[LEAPSECS] Meeting with Wayne Whyte

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <E1PkCoW-0005Fn-3U at grus.atnf.CSIRO.AU>, Mark Calabretta writes:


>OK Tom, I'm prepared to accept those odds.  I'll give you $16

>if you correctly predict the date of the next leap second, and

>you give me $850 if I predict the date of the next leap day.


And in extension of the previous discussion about words, I think
this provides us with the correct word to describe the deficiency
of the UTC timescale:  "unpredictable".

And anyone who cannot see a pythonesque dialogue in this needs a
humour-transplantation:

	A: Well, you see, we have this timescale called UTC, so that
	   we all can agree what time it is.

	B: Brilliant!  That sounds like a jolly good idea, what with
	   all the ships and planes and whats not.

	A: Yes, but there's a snag you see.  Due to an embarrasing
	   little misunderstanding in the past, we cannot tell how
	   long time there is to one year from now.

	B: Say again ? 

	A: Ehh, we sort of don't know how long a year is...

	B: Uhm, I mean, February has 28 days (counts on fingers) yes,
	   28 days, March has 31 days and so on, couldn't you just add
	   them up ?

	A: Ohh yes, no worries there, February and March are no problem
	   and May is fine too, as is July to November, but June and
	   December are a bit of a problem for us.

	B: (flips to the middle of his desk calendar, counts pages)
	   Just wanted to make sure, but it seems to me that that June
	   is 30 days, and as I recall so was it last year, right ?
	   In fact, I don't remember any year where june wasn't 30
	   days and I am pretty sure that good old Ms. Wormwood taught
	   me that this would generally be the case ?

	A: Yes, absolutely, 30 days, no doubt about that.
	   ...
	   It's more a sort of "how long are the days in June" or
	   to be more precise, "how long is the last day in June" ?

	B: Ohh, I see!  The God Ol' Bards troubling you isn't he ?
	   "Shall I compare the to a summers day" and all that ?

And so on...

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
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Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.