I guess it's now a national security issue for USA, and the War Against Inaccurate Time can now start being advertised on FOX News.
It's beyond me why anyone would want this. Why are they sacrificing day rythm accuracy for this? There must be some major problems as it is now, as, well, hour accuracy can be a *cough* little important to maintain... It never crossed anyone's minds that we've so far made second adjustment for it to not grow too large? The article says:
The plan would simplify the world's timekeeping by making each day last exactly 24 hours. Right now, that's not always the case.
Simplify for whom? Grr, so annoying with articles like these that don't even answer the most obvious questions arising from it. This minor adjustment is by far outweighed by most regular clocks' inaccuracy, and for those running atomic clocks, gee, a work that takes place once a year. What's the problem? You haven't heard a bit from them telling that this has been an issue before.
Also, I think I'm soon going to start a petition to legalize killing people who use "kill" in article titles to make them look more cool and exciting. Good luck in killing any kind of seconds. I'm sure they'll fight against you furiously and recommend a shotgun.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
In other news, Bush thinks that "pi = 3" is "close enough for Jesus".
--
make install -not war
My view on all this DST and Leap Second arguement is... let them, why the hell do we care?
So what if the ignorant Bush Administration wants to change time - is there going to be a penalty if we ignore them? Let them have their own time standard - fine. Who the fuck cares. We'll simply go on using the RIGHT and PROPER time, not some stupid time made-up by politicians who are only swayed by lavish gifts from special intrest groups.
What, are the FBI going to break down our doors and haul us off for using the wrong time?
This is the thing I don't get... nobody is going to FORCE us to change the time of our computers or our telescopes. What, is there now going to be a little winding button on our atomic clocks so we can 'adjust' them to match BUSH TIME? I don't think so.