On Thu 2012/01/19 20:54:52 -0800, "Tom Van Baak" wrote in a message to: "Leap Second Discussion List" <[email protected]>
>Welcome back to the list. It's been a while. I have to admit to lurking, though usually take shelter during the cyclone season, except this season was too hard to ignore for obvious reasons. >Here's a chance for some creative input. If as you say UTC >is not "discontinuous" what English word would you recommend >be used to describe it? Hopefully some word that uniquely >distinguishes it from the likes of UT1 and TAI? In essence - "unpredictable", as in "the long-term unpredictability of leap seconds creates problems". >We've given this some thought. One problem is that many of >the contributors of the list have taken a side and have been >re-defining words to enhance their bargaining positions. This >makes a writing a wiki difficult. Thinking along the same lines as Werner, we should aim to produce a list of options for delegates to the 2015 ITU RA to consider as alternatives to the all-or-nothing approaches. It should be kept as concise as possible by making judicious use of links to external sites containing reference material. Excluding links, it should be readable in toto in less than an hour. Each option would include some background as appropriate, and would have a list of arguments for and against. The options should start with those suggested in the original "GPS World" article, with contributed additions. Obviously the continue/ discontinue options would summarise many of the salient points that have been discussed on the list to date. Whether implemented as a wiki or not, it should be in html on the web. If not a wiki, then two (say) maintainers should volunteer from each side with preference going to the more prolific contributors - we all know who they are! They would be responsible for adding (and vetting) contributions submitted openly on the leapsecs list. Probably there should also be two who mostly occupy the middle ground. It is in each side's interests to be as concise and to-the-point as possible, but anyway limited to about 30min worth of reading (say 5000 words). Regards, Mark _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
