Rob Seaman scripsit: > The question is: how precisely does this differ from the situation > now or in the past? Whether by fiat or not, some common worldwide > "stage two" clock must exist.
Again, no it doesn't need to exist. We need a uniform time scale like TAI. And we need local civil time for all the 400-odd jurisdictions in the world today. If other people need other timescales (and they do), there's no reason that should affect the two requirements above. > But how in practice is it envisaged that a scheme > for migrating time zones versus TAI would work, precisely? Straightforwardly. Each locality decides when and how to adjust both its offset from TAI and its seasonal transition function (if any), just as it does today. What we abandon is a universal time tightly synchronized to Earth rotation in favor of a universal time independent of earth rotation plus 400+ local civil times roughly synchronized to Earth rotation containing various glitches. -- We pledge allegiance to the penguin John Cowan and to the intellectual property regime [EMAIL PROTECTED] for which he stands, one world under http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Linux, with free music and open source http://www.reutershealth.com software for all. --Julian Dibbell on Brazil, edited
