For a backgrounder, read this CACM article: http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/5/107699-the-one-second-war/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/5/107699

For a backgrounder, read this CACM article: http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/5/107699-the-one-second-war/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/5/107699-the-one-second-w... I've wondered, would the technical problems described be ameliorated if a longer timeframe was given? At the moment, we have about six months notice of leap seconds; what if we lengthened this to, say, two years? That said, I'm not really sympathetic to the proposal. We already have the highly predictable International Atomic Time (TAI); why if we want this predictability, not just use TAI instead of trying to change UTC?