Why the US wants to end link between time and sun

[demobrit]

What time is it when the clock strikes half past 62?

Time to change the way we measure time, according to a U.S. government proposal that businesses favor, astronomers abominate and Britain sees as a threat to its venerable standard, Greenwich Mean Time.

Word of the U.S. proposal, made secretly to a United Nations body, began leaking to scientists earlier this month. The plan would simplify the world's timekeeping by making each day last exactly 24 hours. Right now, that's not always the case.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05210/545823.stm

[benburch]

1. Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid.

We are sounding more and more like Lysenko-era soviet science here.

[bemildred]

2. Pi = 3.0

If your software sucks, just change the specifications.

[unhappycamper]

6. 3.0 is a LOT easier than 3.14159265358979323846.

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.pi.html

They just need to work on that ratio thingie.

[shenmue]

3. Oh my goodness

Bush is trying to muck around with time and space itself now.

How soon are we building that Mars colony he was talking about?

Because I want to move in. To get away from him.

[Demit]

4. I love this part--

"For now, U.S. officials still regard their proposal as secret, despite Dr. Gambis's email and the public comments. The head of America's delegation to the ITU's timing committee, D. Wayne Hanson of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, declined to take calls on the matter. Through a spokeswoman, he said that the U.S. proposal is a private matter internal to the ITU and not for public discussion."

The whole article is good, but I like how it notes, almost casually, how far down the arrogant presumption of secrecy reaches in this administration.

[giant_robot]

5. Right-click on the clock in the lower right of your monitor...

...scroll up to "adjust date/time".

I'm sure I'm oversimplifying things, but how hard is it to reset a clock? Even microsoft can make it easy.