[LEAPSECS] Vive la différence! (was Re: financial markets)

[Peter Vince]

On 27 April 2015 at 21:48, Tony Finch <dot at dotat.at> wrote:
>
> GMT is the British national timescale. It hasn't been Greenwich nor Mean
Time for decades,
> so what it is called has nothing to do with its technical details.

This is perhaps rather like DVDs that state they are either PAL or NTSC,
when in fact the source material has never been anywhere near an analogue
encoding system.  For some reason the producers have decided that the
public have latched on to those technically originated abbreviations, and
understand them easier than the 625 or 525 line system numbers that would
be a more accurate description of the material.  Likewise, G.M.T. became a
well-known name, and so we stick with it, despite the technical
inaccuracy.  We "time-lords" know the difference, but the general public,
who don't need to, don't.

I found that Asia-Pacific conference material on YouTube was interesting,
especially all the words the Chinese have for various units of time!  (And
may thanks for the YouTube replay-speed tip!!)  I was disappointed that the
Japanese were in favour of keeping the name "UTC" for any new tine-system,
but can sort of see their reasoning, and after all, it would still be
"co-ordinated"!  However, I would actually hope that any new leap-less
time-system would be given a new name, and with the increasing difference
from GMT, the public would eventually get to know that new name instead.
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