On Jan 20, 2012, at 1:04 PM, Ofer Inbar wrote: > If the main problem with leap seconds is their future > unpredictability, isn't there a compromise option between the status > quo and no more leap seconds? Couldn't they come up with a fixed > schedule for leap seconds for many centuries at a time, based on > current predictions of approximately how many will be needed each > century? > > That should be good enough to prevent real human-noticeable drift > between UTC and perceived day/night time. If a correction is needed > because current predictions turn out to be wrong, it seems that could > be done very rarely, with centuries of lead time in changes to the > schedule. Was anything like this considered at the international level? > > [ I know this is not something the IETF can decide, of course ] So, many of these discussions and suggestions seem to be at best addressing a symptom (time is diverging) versus the actual issue (the planet is slowing down) -- this feels to me like a bandaid over a gaping wound. So, my proposal is that, at the next meeting, we all face counter to the rotation and blow really hard -- Lord knows that we generate enough hot air, maybe we can finally put some of it to good use. I'm considering proposing a bar BOF so that we can determine just how long we would need to blow for. Obviously different folk generate vastly different amounts of hot air, and so factors like this would need to be taken into consideration, etc. W > -- Cos > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf > _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf