On Tue, 28 Oct 2008, Steve Allen wrote: > On slashdot last month the discussion about the USNO poll on leap > seconds in broadcast time signals degenerated into one largely about > daylight time. On contributor pointed out something notable: Civil > Time has always been the purview of princes.
Before the invention of reliable clocks, time was a matter for the sun - though princes still fiddled around with the calendar. As well as the egregious example of the pre-Julian Roman calendar, I'm amused and disgusted by the anti-Jewish fiddles in the rules for determining Easter to minimise when it coincides with Passover. > That poster did not mention Machiavelli, but I think that's very much > the point. Perhaps because he predates clocks :-) Also in his time Christendom had had a stable calendar for over 1000 years, which is pretty good. Tony. -- f.anthony.n.finch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://dotat.at/ LUNDY FASTNET: NORTH OR NORTHWEST, BACKING SOUTHWEST FOR A TIME, 4 OR 5 INCREASING 6 TO GALE 8, PERHAPS SEVERE GALE 9 LATER IN FASTNET. ROUGH OR VERY ROUGH. RAIN OR SHOWERS. MODERATE OR GOOD. _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
