[time-nuts] Re: UTC - A Cautionary Tale

Bill Hawkins bill at iaxs.net
Fri Jul 15 15:57:39 EDT 2005


Last time I heard anybody jump into an argument with "surely" was in college
in 1958. Harrumph. Surely this list hasn't been hit with a group
of sophomores because someone posted the address on a campus bulletin
board.

Chris O'Byrne said,
"Civil time should be based on a quadratic formula involving TAI."

This shows a misunderstanding of the problem. We are not talking about
random variations in Earth's rotation. The Earth is slowing down. I'd
say the reason was the increasing human population, but it's probably
due to the Moon trying for tidal lock with Earth.

UTC works just fine and does what it was created to do. There are other
variants that do not incorporate leap seconds. When in doubt about UTC,
try the greatest good for the greatest number.

Perhaps you just want an argument (the arguers, not Chris specifically).
In that case, please take your sorry condition over to the newsgroup
alt.I.don't.like.the.way.the.world.works and don't let the door hit you
on your way out.

Yours for discussing the measurement of time and not it's politics,
Bill Hawkins

The number of political opinions pretty well matches the number of adult
anuses in the world. Politics is not a problem that can be solved.






More information about the time-nuts mailing list