[LEAPSECS] leap seconds schedule prior to 1972

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
 |On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 8:17 AM, John Sauter <[1]John_Sauter at systemey\
 |escomputerstore.com[/1]> wrote:
 |I have proposed a schedule of leap seconds prior to 1972 based on the
 |Earth's rotation rate, which was deduced from ancient observations of
 |the Sun and Moon.  The complete paper is available on my web site, at 

 |[2]https://www.systemeyescomputerstore.com/proleptic_UTC.pdf[/2].

 |I both love and hate this.
 |I love it because the rules are clear and mechanical. This means
 |that it can be implemented relatively easily in code. I'd prefer simpler
 |rules, but it's a lot better than the 'surprise' model we have today. It
 |also show just how crazy leap seconds are given the crazy number
 |
 |  [2] https://www.systemeyescomputerstore.com/proleptic_UTC.pdf
 |
 |of leap seconds needed (see years -1000's for example).
 |I hate it because nobody did it. It's a complete artificial construct
 |that's different from modern UTC. Modern UTC isn't so neat. There's

One of the improvements that engineering brought into the world of
that sensitive animal with the brain that can be fooled so easily
via simple false sensory perceptions is that the logical
conclusions that very brain has phantasized and deduced from some
context that itself has often been only phantasized and deduced is
the exact justification that the mechanism of leap seconds
provides.  Other things still remain mysterious: how exactly do
trees know when they can dare to end the winter season, why do
sheeps that life free most often know when they can dare to give
life to their lambs?  For example, our (dozens of) sheeps did so
this weekend, which is almost five weeks earlier than last year.

So there a second doesn't really seem to matter, but the male homo
sapiens sapiens seems to prefer symbols of its virility: take the
piston engine (pistons pound up and down in a cylinder) which is
used in favour of the smooth Wankel (spinning triangle) or,
possible since decades (more or less, the tanks have become
leakproof, but with some will that wouldn't really have been
a problem, except for convenience of human, rather than
preservation of the earth), and would allow to concentrate
pollution in a few instead of millions and millions of places,
electrical wheel hub motors powered by fuel cells, rockets not
flying saucers, cigarettes not pipes or heavily triangular herb
bags, and whatever other figurative forms of what a male has in
his underwear there is available.

A world where men and women come together in front of large clocks
just to see the two inconspicuous and innocent numbers 6 and 0.
Without raising an arm, at least not promptly.
And scientists and engineers know how to.
Yesterday there was Stonehenge, today we know a bit better.
Why not move further and further away from the natural world?
I personally dislike that we don't have CLOCK_TAI in POSIX, and
that it isn't distributed and easily accessible.  If the potato
goes grazy you can well invent a leapsecond-couple, then the
girls and boys would see 6 and 1: also not bad.  I wonder what the
feelings were shall we need a ménage à trois in the end?
Ciao,

--steffen