On Fri 2004-01-02T11:12:14 +0000, Markus Kuhn hath writ: > Tom Van Baak wrote on 2004-01-01 21:26 UTC: > > A CNN popular spin on leap seconds: > > http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/01/01/leap.second.ap/index.html > > Including the usual mixup between the two astronomic oscillations that define > our calendar: > > At the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder, > spokesman Fred McGehan said most scientists agree the Earth's orbit > around the sun has been gradually slowing for millennia. But he said > they don't have a good explanation for why it's suddenly on schedule.
This abyssmal AP wireservice story has appeared on hundreds of local news agency websites and in their print and broadcast media. > The world can't be too troubled if even the absence of a leap second > makes it as a news item, and this always provides a welcome opportunity > to calibrate one's personal trust in the accuracy of mainstream media > reporting. I think the IERS, NIST or somebody needs a department of earth rotation pedagogy, because the entire AP article could have been avoided if there had been something about as declarative as the plot now seen here http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/leapsecs/dutc.html#lod.png -- Steve Allen UCO/Lick Observatory Santa Cruz, CA 95064 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voice: +1 831 459 3046 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla PGP: 1024/E46978C5 F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E 49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93