[LEAPSECS] The relation between calendars and leap seconds.

[Steve Allen]

Standards and laws are commonly disregarded, especially when those
ignore the practicalities of reality.

Worrying about the effect on the documentation aspects of deployed
systems did not stop the CCIR from declaring a change to leap seconds
in 1970.

During the 1960s the CCIR was recommending that broadcast time be GMT,
but the US NBS broadcast the local time of the transmitters until 1967.

The legal time of the US was unequivocally established as based on GMT
in 1966, but the US NBS was already using what was called UTC and
started calling their broadcasts UTC in 1974.

If the broadcast/internet time scale is to be changed, I want to see
it changed in a way that is operationally better -- and as immune as
possible to misinterpretation.  Too many aspects about the name UTC
are tainted with practices that are confused and misinformed.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory        Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99855
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