>> I believe it is the Bureau Internationale de l'Heure who determines
>> when a leap second will occur. They've become more frequent of late.
>> Still, they won't schedule them other than on December 31 or June 30.
>> -- George Mitchell (george@mvp.com)
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/time.html
The "U.S. Naval Observatory is the official source of time used in the
United States." The work that these guys put into their Web site shows
that they *love* time. It's actually one of my favorite Web sites
around, simply because of the absurd granularity given to one area of
human knowledge.
The leap second announcement is at
<http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leap.html>. I think Dennis D. McCarthy has
the best tittle around: "Director, Directorate of Time". Why you need a
leap second is at <http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html>.
There's a really great history of time at
<http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html>. I find this simply
compelling (and timely!) reading. Did you know, for instance, that
railroads forced the invention of Time Zones? There simply was no need
before people could be moved around quickly.
- dan
-- Daniel Kohn <dan@teledesic.com> Teledesic Corporation PGP KeyID: 0x6129DD6D +1-425-602-6222 (voice) 602-0002 (fax) http://www.teledesic.com