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Re: another leap second

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In comp.software.year-2000 message <63eb3aa7-08b6-4340-a1b1-6901419a6d65
@o9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>, Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:15:15, jbaloun
<yonatan62@yahoo.com> posted:

>GENEVA –  Time could soon be up for the leap second -- that extra
>moment added to universal time to keep it in sync with the earth's
>movement -- as experts consider abolishing it later this week.

They are proposing to abolish the Leap Second.  That is OK, since the
Earth could do that for us by just deciding to spin at the correct rate.

But the apparent consequence is to de-couple civil time from solar time.
That is not a necessary consequence.

Disseminate, for science and technology, a scale of SI seconds numbered
from a safe Epoch, and defined by a convenient count at a convenient
date/time (March 1.0 GMT of a year divisible by 400, like 0, simplifies
calculation) [1].

Announce, in Bulletin C', the duration, in integer SI nanoseconds, to be
used for the civil second in the next half civil-year, chosen to give as
closely as can be predicted, 86400 seconds per standard civil day [2] up
to the end of that half-year, correcting for now-known previous
imperfection.  It is sufficiently easy for National custodians of local
time to generate local time signals from the Scale and the Bulletin, and
to cross-check with their friendly neighbours if any.



[1] 2^63 seconds is 292,277,024,626.9277 years Gregorian; 292 short-
billion years.  The age of the Universe is about 13.75 ± 0.13 short-
billion years, 0x605 8d1b e19e 4400 seconds in Hex.  So let one of the
GMT date/times 0000-03-01.0 / 2000-03-01.0 be by definition 2^60 seconds
after Epoch.  That puts Epoch well before the Big Bang, and allows
plenty of time before the Second-2^63 Problem gets near, all on 64-bit
signed but positive integers.

[2] Not counting seasonal clock changes.

-- 
 (c) John Stockton, nr London, UK.    ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk     Turnpike v6.05.
 Website  <http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
 PAS EXE etc. : <http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/> - see in 00index.htm
 Dates - miscdate.htm estrdate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.

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another leap second jbaloun <yonatan62@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-18 12:15 -0800
  Re: another leap second docdwarf@panix.com () - 2012-01-19 02:34 +0000
  Re: another leap second PatH <phall@certcoinc.com> - 2012-01-19 05:50 -0800
  Re: another leap second Dr J R Stockton <reply1203@merlyn.demon.co.uk> - 2012-01-20 19:54 +0000
    Re: another leap second jbaloun <yonatan62@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-20 17:09 -0800
      Re: another leap second Dr J R Stockton <reply1203@merlyn.demon.co.uk> - 2012-01-22 19:58 +0000
        Re: another leap second docdwarf@panix.com () - 2012-01-23 14:11 +0000
          Re: another leap second jbaloun <yonatan62@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-23 21:47 -0800
            Re: another leap second docdwarf@panix.com () - 2012-01-24 13:28 +0000
            Re: another leap second Dr J R Stockton <reply1204@merlyn.demon.co.uk> - 2012-01-25 19:59 +0000
              Re: another leap second docdwarf@panix.com () - 2012-01-27 02:42 +0000
              Re: another leap second jbaloun <yonatan62@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-26 20:40 -0800
                Re: another leap second docdwarf@panix.com () - 2012-01-27 17:31 +0000
                Re: another leap second PatH <phall@certcoinc.com> - 2012-01-30 04:54 -0800

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