On Jun 4, 2006, at 9:57 PM, M. Warner Losh wrote:
leap days have a rule, while leap seconds are scheduled.
A schedule and a rule are the same thing, just regarded from different historical perspectives. The "leap day rule" will most certainly have to accommodate scheduling changes over the millennia. On the other hand, I am sure we haven't exhaustively discussed possible refinements to the leap second "scheduling algorithm". (And ain't that a rule?) If we have to spend all our time fending off this silly leap hour proposal, we'll never have the opportunity to focus on rules and algorithms (not to mention technology and infrastructure). "Just don't do it" is not a rule. The biggest difference between leap days and leap seconds is that days are quantized. Rob NOAO