[LEAPSECS] Cost: getting rid of GMT & discontinuing leap seconds

[Brian Garrett]

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From: "Rob Seaman" <seaman at noao.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2010 4:53 PM
To: "Leap Second Discussion List" <leapsecs at leapsecond.com>
Subject: Re: [LEAPSECS] Cost: getting rid of GMT & discontinuing leap 
seconds


>(snipped in fulfillment of Abrahamic covenant)

> The heart of my argument remains that civil timekeeping is mean solar 

> time.  Astronomers are just caught in the crossfire.

>

> Rob

>


More accurately, civil timekeeping is sorta kinda like mean solar time.  For 
now.

There's no reason that couldn't change.  If legislators were somehow to be 
convinced that TAI or GPS time were the way to go, then that's what they'd 
impose and that's what _hoi polloi_ would use.
Indeed, I can totally imagine how that could happen, especially since they 
already think imposing an offset of 216000 seconds for seven months out of 
the year is a good idea.

Anybody who uses UTC professionally and does not live in a place where UTC 
is the local zone time has already divorced themselves from local mean solar 
time.  So has any location that uses summer/daylight saving time.
The time is whatever TheyT say it is, and for the unwashed masses that's 
true for all values of $THEY whether it be ITU-R or one's elected officials. 
Astronomers (and the rest of you in the washed minority :-)) may be caught 
in the middle, as you say, but no more so than farmers or anybody else who 
doesn't like the sun rising or setting an hour earlier than it should.


Brian Garrett