[LEAPSECS] Leap smear

[Warner Losh]

On Sep 20, 2011, at 9:51 AM, Gerard Ashton wrote:


> On 9/20/2011 11:24 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

>> In message<4E78AA49.5060100 at comcast.net>, Gerard Ashton writes:

>>> On 9/20/2011 5:53 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

>>> Earth orientation is one factor in the time of sunrise and sunset, and

>>> that is important

>>> at perhaps minute precision for many purposes, such as avoiding

>>> violation of laws

>>> regarding turning on automobile headlights, and the taking of game.

>> Show one single court-case, where the exact time of sunrise or

>> sunset has been a crucial factor, with a precision better than three

>> minutes, and I'll belive you.

>> 

> I have no way to document the hunters who refrained from taking a deer one minute after

> what the hunter believed to be the legal hunting hours expired.


The hunters in the US that I know that deal with sunrise/sunset laws deal with it by going "Yup, I could still see, sun must have been up." or "No, it was starting to get a little dark."  I don't know anybody that's out in the back country with sunrise/sunset tables and a watch that's accurate to more than 5 minutes unless they are using one of these new-fangled GPS receivers.

Then again the laws about hunting in the US that I'm familiar with tend to be dusk/dawn laws not sunrise/sunset laws.  Mostly because sunset is hard to observe in the bottom of a valley with irregular mountains all around, but dusk is easier to know (which likely explains the "heck, it ain't dark, I didn' t need a flashlight to see the deer well enough to shoot it" attitude).

Warner