WSJ: Why the U.S. Wants To End the Link Between Time and Sun - Astronomers Say Wait a Sec

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 29, 2005 | KEITH J. WINSTEIN

[OESY]

What time is it when the clock strikes half past 62?

Time to change the way we measure time, according to a U.S. government proposal that businesses favor, astronomers abominate and Britain sees as a threat to its venerable standard, Greenwich Mean Time.

Word of the U.S. proposal, made secretly to a United Nations body, began leaking to scientists earlier this month. The plan would simplify the world's timekeeping by making each day last exactly 24 hours. Right now, that's not always the case.

Because the moon's gravity has been slowing down the Earth, it takes slightly longer than 24 hours for the world to rotate completely on its axis. The difference is tiny, but every few years a group that helps regulate global timekeeping, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, tells governments, telecom companies, satellite operators and others to add in an extra second to all clocks to keep them in sync. The adjustment is made on New Year's Eve or the last day of June.

But adding these ad hoc "leap seconds" -- the last... in 1998 -- can be a big hassle for computers operating with software programs....

On Jan. 1, 1996, the addition of a leap second made computers at Associated Press Radio crash and start broadcasting the wrong taped programs. In 1997, the Russian global positioning system, known as Glonass, was broken for 20 hours after a transmission to the country's satellites to add a leap second went awry. And in 2003, a leap-second bug made GPS receivers from Motorola Inc. briefly show customers the time as half past 62 o'clock.

...Because of these problems, the U.S. government last year quietly proposed abolishing leap seconds to the International Telecommunications Union, the U.N. body that tells the Earth Rotation Service how to keep time....

[rudy45]

Aren't you getting a little tired of the hackneyed "it's Bush's fault" sarcasm mantra in every damned thread?

lol not at all lol; in fact I like to see how quickly it shows up

[Willie Green]

The question here is whether we want to say 24 hours is equal to an earth's rotation, equal to 1/365.25 of a trip around the sun, or to always be the same amount of time regardless of the earth's and the sun's tiny variations..

The only reason this question has come up is that the transnational beancounters can't cope with a few nano-seconds of "lost" compound interest.

[jammer]

lol.

[Willie Green]

Willie, if you want to be a provocateur, you gotta be able to take some lumps without getting personal.

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

-- Teddy Roosevelt in the "Kansas City Star", May 7, 1918

I suggest that you review which thin-skinned "troll" was the first to launch a personal attack.

[Tennessee_Bob]

You mean right now?

No...now...now...now...now...now...now...

[narby]

Quoting TR now. I just knew you were a 19th century kind of guy.

[BikerNYC]

The proposal calls for adding a "leap hour" every 500 to 600 years to compensate for sunrise getting later over time.

I don't like it. It's really going to screw my day up. I mean I am sure to lose track of when to pick the kids up.

[tutstar]

PING

[narby]

The only reason this question has come up is that the transnational beancounters can't cope with a few nano-seconds of "lost" compound interest.

Willie, you're such a commie. Love the unions and hate the management.

[Incorrigible]

Hey! I'm with you Willie! I enjoy your replies. But if someone attacks you, you should be prepared to not fire back so it doesn't escalate.

Escalated personal spats lead to bannings and it would bum me out if you and Mike got banned.

[Willie Green]

Quoting TR now. I just knew you were a 19th century kind of guy.

Well it's easy to see why you can't cope with a "leap second", narby.
Look at the date on the quote.
Cripes, you can't even get the century right. LOL!!!

[MikefromOhio]

I suggest that you review which thin-skinned "troll" was the first to launch a personal attack.

Ohh I'm the troll now? LOL That's HILARIOUS!!! I guess you aren't a troll. You're just funny. L O L!!!!!

[Incorrigible]

Hmmm. I'm with you yes but I should perhaps point out that I disagree with 98% of your posts but I do enjoy the occasional humorous joust!

Especially about trains!

[IYAAYAS]

Back in the day when I worked at a LORAN-c master control station it was always great fun to do time shifts. We would have to "move" ten LORAN stations a few thousand microseconds using 300baud modems, and then try to find the signal again on 20 receivers spread all over North America. Everything would then need to be realigned into a 20 nanosecond window. We would then spend the rest of the day fielding phone calls from irate fishermen. One time we needed to take a master transmitter down for maintenance, long distance phone service went down for a large part of the country. Turns out AT+T was using the signal as a sync for all of their equipment...DOH.

[Willie Green]

But if someone attacks you, you should be prepared to not fire back so it doesn't escalate.
Escalated personal spats lead to bannings and it would bum me out if you and Mike got banned.

It would be a bigger bummer if FR turned into a clone copy of Trixie's forum.
No thanks. Waaaaaaaaaay too boring.

[narby]

I started to make mention of the fact that TR was in the public eye during the early 20th century, even though most of his life was spent in the 19th. I just figured that I didn't need to put in such detail.

But you got me Willie. You got me good.

Now go read a good union magazine.

[Willie Green]

Ohh I'm the troll now? LOL That's HILARIOUS!!!

Not only that, you're also the newbie!!!
So let me set aside our differences and say: "Welcome to FreeRepublic!!!"
Stick around, I'm sure you'll learn the ropes sooner or later!!!

[narby]

Ohh I'm the troll now? LOL That's HILARIOUS!!! I guess you aren't a troll. You're just funny. L O L!!!!!

Willie calls me a lefty and commie all the time too. I guess that's projection or something.

Such taunts are pretty funny to an old Libertarian like me.

[narby]

Hey Willie, you see all that recent fun on the London trains? Subways are trains, you know (I figured I had to remind you of that, otherwise you'd tell me that subways aren't really trains).

And TR was a 19th century kind of guy.

[Michael Bluth]

"...in spectacular fashion.

It was gay?..........

Was it gay?

Heavens no.

If it had been gay, it would have been in fabulous fashion.