[LEAPSECS] What's the point?

[Tony Finch]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2011, Rob Seaman wrote:

>

> > UTC is not civil time anywhere,

>

> I understand that you wish to assert that local time == civil time.

> But you also assert that computer networks worldwide must be

> synchronized.  Is this latter somehow not a civil function?


"Civil" usually relates to a particular country. My civil time is not
the same as your civil time, neither is my civil service nor my civil
war. I would say that worldwide co-ordination is better described as
international rather than civil.

On the other hand, the OED says the "civil" in "civil time" is to
distinguish it from astronomical time, so the civil year has a whole
number of days unlike an astronomical day, and a civil day is not defined
by local apparent or mean solar time.

Tony.
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