[LEAPSECS] leap second media coverage

[Rob Seaman]

Steve Allen wrote:


> Here's an article on the upcoming leap second

>

> http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/One-More-Second.html


Hmmm.  The article is a bit more than the usual mix of banal truths,  
half-truths and untruths (but has those, too).  There is this  
observation:

	"The leap-second insertion may be the only human event that occurs  
simultaneously worldwide."

Can anybody think of any other candidates?  There are live TV  
broadcasts, but anybody from the U.S. Mountain time zone (and  
presumably from non-dominant time zones worldwide) can tell you that  
even supposedly live broadcasts are often delayed.  International live  
TV reaching a majority of countries must be rather rare.  Moon  
landing?  And can a broadcast from another world happen "worldwide"?

As far as a leap second itself, I'll resist exploring philosophical  
distinctions about whether a representational frame shift actually  
corresponds to an "event".

Rob Seaman
NOAO