[LEAPSECS] Computer Network Time Synchronization, 2nd Ed.

[Rob Seaman]

On Dec 6, 2011, at 4:57 PM, Warner Losh wrote:


> On Dec 6, 2011, at 3:55 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

> 

>> In message <D7FCDB4B-B92C-42B3-9ADC-7318A9514AEE at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:

>> 

>>> However, there is no escaping that synchronization with conventional human activities requires [...] in case of birth and death certificates UT1.

>> 

>> [...]

> 

> I wonder where he got the idea that death and birth certificates are UT1 too.


I continue to appreciate the opportunity to look into unexplored corners of human social systems that this list so uniquely provides.  If anybody here can comment authoritatively on the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child it would be appreciated.  Article 7 says "The child shall be registered immediately after birth..."  Just the fact that the Convention says "a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years" creates engineering requirements on dates and thus on time.

At any rate, presumably phrases like "the days of our lives" underlie Mills' choice of words.  See numerous previous messages about time-of-day and the connection between clocks and calendars.  The precise term of art used here, "UT1", is - of course - just an indication that *actual* time-of-day is required for some purposes.  He could have said "Greenwich Mean Time" or "Universal Time" for this concept.  Is it really somehow mysterious that our entry into the world and later exit from it should bear some relationship to the calendar date and thus time-of-day?  The chutzpah of the ITU to think themselves tasked with redefining such fundamental concepts is itself a marvel of human society.

I actually wrote none of the quoted words above.  I did, however, elide PHK's reply since Warner seemed to catch the essence of the position less abrasively.  PHK's choice of ellipsis on the other hand is just one key word: "UTC [or]", which is the entire essence of this mailing list.  The ITU, of course, wants to have their cake and eat it too by redefining UTC to no longer correspond to time-of-day.

Rob