On Fri 2021-01-29T10:33:35-0700 Paul Gilmartin via tz hath writ:
I'm changing my stance on Leap Seconds: yes, it's a means of keeping UTC synchronized with the earth's rotation. But I see no need. Fix UTC forever at TAI - 42(?) s and make desired adjustments in civil time. At some future date when the drift accumulates to several minutes, change my timezone from MST7MDT to MST7:15MDT. This can be coordinated with the Spring clock reset: every few centuries that can be +45 minutes instead of +60.
The problem that originally brought us leap seconds was that the legal definition of a calendar day in most countries is one mean solar day, which means actually measuring the rotation of the earth. Representatives from countries with such laws could not approve the use of radio broadcast time signals deviating from that definition. Because UTC by that name has become the basis of legal time in most places it will be necessary to get consensus to change the definition of the calendar day. At the ITU-R WRC in 2015 the same issue arose when a number of countries objected to changing UTC in a way that redefined the calendar day. -- Steve Allen <sla@ucolick.org> WGS-84 (GPS) UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB 260 Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855 1156 High Street Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015 Santa Cruz, CA 95064 https://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m