In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Steve Allen writes: >On Sun 2006-12-31T07:59:35 +0000, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ: >> Rob, If you feel uncomfortable with calling leapseconds >> discontinuities, then we can use the term arrhythmia instead. > >The point of my allegory about unplanned pregnancies is that >all practically available time scales have arrhythmias.
We can live with arrhythmias as long as we get sufficient warning about them. Politicians who fumble the local timescale are answerable according to their economy and whatever political system installed them. But the leapsecond decision was taken 35 years ago on an entirely different basis than applies to its consequences today, in particular it is no longer relevant how long time the international mail takes to reach the most remote parts of the globe from Paris. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.