Leap seconds in the news

[Paul Eggert]

"Olson, Arthur David \(NIH/NCI\) [E]" <olsona at dc37a.nci.nih.gov> writes:

> The Washington Post's Monday, December 26, 2005 edition includes, on
> page A17, the story "Added Ticktock of the Clock Restarts Time Debate."

Nice article.  There's also been a lot of discussion about the leap
second, not too surprisingly, on the leap seconds list
<http://www.mail-archive.com/leapsecs@rom.usno.navy.mil/>.
Here's a brief summary.

Several people will be observing clocks when the leap second occurs
and plan to publish what they observe.  Tom Van Baak is perhaps the
best-known at this; see his "How to Watch a Leap Second"
<http://www.leapsecond.com/notes/leap-watch.htm> and his Leap Second
Countdown Clock <http://www.leapsecond.com/java/nixie.htm>.

Last week the GPS Operations Center of the US Air Force Space
Command's Space Analysis Center published an advisory
<http://www.schriever.af.mil/GpsSupportCenter/archive/advisory/Leap_Second_Event.ppt>
that talks about the potential problems in civilian and military uses
of GPS near the leap-second occurrence.  Since this week's is the
first leap second since 1998, a lot of hardware and software will be
tested in the field for the first time.  For people that have gear
that need subsecond timing, GPS Operations Center suggests that you
review your leap second support, contact your supplier as needed, and
monitor your system through the leap second event.  They give contact
addresses for US military and civilian users (the Coast Guard and the
FAA, for the latter).

Frank and Ernest have their own commentary on daylight saving time at
<http://www.comics.com/comics/franknernest/archive/franknernest-20051221.html>.