[LEAPSECS] Conversational caffeine

[Rob Seaman]

On Jan 28, 2011, at 4:48 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


> In message <FE4F54AC-7E6B-4D3C-8A40-B2D67D69B4CF at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:

>> On Jan 28, 2011, at 4:17 PM, Warner Losh wrote:

>> 

>>> Sometimes I think we should define a second that's 1e-11 or so shorter so that the problems of leap seconds disappear into the noise for a generation or three, but I doubt that would fare any better than any of the other suggestions made...

>> 

>> It's been ignored since I suggested it in 2001:

> 

> You mean:  We realized 30+ years ago that rubber-seconds are totally unworkable.


No, I mean that the discussion has nothing to do with SI seconds:

	- The length-of-day on Earth has never been 86400 SI seconds long.

	- There are two different kinds of timekeeping.

	- It is the attempt to pretend otherwise that is causing the friction.

Rob