[LEAPSECS] (no subject)

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <006D7A34-31D9-4492-9014-667C7B92612C at ucolick.org>
            Steve Allen <sla at ucolick.org> writes:

: I want to know why I should give up the notion of civil time being

: based on mean solar time, for myself and for posterity.


Leap-seconds, as implement, are unworkable.  You can see long messages
from me in the past enumerating the reasons relating to systems,
especially systems disconnected from the internet...

Leap-seconds, the concept, have a limited shelf life.  Maybe only a
few thousands years.  So there's nothing really to preserve.  One day
they must be abandoned.

As soon as we fixed the length of a second based on atomic behavior
rather than as 1/86400th of a mean solar day, we really abandoned time
based on mean solar time.  Leap seconds are at best a hack to paper
over this fundamental decision.

Warner