BBC article, "Leap second proposal sparks row":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4420084.stm I found this bit particularly amusing:
The decision stemmed from the work 200 years previously of the first English Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, who calculated that the Earth rotated on its axis once every 24 hours.
It must have been very confusing for people before it was realised that there were 24 hours in a day. You'd have thought somebody would have noticed the pattern before, though. And yes, my inner pedant has to note that it's once and a bit every 24 hours. Ed.
