more on Re: [IP] Leap second fight brewing
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jonathan Thornburg <jthorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 29, 2005 12:12:52 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jonathan Thornburg <jthorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [notspam] Re: [IP] Leap second fight brewing
The US has secretly proposed abolishing the leap second (that is
ocassionally added as the earth slows its rotation) claiming "safety"
reasons. Evidently this is at the behest of special interests whose
software is unable to deal with the additional second.
For a good overview of leap seconds, their advantages, and their
disadvantages, see
R. A. Nelson et al,
"The Leap Second: Its History and Possible Future"
Metrologia volume 38 (2001), pages 509-529
There's a free copy of this at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/time/metrologia-leapsecond.pdf
as well as a subscription-only copy at the journal's web site,
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0026-1394/38/6/6/me1606.pdf
ciao,
--
-- Jonathan Thornburg <jthorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-
Institut),
Golm, Germany, "Old Europe" http://www.aei.mpg.de/~jthorn/
home.html
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
-- quote by Freire / poster by
Oxfam
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