International Earth Rotation Service

[Mapraputa Is]

It's not a joke, there is one.
IERS: http://www.iers.org/

[Jim Yingst]

Sure - why not? Astronomers, at least, can care quite a bit about tiny variations in rotation. And for the rest of us, I suppose it's nice to have an early-warning system in place in case we start slowing down substantially.

[Mapraputa Is]

Actually, these are guys who screwed up UTC standard by in introducing a leap second.

[Jim Yingst]

You mean, the guys who pointed out the already-existing flaw in the UTC standard, and fixed it? Hey, someone's gotta pay attention to leap-related issues. Otherwise you get silly things like summer in January. :roll: Which we all know is ludicrous. Right, DOM? (I'm sure he's around here somewhere...)

[Mapraputa Is]

Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
You mean, the guys who pointed out the already-existing flaw in the UTC standard, and fixed it?

Well, yes. You just spelled out my sign