[LEAPSECS] Straw men

[Tom Van Baak]

> We can speculate contrary to fact on all sorts of things (those are the "straw men" of the subject line), but rather I 

> think this talking point is fairly neutral, or cuts both ways.

>

> Rob


Right. Isn't it refreshing to have neutral points every now and then? Not everything about leap seconds is polarizing. 
Then again, I have no strong bias or stake in the outcome so I can afford to be neutral.

I've always found it interesting that nearly coincident with the invention of leap seconds mother earth decided it was 
time to turn around.

I have an idea for you -- how to finance astronomers who need to update their equipment to use UT1 instead of UTC. 
Foster massive public interest in the leap second issue, especially among students. Create a world-wide decades-running 
lottery when exactly the next 7 leaps will be. "Betting on Mother Earth". "Leap Second Roulette". Hand out prizes in a 
progression of $1M, $2M, ... $128M for correct succession of guesses. Over the next two decades use the lottery profit 
to upgrade telescope applications to accept |DUT1| > 1s. And then celebrate the 7th (and final) leap.

/tvb