[LEAPSECS] Royal Society

[Peter Vince]

Steve's abbreviated quote gave me the impression that Mr.Whibberly of
the British National Physical Laboratory would be in favour of the
abolition of the leap-second - a stance which is the opposite to my
personal knowledge of his views until at least recently.  Can I
therefore quote that whole paragraph from the Nature article, where it
is clear he is saying the opposite:

==========================================================================

> Peter Whibberley, a physicist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, UK, says that

> despite ten years of debate, "there's no convincing evidence that anything serious would happen

> if you made a mistake introducing a leap second into a system". Abolishing leap seconds only

> defers any problems, he adds. "A century down the line, we'll need to introduce a 'leap minute',

> and nobody has any sensible arguments for why that won't be a worse issue."

==========================================================================

     Peter Vince  (London, England)


On 8 November 2011 20:45, Steve Allen <sla at ucolick.org> wrote:

> On Tue 2011-11-08T15:28:18 -0500, Dennis Ferguson hath writ:

>> > http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111108/full/479158a.html

>

>> I think it would be a bit more accurate if the writer had replaced

>> "a consensus" with "unanimity".

>

> I'll dare to paraphrase other quotes from that article.

> Arias:       "we're afraid"

> Lewandowski: "we're afraid"

>

> both of which contrast with the literal quote

>

> Whibberley: "there's no convincing evidence that anything serious would happen"

>

> I think the article author has noted a lack of ability to engage

> in rational discussion the details of any problems.

>

> --

> Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)

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