[LEAPSECS] leap second media coverage

[John Hawkinson]

Rob Seaman <seaman at noao.edu> wrote on Mon, 24 Nov 2008
at 09:32:30 -0700 in <8AAA8597-D368-4464-860F-075545A49A72 at noao.edu>:


> 	"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.


More pertinently, live network TV broadcasts can be delayed by
differing small numbers of seconds by the different affiliates
who actually execute the broadcast. (I gather this is even worse
with digital television.)

I suppose we'd have to define what we mean by "simultaneously."
Within 100ms? 10ms?


> As far as a leap second itself, I'll resist exploring philosophical 

> distinctions about whether a representational frame shift actually 

> corresponds to an "event".


Well, we need not ask, "if a clock reads 23:59:60 in a forrest..."
since we do have strong confidence that people are watching :)

--jhawk at mit.edu
  John Hawkinson