[LEAPSECS] (no subject)

[Rob Seaman]

On Dec 22, 2008, at 7:22 AM, Daniel R. Tobias wrote:


> On 22 Dec 2008 at 14:03, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

>

>> This does not fly because a lot of systems are legally mandated to

>> use the UTC timescale.

>

> And some laws in some places mandate Greenwich Mean Time, or lots of

> other things.  No matter what is done with time scales in the future,

> it's going to run contrary to somebody's laws somewhere.


One might also mention the usual example of attempting to legislate  
physical reality, the "Indiana pi bill":

	http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/crd/Localgov/Second%20Level%20pages/indiana_pi_bill.htm

It may be hard to believe (whatever countries we live in), but dig  
deep enough down through our interlocking systems of laws and treaties  
and you eventually reach some underlying model of physical reality :-)

Example:  If the ITU proposal were to attempt to relayer civil  
timekeeping on Earth onto the length of the Martian day, one can be  
confident they would fail.

The issue is how close is close enough?

Rob