[LEAPSECS] Coming of age in the solar system

[Rob Seaman]

On Sep 5, 2010, at 8:00 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


> Not as long as it is cheaper to fudge leap seconds some other way.


And there is the unstated assumption again, that not only could nothing bad possibly happen if leap seconds are ceased and DUT1 (implicit or explicit) grows without bound - but that nothing in our vastly complex social and technological fabric could conceivably depend on or benefit from mean solar time.

Oh!  Other than astronomy - the one and only place we've looked sufficiently well enough to know the answer.

Due diligence has not been satisfied.

There is no coherent proposal on the table.

Engineering flows from requirements to design.  No attempt to discover the system requirements has been made, because for a decade we've been doing nothing other than wrestling over insipid ITU politics.  Wrestling with people who are either unwilling to participate in this list, or are simply completely unaware of its existence.

Failure of imagination is a poor motivation for action.

Rob